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A patient’s opposition to the anti-opioid movement

Medications

March 21, 2019

I recently read an article — “California Doctors Alarmed As State Links Their Opioid Prescriptions to Deaths” — that infuriates and frightens me I’m furious that doctors are being persecuted for opioid prescriptions written years ago, and frightened that my doctor here in California may be pressured to stop prescribing them for my painful genetic disorder (Ehlers-Danlos).

Twenty-six states have already implemented arbitrary restrictions on our appropriately prescribed …

Physician heal thyself. At your own risk.

Don Gaede, MD

Physician

March 21, 2019

My late father often repeated the adage, “Any man who serves as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” We physicians may not represent ourselves in court, but we often try to treat ourselves or neglect our own medical care — and end up with a fool for a patient.

My uncle was a family physician who practiced in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. He was my childhood hero …

Celebrating Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African American female physician in the United States

Kristyn J. Smith, DO

Physician

March 20, 2019

Last month on February 3, 2019, we celebrated National Women Physician’s Day (NWPD). Created in 2016 by the Physician Mom Group (PMG) in collaboration with Physicians Working Together (PWT) and Medelita, NWPD honors the first female physician in the U.S., Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell and highlights gender inequality in medicine. The day is a social media “holiday” of sorts, with timelines flooded with inspirational posts of women in white coats declaring …

Why are we hemorrhaging emergency nurses?

Rada Jones, MD

Health Policy

March 20, 2019

I started my medical career late. Really late. By that time, I’d lived a few lives. I’d earned a boatload of initials. I’d changed husbands, languages, and continents. I’d written a useless novel, and I’d been a Mary Kay lady.

One day over lunch as I was looking for something to do with myself, my husband suggested medicine. I spent the next nine years immersed in my medical training, feeling guilty …

How to increase your HPV vaccination rates

Elizabeth Copeland, MD

Medications

March 20, 2019

As chair of general pediatrics for a large medical group, I knew our HPV vaccination rates back in 2016 were low, but didn’t completely understand why. I’m here to share how we figured it out, and how we improved.

The first task was to understand the barriers, and we went straight to the front line. Our doctors and staff explained reasons why this vaccine can be such a hard sell – …

Medicare for all: a campaign promise, catchy bumper sticker, or viable program?

Bonnie Friedman

Health Policy

March 20, 2019

With the 2020 election cycle already moving into high gear, we are hearing a lot about Medicare for all. But is it a serious campaign promise, a catchy bumper sticker or a viable national program?

Supporters suggest it will be a panacea for our nation’s health insurance needs. Others are less sure. And some are downright opposed. So where do we go? As a starting point, there are things we can …

Clarity amidst chaos: an evolving perspective on resilience-building

Nomi Levy-Carrick, MD, MPhil

Physician

March 20, 2019

I found myself in the privileged position recently of participating in the National Stop the Bleed Research Consensus Conference, at the table with an extraordinarily committed and compassionate group of thought leaders exploring the role, challenges and implications of this crucial initiative. My perspective as a consultation-liaison psychiatrist interested in trauma-informed care was aptly described as “a different lens,” though my colleagues appeared to require no convincing of its relevance.

When …

Emergency medicine and the inevitability of death

Joe Bocka, MD

Physician

March 19, 2019

Though many are not thrilled about the April 15th deadline, death is an even more inevitable part of life than taxes.

Sometimes we try to lessen the impact of death through our words: bit the dust, bought the farm, kicked the bucket, flat-lined, passed on, checked out, gave up the ghost, met his maker, paid the piper, put out of his misery, laid to rest, six feet under, pushing up daisies, …

A framework to understand universal health care

Kevin Tolliver, MD, MBA

Health Policy

March 19, 2019

One of the most popular topics in health care is the idea of universal health care coverage. You know the soundbites: “Medicare for all.” “Single-payer system.”

While universal coverage sounds desirable to many, some factors must be considered. In this post, I’m going to provide an aerial view of this complicated topic. My goal is to translate this issue into patient-friendly language that all of us can understand. This topic isn’t …

A wife who couldn’t fully accept her spouse’s health problems

Amy McVay Abbott

Patient

March 19, 2019

My husband, who’s had type 2 diabetes for 20 years, had been struggling for a long while to lower his hemoglobin A1C — a number that measures how well he’s managing his blood sugar over time. When he and I finally investigated the issue, it turned out that someone close to him was thwarting his efforts.

