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Wellness during the COVID-19 crisis

Physician

May 6, 2020

We are more than a month into the shelter-in-place, and there are many thoughts that can come up for physicians. Our frontline workers, who are dealing with limited viral testing, inadequate treatments for ill patients, scarcity of PPE, and fear of the virus infecting us and potentially our family members, are undoubtedly fatigued and drained by what they are going through. Other physicians whose practices have had to shut down …

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Wellness during the COVID-19 crisis

Patients who slip through the cracks

Yasmine Humeda

Conditions and Diseases

May 6, 2020

As my surgery rotation commenced, I fully expected to be immersed in the unfamiliar territory of “scrubbing in” and “sterile fields.” While I discovered the difference between vertical and horizontal mattress sutures, two specific patients I encountered on this rotation opened my eyes to issues beyond the operating room (OR).

After scrubbing out of a four-hour surgery, my attending requested I begin a consult in the emergency department for a possible …

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Patients who slip through the cracks

There are drawbacks when multiple layers are placed between patient and physician

Elaine Walizer

Patient

May 5, 2020

Modern medical practices are assisted by advances in technology but remain challenged by the costs of doing business. Physicians and surgeons are meeting the need to deliver care to large caseloads by employing nurse practitioners and physician assistants and using patient portals to report test results, answer questions, and arrange appointments, including telemedicine consultations. These systems are designed for efficient care-giving that enables the physician to personally address only the …

A physician-mother comforts her frightened, 6-year-old daughter

Ogechi Ikediobi, MD, PhD

Conditions and Diseases

May 5, 2020

It’s Monday morning at 7:15 a.m. Our kids, ages 6 and 9, have just finished breakfast, and they know to get their shoes on to go for a walk. We are hand-in-hand, slowly waking up as we put one foot in front of the other. We ambled down our neighborhood streets, listening to birds chirping and squinted as we looked upward to admire their flight.

Out of nowhere, our 6-year-old squeezes …

Physicians use impalpable sustenance when faced with adversity

Parvez Dara, MD, MBA

Physician

May 5, 2020

There are those moments of clarity that come from tempestuous thoughts: a eureka moment indifferent to time or space. Thoughts like the zephyr that fill the sails of a sloop on a once quiet lake.

Judgment interrogates our experience and knowledge in the same breath. What use is the theory of movements or ordained trajectories in flight with indifference to wind or a gathering storm? Judgment requires a spate of intuition …

An advertisement for COVID 2020

Jody Leng, MD

Conditions and Diseases

May 5, 2020

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed both at work and at home?

Perhaps you’re thinking, my job as an anesthesiologist isn’t anxiety-provoking enough; I should probably homeschool my kids at the same time.

When’s the last time you uttered the phrase, “This is the most stress I’ve ever experienced” multiple days in a row?

Come on over, COVID 2020 has got you covered!

First, we’ll start with the existential threat of a global pandemic—one …

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An advertisement for COVID 2020

The plausible positive alternative to COVID-19

K. Maravet Baig-Ward, MD, PhD

Conditions and Diseases

May 5, 2020

Do you remember those old cartoons with the angel or good guy on one shoulder and the little devil or bad guy on the other? Of course, the good guy was always trying to keep the character out of mischief, and certainly, the little devil was doing quite the opposite. Sometimes, especially now during these uncertain times, it’s easier to see the negative, “hear” that little bad guy over the …

How COVID-19 is forcing physicians to rethink the concept of job security

Christopher H. Loo, MD, PhD

Physician Finance

May 5, 2020

Prior to 2000, a practicing physician was almost guaranteed a prosperous economic livelihood.

The guaranteed future meant that a physician could take on financial risks such as using student loans to finance their education, purchase a house during residency, and start building a family.

After becoming an attending, affording the million-dollar house, saving for retirement, financing their kids’ education, a physician could then use the remainder to afford the luxuries of life. …

The exacerbation of social isolation among the elderly

Vismaya Bachu

Conditions and Diseases

May 5, 2020

COVID-19 has rapidly spread across the nation, leading to the implementation of stringent social distancing guidelines by local and regional authorities. In a desperate effort to limit infection rates, in-person social interactions have been reduced, and many have turned towards indoor hobbies and online platforms to connect with their loved ones.

