When your institution has a less than 1% hiring rate for Black residents

Medical Education
December 4, 2020

The other day I was in the main hallway outside of our radiology reading rooms, which is lined with picture frames of all the residency senior classes dating back to the 1980s. I’m new to the institution, so it was nice to see all the prior residents. I found myself wondering what they were up to now after graduating and what fellowship or jobs they landed into. As I kept …

Read more…

When your institution has a less than 1% hiring rate for Black residents

Physicians who work themselves into the ground have nothing to be proud of

Physician
December 4, 2020

There were recently many news articles and coverage exalting a physician for working 250 straight days during COVID. 250 days, that’s nearly 8 1/2 months without a day off.

While this physician displays dedication and caring, I don’t think we should celebrate this as an achievement. The truth is he’s working every day all day for one of two reasons. Either there is no one else, and he’s a victim of …

Read more…

Physicians who work themselves into the ground have nothing to be proud of

We have been the precious gift of making a difference in the lives of others

Physician
December 4, 2020

“You that seek what life is in death,
Now find it air that once was breath,
New names unknown, old names gone:
Till time end bodies, but souls none.
Reader! Then make time, while you be,
But steps to your eternity.”

– Baron Brooke Fulke Greville, “Caelica 83”

I cried Sunday morning as I sat by my fire pit. It was all I could do to keep from sobbing as I read the last pages of When Breath …

Read more…

We have been the precious gift of making a difference in the lives of others

A physician shares stories online and is now a published author

Physician
December 4, 2020

A powerful communications medium, with the chance to get into someone else’s mind and connect through experience. Sometimes the experience is vicarious, because not everyone has lived what the storyteller has. But the storyteller’s words can have a profound effect, and the listener can appreciate what is told within a recognizable context. Shakespeare’s works are an immense collection of stories, of triumph and tragedy, of love and sacrifice, of comedy …

Read more…

A physician shares stories online and is now a published author

The unintended consequences of population health algorithms

Health Policy
December 4, 2020

The results of a 2019 research article in the journal Science uncovered significant racial bias in commonly used population health algorithms used to identify and assign care to patients with complex, active health needs. Using a large clinical data set, the researchers showed that Black patients are considerably sicker than white patients at any given risk score. They demonstrated that remedying this disparity would more than …

Read more…

The unintended consequences of population health algorithms

The other side of the curtain

Physician
December 3, 2020

Sometimes I forget. I forget what it is like to be on the other side of the curtain. I forget that what is just another day of work, another shift, another seemingly ceaseless night of call for me may indeed be the longest day of their life. Sometimes I forget that the waiting seems endless, that the seconds turn inexplicably into hours, the hours into the next day. Sometimes, while …

Read more…

The other side of the curtain

The potential for violence against health care workers during COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
December 3, 2020

Recently, the FBI foiled an attempt to kidnap the governor of Michigan.  The entire story reads like a Tom Clancy novel: a group of disgruntled strangers meets and organizes through chat rooms online.  They conduct tactical training in the woods, do surveillance runs of the governor’s house, and even make plans to target law enforcement personnel and blow up a bridge to hamper any response to their attack. The individuals …

Read more…

The potential for violence against health care workers during COVID-19

Stuck between a virus and a cold place: A choice for homeless Americans awaits

Health Policy
December 3, 2020

Imagine having lost your sole source of income in June in the midst of a global pandemic. This is not a unique situation; after all, the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought havoc on many families. And in the United States, life has irrevocably changed. But the worst is yet to come. Illinois is seeing exponential growth of patients with COVID-19, and winter is coming. With it, the homeless population faces …

Read more…

Stuck between a virus and a cold place: A choice for homeless Americans awaits

The myth of object permanence

Conditions and Diseases
December 3, 2020

I remember the sound of pure joy and laughter when playing peek-a-boo with my daughter.  She would look at me with her big blue eyes and giggle loudly.  One of the reasons this game is interesting to children is the psychological concept of object permanence.  In the abstract, object permanence is the realization that things exist, even when an object or person is out of sight.  Over the years, there …

Read more…

The myth of object permanence

The coronavirus football double standard

Conditions and Diseases
December 2, 2020

It is Thanksgiving and, while many are counting their blessings, others are mourning the loss of family time, routine, turkey, big family gatherings, and football.   The Baltimore Ravens had to cancel their game today because of too many positive COVID-19 tests.  My logical question as a surgeon was, “So I guess they reschedule for 14 days when they all come off quarantine and isolation?”   My daughter, a college student, is …

