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How not to argue with your kids about marijuana

Physician

October 16, 2017

An excerpt from A Parent’s Guide to Teen Addiction: Professional Advice on Signs, Symptoms, What to Say, and How to Help (Skyhorse Publishing; October 2017).

Marijuana, the illegal drug most commonly used by teenagers, is widely accepted as harmless, but is it? Its effects range from the trivial—silliness, bloodshot eyes, etc.—all the way to catastrophic—paranoia, depression, and more. Many teenagers and parents don’t realize that although not as …

The medical student who had a genuine human profile

DrizzleMD

Medical Education

October 16, 2017

“I lift things up and put them down.”

This quote is from a commercial for Planet Fitness I have seen in the past. It portrays a bulky body builder on a tour of the gym premises. There is no real communication with the tour guide since he keeps saying that he lifts things up and puts them down, irrespective of what the tour …

Why HSAs are not the answer to our health care system problems

Cory Michael, MD

Health Policy

October 16, 2017

I was talking to a physician in my hospital several years ago, and he expressed his frustration that the annual well-child exams for his four kids were expensive. Puzzled, I stated that I found it odd that a doctor’s own health insurance plan had poor coverage for routine care, and he replied that his group jointly decided on a plan with considerable upfront out-of-pocket costs. Why would doctors buy bad …

Reduce parallel play to provide decent health care for all

Peggy A. Rothbaum, PhD

Health Policy

October 16, 2017

I have been doing health care research and advocacy for over 20 years. I’ve seen a lot of passion, anger, and rhetoric around the issues. The health care crisis is simple in that everyone needs health care. The question is what to do about it and who should pay for it.

It’s not an easy answer. For starters, we have turned into a culture of entitlement. This includes health care. It …

The most far-reaching effects of our failed leadership

Matthew Hahn, MD

Health Policy

October 15, 2017

We were once a nation noted for its achievements. We are now a nation that gets nothing done, unable to make even the slightest movement forward despite multiple national crises — a desperately broken health care system, a horrifying opioid epidemic, sickening gun-related mass murders, the threat of nuclear war, and massive storms resulting from man-made climate change. In the face of such monumental challenges, when bold action is needed, …

This psychiatrist does most of her work outside of the traditional system

Maria Yang, MD

Physician

October 15, 2017

Every now and then, when some people learn what kind of work I do, they say, “You’re doing God’s work. Thank you.”

They mean well, so I accept the compliment, though I also tack on, “I also like what I do. It’s meaningful work for me.”

So many of the people I see, whether in my current job or in my past jobs working in other underserved communities, have a lot going …

Emergency medicine can be exhausting. Here’s what this doctor does to unwind.

Edwin Leap, MD

Physician

October 15, 2017

So I’ve finished up at one job and moved on to another. I was a director for a year, and it was a learning experience. Right now I’m nearing the final approach after working a long run. Last week I had five nights, 12 hours duration each. I stayed in a hotel near the hospital. Then, after two days off at home, I started a run of five days, of …

An ode to great clinician-educators

Robert Centor, MD

Medical Education

October 15, 2017

When asked to describe my career, I consider myself primarily a clinician educator. Recently I have reflected on the influences that allowed me to have a successful career doing what I love. This post is not meant to mention all those influencers, but just some that I recall often. As I have thought about this post, I quickly realized that all the “heroes” that I recall focused on clinical education. …

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An ode to great clinician-educators

Why veterans deserve special recognition

Jarret Patton, MD

Physician

October 14, 2017

November brings fall weather, raking leaves and one of my favorite holidays. No, not Thanksgiving, it is Veteran’s Day. Veteran’s Day is a day reserved to celebrate members of the U.S. armed forces for their service. Thank you, veterans. Veterans are found in all segments of our society. Some are retired, some have started second careers, and some are struggling with health issues as a result of their service. They …

Alternative medicine for cancer: Greater scrutiny is needed

Skyler Johnson, MD

Physician

October 14, 2017

As the calendar turns to early October, I’m reminded that this is the 6th anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death. At the time of his death, I was a medical student and my wife had just completed six months of chemotherapy. I was surprised to learn that Jobs had died from complications of cancer and shocked to discover that he had initially refused conventional cancer treatment in favor of alternative medicines. …

If health care is a right, so should having legal insurance

Thomas D. Guastavino, MD

Health Policy

October 14, 2017

The main justification for single payer seems to be that access to affordable quality health care is a right. Nowhere in our constitution does it say that anyone has a “right” to individual services or property. Housing, food, health care, even cell phones have become “rights.” What our constitution does say is that each citizen does have the right to equal protection under the law, equal access to the courts …

MKSAP: 49-year-old man with a family history of type 2 diabetes mellitus

mksap

Conditions and Diseases

October 14, 2017

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 49-year-old man seeks advice on ways to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus because of a strong family history (mother, sister, and brother) of the disease. History is significant for hypertension, for which he takes losartan and amlodipine in the morning.

