“Have you ever wondered how many times death has not come, but could have? On the corner of Church Street and Dubuque how close was I, pausing to assess an ice-sheeted puddle just before a woman turns, her head turned too, searching for what? A snack? A phone? A child crying? …
Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine published “Oral Health for All — Realizing the Promise of Science,” authored by some of the most respected officials in dentistry and medicine, including the U.S. Surgeon General. They declared the pressing need to address the “global public health threat” of inequitable dental care. With a surprisingly populist title, it was refreshing for a public health dentist to see a …
Patients need access to their health care data and health care consumers need access to their health care information. Data and information are not the same. Data is akin to the ingredients for a meal, while information is more like the meal. Imagine ordering a meal in a restaurant. The wait staff brings the ingredients to your table. You still need a chef to prepare the dinner. This is much …
In 2017, I was medically discharged from the military due to an exacerbation of an eating disorder. At that time, anorexia nervosa (AN) provided relief from the depression that I had developed secondary to the multitude of stressors that came with being in the Air Force and an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident. Years later, I have made major career pivots to regain my health. However, military and medical culture …
“Oh no, it’s a doctor hopper. You know who I’m talking about: the patients with twenty previous doctors documented in their chart. The ones who took years to be diagnosed. The ones who still have not been diagnosed, but insist something is wrong. They’re just jumping around until they get their …
I will tell you why health care professionals feel they need to be superhuman, without needs or vulnerabilities.
Because that is who we want to be, why we got into the field, and then our training reinforces those very ideas. We exist to take care of others, not be taken care of.
I am a health care professional. I also struggle with major depressive disorder (MDD) as well as an eating disorder. …
Our profession often sends the message that we are invincible heroes.
Here’s my vulnerable and honest admission: I lapped that up. There was something so seductive about denying pesky human requirements, like sleep, regular exercise, and time to decompress. I liked being needed more than I liked having needs.
I sublimated mine under my superhero cape right up until the time I hit a kryptonite wall. There …
It started as the “Chinese virus.” Then the “kung flu.” Then came the boycotts of Chinatowns, the rise in harassment, assaults, and murders. The recognition of hate and discrimination against Asian Americans was long overdue. However, anti-Asian racism doesn’t just manifest in hate speech or violence; it has undermined the U.S. COVID-19 policy response.
In 2020, American media narratives frequently painted Asian nations’ success in controlling COVID-19 as the result of …
This spring, in my culminating semester of PA school, I took a course entitled “Health Care Delivery Systems.” After 30-something months, the end was in sight, and I was not particularly excited for another serious class while I was wrapping up rotations, studying for my boards, and writing my master’s paper.
However, as soon as I started working on the class assignments, I realized this class might deserve a higher rank …
Like many fellow Americans, I had my first psychedelic experience in the middle of the pandemic, in a place where the use of psychedelics is decriminalized.
I grew up in a Communist country, and the ban and stigma against psychedelics were tremendous. There was no plant medicine available, and I didn’t know even one person using anything other than alcohol and prescription drugs.
I read Michael Pollan’s book How …
In this episode, we talk with writer Dustin Grinnell. He takes us behind the scenes on his ideas for his books, his research process, and how he brings medical stories to life. We also delve into the realm of speculative fiction, and how that intersects with medicine, technology, and ethical dilemmas.
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.
As leaders in patient safety, anesthesiologists are committed to improving patient care and positively impacting the experiences of expectant mothers to ensure the health and safety of mom and baby. Along with primary health care providers, anesthesiologists are available to help expectant …
The 2022 Medscape poll on physician burnout confirms what has been painfully obvious to doctors on the frontlines of COVID-19: Their burnout is intensifying.
According to the survey of 13,000 doctors, the nation’s most burned-out physicians are those in emergency medicine (60%) and critical care (56%). Medscape, a leading health care publication, describes burnout as “long-term, unresolvable job-related stress that leads to exhaustion, cynicism, and …
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It was a known fact — I was 4′ 11″ but I had a mouth on me to compensate. I was loud and noisy. Fellow nurses called me the “rebel without a cause.”
But I had a cause.
I knew I was David against Goliath. Almost everything became my cause. And I verbally fought my way through this iron-clad management structure.
I had to fight for the betterment of the patients, their survival, …
A little-known fact about doctors that most patients would find horrifying is that physicians don’t keep track of their results.
If I botch a knee surgery so badly that my patient requires five repairs by a different specialist, I might never find out. As a result, I will continue to use a flawed technique on patient after patient. The fact that I never hear from any of them again will be …
We have probably heard this saying with different permutations many times about someone showing “their true colors.”
As physician and best-selling author, Tess Gerritsen, shared: “There is no better test of character than when you’re tossed into crisis. That’s when we see one’s true colors shine through. So, I try my best to make my characters personally involved in the plot, in a way that stresses them and tests them.”
It made …
Medical-legal consulting is a great way to use your medical training in a non-clinical field that helps people. Physicians all over the country are now doing medical-legal consulting as a rewarding part-time gig.
One service out of many we provide is to give our opinions regarding the causation of traumatic injuries. Some attorneys ask us to provide opinion letters regarding a particular injury caused in a work-related situation, a personal injury …
In this episode, I interview Jim Dahle, creator of the White Coat Investor. He has literally created a new asset class of content: the health care professional personal finance space.
He discusses how he got his start with the White Coat Investor, why his message still resonates today, and how financial literacy …
My residency baby just turned eighteen. Obviously, he isn’t really a baby anymore. He is six foot four and going to college, but somehow, I still think of him as that little baby. Maybe I’m just relieved that “we” both made it to eighteen. By “we,” I mean “me” as a physician mom and “him” as a person. I realize that sounds ridiculous, but honestly, being a physician mom is …
Modern medicine, a system originally designed to fix acute health care problems, now creates more chronic health care problems than helping to solve them. I see the dangers of over-testing and over-prescribing taking place each day in my day-to-day pediatric clinical practice.
It scares me to see how many doctors reflexively prescribe pills designed to merely mask symptoms rather than take time to understand the underlying cause or that most chronic …
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