Read more…

The coronavirus football double standard

Meet the doctor who really believes that laughter is the best medicine

Physician
December 2, 2020

So there’s this 60-year-old African American physician, and she is fed up. She’s working at a local hospital because she wants to sleep in her own bed rather than continue the life of a locum tenens. After a weekend call where she’s on her 29th hour in the OR in two days with only three hours of sleep, she refuses to do another case. “I’m tired,” She says, “I’m sleepy. …

Read more…

Meet the doctor who really believes that laughter is the best medicine

How to turn gratitude into a positive force

Physician
December 2, 2020

What a state of affairs – the impending cold winter, COVID, computer hell, loneliness, unemployment – so many negatives for us to focus our attention on. As the saying goes, what you focus on grows, especially in that massive galaxy of 100 billion nerve cells inside our skulls.

So, in anticipation of the holidays, I thought it might be of some value to focus on a bit of “monkey” business. The …

Read more…

How to turn gratitude into a positive force

Thanksgiving came early this year. I just didn’t appreciate it.

Physician
December 2, 2020

I retired on June 30, 2020, after 32 years of solo practice as a dermatologist. Due to the pandemic, some say I was smart to retire when I did. But if I was so smart, I would have retired on February 28th. My practice was simple: three full-time employees, 1,300 square feet, no fancy surgeries or cosmetic procedures, just a plain, old- fashioned medical dermatology practice.

I announced my retirement on …

Read more…

Thanksgiving came early this year. I just didn’t appreciate it.

ADVERTISEMENT

We keep our sleep-deprived physicians in hospitals full of calorie-dense food

Physician
December 2, 2020

Medicine causes just as much disease as it solves. We must adopt the lifestyle to get through college, medical school, residency, and fellowship is nothing close to a healthy lifestyle. Previously, we discussed the long hours and the lack of exercise, but our food inhibits our desire for health.

This begins with what the hospital cafeteria sells. Despite promoting healthful eating, hospitals instead profit from diabetes-inducing food …

Read more…

We keep our sleep-deprived physicians in hospitals full of calorie-dense food

A doctor-centric approach to evaluating if a loan is the right decision

Podcast
December 1, 2020
YouTube video

This article is sponsored by Doc2Doc Lending. Find out more about personal loans for physicians from Doc2Doc Lending.

For the vast majority of us doctors, a career in …

Read more…

A doctor-centric approach to evaluating if a loan is the right decision

Second victim syndrome: The pain of unexpected and tragic deaths lingers with physicians

Physician
December 1, 2020

You were a twenty-one-year-old Black man.
When we received you, your eyes were open
I asked if you could hear me
You whispered a phone number and “Mom.”

To the green sterile operating room
With your breaths of anesthesia,
Your final conscious moments
Your pain ceased.

We worked on you for hours, Terrell.
I swear we tried
With fourteen units of O negative
Surgeons explored your wounds.
They clamped your major arteries.

Until your heart failed
And we watched you leave us.
I was a …

Read more…

Second victim syndrome: The pain of unexpected and tragic deaths lingers with physicians

A day in the life as a medical assistant

Physician
December 1, 2020

We all go to work in the morning, looking forward to the day. I know I have about 26 patients and about 20 other tasks to do for the day. I know that my medical assistant has about the same ( or more ), and we are ready to go.

“Good morning Sophia,” I say to my medical assistant as I walked into the office. She has already roomed the first …

Read more…

A day in the life as a medical assistant

A female academic physician’s relationship with the remote meeting during COVID-19

Physician
December 1, 2020

The academic medical community has drastically changed how we educate and share our ideas since the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020.  The remote meeting, often conducted via Zoom or a similar web-based platform, has gone from a rare occurrence to the default manner in which we conduct business.  As a full-time academic cardiologist with three children under six years old, to say evening meetings …

Read more…

A female academic physician’s relationship with the remote meeting during COVID-19

How physicians can find jobs in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 30, 2020
YouTube video

“I’m now CMO at a private biotech company focused on developing therapies for patients with rare endocrine diseases. We are conducting a trial in the U.S., Europe, and Israel.  I mention this to raise the possibility of travel in pharma/biotech roles.  In most companies, roles are both ‘functional’ (i.e., clinical development, …

Read more…

How physicians can find jobs in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries [PODCAST]

A moral imperative to heal the broken health care model in this country

Health Policy
November 30, 2020

One of the most salient issues in America has always been access to health care. As a medical student, I have seen firsthand the importance of strong health care protections for patients. I believe that the November election result is only a start toward better policies –  a future in which we, as medical trainees, must play an active role in. In recent history, with the passage of the Affordable …

Read more…

A moral imperative to heal the broken health care model in this country

1467
pages