On physical examination, temperature is 37.2 °C (99.0 °F), …

7 ways we are screwing up AI in health care

Leonard D'Avolio, PhD

Health Technology

October 13, 2017

The health care AI space is frothy. Billions in venture capital are flowing, nearly every writer on the health care beat has at least an article or two on the topic, and there isn’t a medical conference that doesn’t at least have a panel if not a dedicated day to discuss. The promise and potential is very real.

And yet, we seem to be blowing it.

The latest example is an investigation …

Always ask your patient this one thing

Dr. Natasha Khalid

Physician

October 13, 2017

8:00 a.m.: Monday mornings are abhorred by almost everyone, but they are gloomier if you work as an intern. For me, this Monday was an anticipated work-free day — hence, it wasn’t too bad.

I had spent a long time at breakfast catching up with friends and later grabbed my books and went to the library to catch up on my studies. This happiness was short lived. And in the afternoon, …

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Always ask your patient this one thing

Being a specialist is a constant climb. But it’s worth it.

Hassan Patail, MD

Medical Education

October 13, 2017

College → medical school → residency → fellowship. The journey to becoming a doctor sometimes feels like climbing a never-ending ladder. The process started for me as an undergraduate when I was seventeen years old and will go on well into my thirties. I am still climbing. Each level of ascension is drastically different in both your skill set and responsibilities to your patients. The variation from one stage to …

A story from a physician’s journey to burnout

Franklin Warsh, MD, MPH

Physician

October 13, 2017

An excerpt from The Flame Broiled Doctor: From Boyhood to Burnout in Medicine.

“So what did my bloodwork show, Doctor?” asked Liz. Liz was friendly and polite, but a textbook example of the Worried Well … healthy but neurotic patients I didn’t need to see as often as I did.

“Nothing, my dear,” I said. “Thyroid is fine; blood count is fine. Even the X-ray we took of your …

Let’s share our stories about gun violence

Barbara Meyer, MD, MPH

Health Policy

October 13, 2017

It’s a peculiar kind of civil war we are waging in America. 30,000 of us die each year from gun violence, exceeding the number killed annually on all sides in the Syrian civil war. On October 1, we saw more than 58 people slaughtered and hundreds injured in a carefully planned attack. At a concert. In Las Vegas. For no apparent reason.

My professional interest in this problem began during my …

4 ways doctors put themselves last

Maiysha Clairborne, MD

Physician

October 12, 2017

As physicians, we are conditioned to put ourselves last. This long-standing tendency likely began way before we hit medical school. But certainly, our training reinforces it. Think about it: the personality type that goes into medicine is typically a caretaker. And while medical school reinforces this personality pitfall, It doesn’t end there. Residency brings a whole other dimension of self-neglect. We think, “If I can just get out of residency …

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4 ways doctors put themselves last

How do you fight racism in medicine?

John Junyoung Lee, MD

Physician

October 12, 2017

I bleed blue and gold. No, I am not talking about Michigan, West Virginia or Notre Dame. I am definitely not talking about UCLA Bruins (by the way, UCLA fans, a bruin is a brown bear). That’s right — I am a die-hard Cal Bears fan.

Thanks to Cal football, and particularly to legendary Marshawn Lynch, my college days were filled with excitement. (I am counting on you, Coach Wilcox.) Marshawn, …

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How do you fight racism in medicine?

Do the portraits hanging in medical schools hurt women and minorities?

Julie Silver, MD

Medical Education

October 12, 2017

Our powerful subconscious minds are processing information that we don’t even realize we are taking in, so to achieve gender equity we must actively uncover things that are unintentionally promoting stereotypes.

For example, we know that if we want to promote a gender equitable environment that putting portraits of men on the walls of the classrooms would not be ideal. Even if there were one or two women in the mix, …

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