Still, this solution to mitigate the spread of the virus deeply impacts vulnerable groups. Specifically, social isolation of the elderly …

Who should we really be testing for COVID-19?

Michael Wolfson, PhD

Conditions and Diseases

May 5, 2020

The Canadian federal government recently announced it would fund at least one million blood tests to track the novel coronavirus over the next two years. This is a step in the right direction. But is it enough?

How do we know if we are testing the right number, and the right people, especially as the pressure to ease up on the lockdown and …

Vulnerability is challenging but necessary for health care professionals

Tracey O'Connell, MD

Physician

May 5, 2020

As someone trained in Brené Brown’s curriculum for helping professionals, vulnerability is my jam.

As a physician? Not so much.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown already burned-out health care providers into the arena with more than just a shortage of equipment. We are now expected to risk our own lives caring for others, which was not part of the original job description. Medical providers are not Marines, nor do we work for …

COVID tells us to have “the conversation” now

Ylfa Perry, MD

Physician

May 5, 2020

Insurance companies require doctors to ask dozens of questions and click on carpal-tunnel inducing boxes during a yearly physical. However, none of those questions or boxes address one of the most important aspects of a person’s life, their death. So, as a family doctor, I encourage people to think about it, have “the conversation” with loved ones, and complete the paperwork.

I’m also married to a doctor, so the conversation is …

COVID-19 is becoming boring

Karyn P. Grant

Physician

May 5, 2020

Radical statement. I know it may sound crazy.

We’ve been at the COVID-19 battle for what seems like forever. The fight is not going away for a long time; it’s going to morph into keeping the virus contained while we get the economy back in full gear. Get people back to work and play, kids back to school and reconnect with our family and friends.

So, for many, this becomes yet another …

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COVID-19 is becoming boring

An outdated law is limiting our coronavirus response

Leah Hampson Yoke, PA-C

Health Policy

May 4, 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to expose shortcomings in our health care system, an outdated law in many states limits the ability of specific health care workers, physician assistants (PAs), to deploy and provide emergency care. In Washington State, a PA must have a delegation agreement filed with the Department of Health, which identifies a supervisory physician for that PA. The scope of practice of each PA is defined by …

Beyond awareness, we need to drive change in mental health

Chris Stoudt

Conditions and Diseases

May 4, 2020

While 1 in 5 Americans live with a mental illness and almost half of U.S. adults will experience one during their lifetime, the events of the past several weeks remind us that raising awareness around mental health is critical for everyone. While it’s hard to look into the future in the middle of a crisis, 2020 has the opportunity to be remembered …

Are we letting our hearts rule our minds in the time of COVID-19?

Sue Royappa, MD

Physician

May 4, 2020

One month ago, I made a video telling people to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19. Today I’m making a video telling people to not stay home with life-threatening symptoms of other diseases. This is because patients are now more terrified of getting the virus than dying of a heart attack or stroke. I fear that I, and other physicians, in our efforts to warn people about the …

The patient who gave me back my humanity

Andy Lamb, MD

Physician

May 4, 2020

His breathing was rapid and shallow; O2 in place, his eyes stared at the ceiling of the hospital room. He was a soldier in his late 20s, his once strong body now emaciated, a shell of its former self. His arms rested on top of the bedsheet, bluish nodular lesions of Kaposi’s sarcoma landscaping them as they did the rest of his body. His lungs a “white-out” on X-ray as …

False certainty and blanket statements: Not even the WHO is immune

Jesse O'Shea, MD

Conditions and Diseases

May 4, 2020

The World Health Organization (WHO) says there is currently “no evidence” showing that people who have recovered from the coronavirus are not at risk of becoming infected again.

“Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’ that would enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they …

Why are medical students non-essential?

David Chen

Medical Education

May 4, 2020

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, medical education is receiving unprecedented attention. By and large, the focus has been on the immediate problem of what to do with medical students. The answer has hinged on medical students being designated as “non-essential” to patient care, and has (for the most part) entailed avoiding clinical activities. A long-term problem that has received less attention is, why are medical students non-essential in the first place? …

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Why are medical students non-essential?

Physician risk during COVID-19: reflections from the AIDS epidemic

Philip A. Masters, MD

Physician

May 4, 2020

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.

If nothing else, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought crystal clarity to something that all physicians are aware of but don’t often think about – that because we deal closely with communicable diseases, physicians (along with other health care workers) are clearly at …

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