My job security relies on another woman taking care of my children

Physician
September 8, 2022

“I’m taking another job,” said our nanny after my husband and I returned home from a rare date night.

My immediate numbness was a sign that my mind, body, and soul knew what was about to change in my life.

I had thrived over the past three years as a mother and a physician, despite the many expected challenges of early parenthood. I had started a new job as I found out …

Read more…

My job security relies on another woman taking care of my children

Human touch and scientific veracity are missing in health care technology

Tech
September 8, 2022

Working remotely during the coronavirus pandemic has immersed physicians in technology, perhaps accelerating its integration with medical practice – but not necessarily its acceptance or authenticity.

I tend to doubt the veracity of much of what I read in electronic health care records. I also question reports based on data gleaned from large medical databases – for example, summaries about physician compensation and practice trends.

Many reports that profile physicians are generated …

Read more…

Human touch and scientific veracity are missing in health care technology

Preventing prostate cancer with simple, proactive choices

Conditions
September 8, 2022

An excerpt from Preventing Prostate Cancer: Reduce Your Risk With Simple, Proactive Choices.

Prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths in men globally. Within the United States, the American Cancer Society found that one in eight men are diagnosed …

Read more…

Preventing prostate cancer with simple, proactive choices

Turning obstacles into opportunities with diversified health care perspectives

Physician
September 7, 2022

I have experienced a wide spectrum of the health care ecosystem since childhood giving me a deeper insight into its future need. I suffered for 23 years with a wrong diagnosis and frequent long-distance hospital visits before my heart operation. For 14 years, I shifted through multiple doctors and hospitalizations for my father’s mismanaged diabetic complications, including a foot ulcer with cellulitis. My academic mentor said, “Your father himself is …

Read more…

Turning obstacles into opportunities with diversified health care perspectives

Innovation for all: Adapting patient-facing tools to promote digital health equity

Tech
September 7, 2022

More often than not, ground-breaking health care advancements are disproportionately accessible for those who already have favorable social determinants of health.

Improving cost, access, and quality, but for whom?

The boom of telehealth and digital health during the pandemic was a necessary shift to bridge the critical access gap while also supporting the public health measures implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19 – but did this change …

Read more…

Innovation for all: Adapting patient-facing tools to promote digital health equity

Top tips for new interns [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 6, 2022
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

“New resident physicians who have earned their MD degrees will be heading to hospitals to start their residencies during the last two week in June and the first week in July. What can a beginning doctor do …

Read more…

Top tips for new interns [PODCAST]

Why health care will never be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic

Policy
September 6, 2022

The health care industry will never be the same again following the COVID-19 pandemic. We can’t risk dying from a virus that had already killed so many people and disintegrated fruitful lives the world over. We need to use new protocols, technological advances, and safety measures to safeguard ourselves from other possible viruses.

Health care is a complex industry where one small change can have a whopping impact. Unfortunately, the last …

Read more…

Why health care will never be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic

How to motivate a “lazy” teen

Conditions
September 6, 2022

A high school objective: take in young, immature students, work on them in various ways for four years and send them out educated, confident and purposeful. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Perhaps that’s the way it used to be. But things are different now.

On editorial pages and talk show stages, school systems are routinely blasted by an indignant public. Fingers are pointed. Blame is placed. Why …

Read more…

How to motivate a “lazy” teen

Residency almost killed me — literally

Physician
September 5, 2022

One morning, I was sitting in resident lecture. This time was supposedly protected, but we realized fairly quickly that the work still had to be done, and “I had lecture” never really worked out well as an explanation.

By this time in the week, I had already worked 80 hours, and the luxury of sitting down for an hour in a row was the main upside to the lecture. I kept …

Read more…

Residency almost killed me — literally

How a medical-legal consultant helped refute a possible pre-existing medical condition argument

Physician
September 5, 2022

Doing medical-legal consulting is a great way to use your medical training in a non-clinical field that really helps people. One of the many things we can do is help attorneys refute the question of a pre-existing medical condition. Often opposing counsel will try to lay off accident injuries as not related to the accident or injury in question.

As you may know, medical-legal consulting is a new non-clinical field in …

Read more…

How a medical-legal consultant helped refute a possible pre-existing medical condition argument

Medical education has woken up, and that’s a good thing

Education
September 5, 2022

A Black woman whose kidneys only function at 15 percent of normal wishes to be evaluated for a kidney transplant. Although this is very reasonable, before 2021, many physicians would have said, “I’m sorry, but your kidney function is not bad enough to be referred for a transplant.”

This is because the kidney function calculator used before 2021 overestimates kidney function for Black people, making her kidney function seem “too good” …

Read more…

Medical education has woken up, and that’s a good thing

How to make primary care rotations more appealing for students [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 4, 2022
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

“It is time that every health profession school specifies their criteria for optimal teaching primary care practices and for the training that would optimize their students’ experience. It is time that we, as primary care physicians, advocate …

Read more…

How to make primary care rotations more appealing for students [PODCAST]

Are we too scared to talk to our patients about their weight?

Conditions
September 4, 2022

Talking about weight isn’t easy. Case in point, I was scheduled to perform five back-to-back fluoroscopically guided procedures. This was not unusual, but all my scheduled patients happened to be seriously overweight. Excess fat and skin made it difficult to see my needles during the interventional procedures. Therefore, what was ordinarily a routine procedure suddenly became complex and challenging.

I am an interventional pain management physician. For many of my patients, …

Read more…

Are we too scared to talk to our patients about their weight?

How whole-person care can make us better healers

Physician
September 4, 2022

My patient at a pain clinic on a military base in Virginia carried the deep wounds of war on his face. Not physical scars, but a sallow, slack complexion and a hollow-eyed look of exhaustion and defeat. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he had long been suffering from anxiety, depression, and other complications of PTSD, although his presenting complaint was back pain.

The patient, whom I’ll call Sergeant Carlson, …

Read more…

How whole-person care can make us better healers

How writing a letter on Substack might recharge your life in medicine

Physician
September 4, 2022

“The good life is ever-changing, challenging, devoid of regret, intense, creative, and risky.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

One year ago, bruised and battered like any physician practicing in this pandemic, I decided to double down on weariness and start writing a medical letter on Substack. I’ve been writing about once a week, with subjects ranging from the newest coronavirus variant of concern, to a reflection on the hidden strengths in frailty, to the pleasure …

Read more…

How writing a letter on Substack might recharge your life in medicine

Skinny fat and normal weight obesity [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 3, 2022
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

“Obesity is genetically common in our family. I was being gaslighted and judged by a bunch of obese people, most of whom were doing nothing to improve their health and obesity issues. Yet they fully believe to …

Read more…

Skinny fat and normal weight obesity [PODCAST]

596
pages