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A medical student’s reflection on time, the scarcest resource

Medical Education

May 17, 2018

One of the best bits of wisdom I’ve ever received is that you can tell a lot about someone by looking at how they spend their time. In medical school, time is our scarcest resource. We’re at this strange and exciting point in our lives, during which we’re responsible for learning an enormous amount of information in hopes that someday we’ll be able to quite literally save lives.

Many of my …

When it comes to well-being, one size doesn’t fit all

Linda Girgis, MD

Physician

May 17, 2018

Doing a simple internet search, you can find a plethora of information about well-being and health. Being happy and well is a goal everyone should aim to achieve. However, I find many of the tips out there are simply unattainable. It may be that I am just a fail at true inner peace and that my inner tsunami doesn’t let me rest. Or it may be that the tips just …

The lows don’t mean you are loser

DocG, MD

Physician Finance

May 17, 2018

The lows don’t mean you are loser. To the contrary, they mean something else that is completely antithetical. They mean you are pushing the envelope. You’re learning from past mistakes. The lows mean that you are at an inflection point. The trick is not to see the pit you are currently trapped in as a pit. Think of it more as a privileged vista in which to view the pathway …

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The lows don’t mean you are loser

How do we keep women physicians in medicine?

Nisha Mehta, MD

Physician

May 16, 2018

Undoubtedly, my favorite part of my non-clinical work is hearing from fellow physicians about their lives in medicine. Every once in a while, I receive an email that puts beautifully into words some of my own struggles.

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a colleague outlining her personal journey through her career, which she was hoping other physicians would benefit from as well. I know it spoke to …

A doctor’s life. Ready. Rinse. Repeat.

James Turner, MD

Physician

May 16, 2018

“Hey, man, I’ve been getting destroyed all night running four ORs and haven’t eaten. I am going to eat dinner before I get out of here. If anything emergent comes up, I can help out. Just let me know.”

As I wash my hands right after I hang up the phone, the overhead call comes out: “Attention. Your attention, please. A Level 1 trauma code has been activated in the adult …

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A doctor’s life. Ready. Rinse. Repeat.

Nurses made this doctor who she is today

Andrea Eisenberg, MD

Physician

May 16, 2018

The nurse grabs me.

“You have to check my patient now! She is screaming and bearing down.”

Without letting go of my hand, she leads me into the labor room. I don’t even consider saying no, I know not to question this nurse. She has been a labor and delivery nurse nearly as long as I have been alive — she knows much more than I about everything.

The room is dark, but …

Dementia patients want effective drugs. How will the FDA respond?

Ron Louie, MD

Medications

May 16, 2018

Dementia patients want effective drugs. Five years ago, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed changes to speed drug approvals for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). No new drugs have been approved. This year, a new FDA draft guidance discusses considering biomarker data and changing cognitive evaluations for accelerated approvals. Would that help make effective drugs available, or are we lowering our expectations?

Numerous dementia agents have failed current …

Blockchain technology can dramatically transform health care delivery

Ashwini M. Zenooz, MD

Health Technology

May 16, 2018

Blockchain technology has the potential to dramatically transform health care delivery by facilitating data exchange between providers and electronic health record (EHR) systems. A decentralized and transparent platform, blockchain technology provides an authenticated platform that applies a consensus-driven approach to facilitate the interaction of multiple entities through a shared ledger. For the health care sphere, blockchain is simply the sharing of medical information through EHRs across numerous hospital systems that …

The best time to practice compassionate, attentive care is today

Bradford C. Berk, MD, PhD

Physician

May 16, 2018

The ICU nurse positioned the mirror in front of my face.

“You look more like yourself now, Dr. Berk,” she said.

She was right! The nurse, whose name was Meghan, had just shampooed, dried and brushed my hair. Clean and coiffed for the first time in over a week, I appeared normal — except, that is, for the tubes sticking out of my left nostril and my mouth.

It was 2009, and my …

Does being a good doctor mean being superhuman?

Shaudee Parvinjah, MD

Physician

May 15, 2018

They say to be a good doctor, you have to leave everything behind when you enter the exam room. You walk in with a clean slate — shiny and sterile, crisp, clean and decontaminated. I wonder if that’s why we wear a white coat? To symbolize the unscathed, untouched and pristine figure who walks into the room and solves all the problems. The one who just woke up from a …

Why some physicians thrive and some struggle to survive

Praveen Suthrum

Health Policy

May 15, 2018

I’m sitting in the waiting area across the endoscopy room of a major hospital. Mindless talk show TV runs in the background. Patients are waiting patiently. They anxiously look up every now and then from their phones towards the reception desk.

It’s a scene I’ve experienced for years while working in health care while waiting for doctors.

But there’s something different in the air now.

Patients, like those around me, will encounter a …

Physicians: Let us rise. Let us lead.

Julie K. Gunther, MD

Physician

May 15, 2018

As has been much discussed in the last few years, our health care system is in crisis. We spend $3 trillion a year on Medicare. MRIs bill out at $5,000. My recent bilateral mastectomy totaled $33,000 with $800 of that actually going to my surgeon.

I left my role as an employed physician in the traditional insurance-based fee-for-service structure because I spent 80 or more hours a week typing, collecting data, …

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Physicians: Let us rise. Let us lead.

The time for physicians to start a side hustle? Right now.

Passive Income, MD

Physician Finance

May 15, 2018

“Do not wait, the time will never be just right.”
– Napoleon Hill

“The perfect time to start something never arrives. Start now.”
– T. Harv Eker

Timing is everything. In life, love, and business, this axiom holds true. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves. But is this always the case?

As a reader of this blog, you probably have some desire to establish some streams of passive income. So if you …

What happened 33 years ago changed this physician forever

Brian Yount, MD

Physician

May 15, 2018

It has been a struggle to get out of my own way. I’m sure many of you have the same feeling. My health and well-being have suffered mightily from the stress of taking care of others in my work as a physician. I have not taken care of myself. Period. My career does not make me unique in this situation, as the patients I treat every day suffer from similar …

A relatively simple solution to physician burnout

David E. Hockman, MD

Physician

May 15, 2018

Physician burnout is increasing at an alarming rate. According to a January 2017 AMA Wire report, physician burnout rate has increased from 2013 to 2017 across every specialty in medicine. Greater than 50 percent of primary care providers are burned out. Therefore, every patient at the entry point of medical care is, more likely than not, going to be treated by a burned out physician. The question is why are …

How this physician became a financial advisor

Blake McGowan, MD

Physician Finance

May 14, 2018

Growing up with a father who is a physician made for a natural draw to medicine. However, as young people are prone to do, I did my best to rebel. Early into my undergraduate career I proudly announced to my father that I had decided to go to law school. And perhaps to dig the needle a little deeper, I told him I planned on going into medical malpractice, on …

Trust the process of medical school admissions

Paul Lee and Samuel Wu

Medical Education

May 14, 2018

For the over 6,500 candidates who applied to Canadian medical schools this cycle, the term “admissions” has taken on a whole new meaning. For some, the word has become a kind of divine judgment — a determinative force defining the individual’s value or worth. For others, a long road of struggle has led them to acceptance of the next step in their career. To most, however, the word has morphed …

Burnout: Don’t blame the clinicians; blame the system

Anh Le, MD

Physician

May 14, 2018

Physician burnout is the depression of the medical world. We are aware of its presence and the detriment it can cause, but yet, we don’t really like to talk about it. The problem is, just like depression, if we don’t talk about it or seek to address it, it persists and leads to a number of unwanted outcomes including decreased productivity, decreased patient satisfaction, and increase in medical errors. And …

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