This person is an addict. Her drug of choice is sugar — often candy no …

It is for these patients that the doctors at rural hospitals continue

Anonymous

Physician

March 19, 2019

Rural hospitals are closing their obstetric wards and stopping all obstetric services — at least those hospitals that manage to remain open at all. The tertiary care centers don’t seem to mind. Always wary of those rural hospital disasters in the middle of the night. Accepting transfers from a place where they must not have the latest technology, clearly, your little hospital must be behind the times, only subspecialty care …

Clear and concise communication is key while delivering bad news

Shubham Bakshi, MD

Physician

March 19, 2019

“Guys, are you alright in there?” I ask casually while taking the first bite of my dinner on a 24-hour PICU shift.

No answer.

“What is going on? Why is she beeping so much? Is her tube blocked?” My voice gets louder.

Complete human silence. Except for the deafening hypoxia monitor going to 30s. Heart rate monitor dipping to below 60s. All this beeping was coming from a six-month-old girl with a history …

What’s happened to clinician empathy?

Austin Perlmutter, MD

Physician

March 19, 2019

In 2006, the Mayo Clinic asked 192 patients an important question: What makes an ideal physician? From their responses, several characteristics emerged. Among the top criteria, they wanted doctors to be “personal,” “empathetic” and “humane.” This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

Of course, we want doctors who relate to their patients as people instead of just another “case.” We want doctors to have sympathy for patients …

Read more…

What’s happened to clinician empathy?

This doctor paid off $200,000 in student loans in 19 months. Here’s how.

James Turner, MD

Physician Finance

March 18, 2019

There are some milestones that need to be appropriately celebrated. For the 80% of physicians who graduated with student loan debt, paying those loans off certainly qualifies as such a moment. Everyone has a different way of tackling their student loans. Today, I want to outline how we paid off $200,000 in student loans in 19 months, and then discuss what our plans are to rid ourselves of the rest …

Will blockchain become the coin of the medical realm?

Michael Kirsch, MD

Health Technology

March 18, 2019

First, there was Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that utilizes blockchain, a decentralized system of data collection and transactions that we are told will defy hacking. (Wasn’t the Titanic said to be unsinkable?) We read that cryptocurrency and other blockchain functions will be a societal gamechanger, much like the internet was when Al Gore invented it some years ago.

My state of Ohio will now accept Bitcoin as payment for commercial taxes.

And, of …

We need RVUs for obtaining a prior authorization

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Physician

March 18, 2019

I haven’t counted how many times this happens every month, but I find it annoying.

I send a prescription for a drug (sometimes not even expensive) to the pharmacy and soon after, I get a fax asking me (or my medical assistant) to go online and print a prior authorization form to complete and fax to the insurer, or answer numerous qualifying questions on the screen, or (worst of all) Read more…

We need RVUs for obtaining a prior authorization

3 health tips to help busy physicians

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

March 18, 2019

Practicing medicine at the frontlines is hard. It’s damn hard. Every minute you need to be alert, ready to respond to a potential life or death situation, and be called to another important problem. The current medical practice environment — with excessive bureaucracy, suboptimal information technology, and extreme time pressure with patients — adds exponentially to the mix, and can make for a very stressful job. Make no mistake, even …

Read more…

3 health tips to help busy physicians

Why many doctors live paycheck to paycheck

Cory Fawcett, MD

Physician Finance

March 18, 2019

Wealth seems to be an elusive dream for many people. They desire to become wealthy, but feel they don’t earn enough money to reach that goal, as if earning more would make the difference. A study of 10,000 millionaires presented in Chris Hogan’s new book, Everyday Millionaires, showed that 69% of these millionaires reached that level of affluence on a household income of less than $100,000 a year. If all …

The difference between learning medicine and doing medicine

Steven Zhang, MD

Medical Education

March 18, 2019

Back when I was a third-year medical student, I would sometimes bike to the hospital campus early enough to catch the groundskeepers cleaning the promenade in front of the medical school before the foot traffic arrived. Discovery Walk, as it’s called, is a beautiful promenade with stone murals commemorating the significant discoveries made at Stanford. It’s a beautiful scene, especially during sunrise or sunset, which many of my classmates have …

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