Medical school should be free.
That’s an argument made by physicians Peter B. Bach and Robert Kocher in the New York Times.
This isn’t a new concept. I’ve discussed whether medical school should be free for students who choose primary care. And, for some in the country, it’s already happening. Like at Case Western Reserve University, for instance. The Cleveland Clinic …
Would free medical school be enough to save primary care?
According to one of the the guidelines set forth by the AMA about professionalism in social media, “When physicians see content posted by colleagues that appears unprofessional they have a responsibility to bring that content to the attention of the individual, so that he or she can remove it and/or take other appropriate actions.”
With that in mind, Bryan Vartabedian, who …
How doctors should professionally behave on Twitter
There’s an underlying tension between physicians and health policy experts.
Health policy experts take subtle jibes against physicians in their analyses, with many feeling American doctors are overpaid, which exacerbates health costs. They tend to be politically progressive, and generally dismiss the issues that most doctors care deeply about. Medical malpractice, tort reform and the cost of medical education, for instance.
And …
The tension between physicians and health policy experts
Little has been written about the impact a malpractice lawsuit has on physicians.
But physicians who’ve been sued have a higher rate of suicide, and emergency physician Edwin Leap wrote about how doctors are emotionally scarred from the grueling ordeal of a trial.
A recent piece from American Medical News puts faces on the toll:
The key to surviving is having …
How malpractice hurts doctors and their future patients
It’s certainly been fascinating monitoring the response to Theresa Brown’s New York Times’ op-ed on physician bullying.
Predictably, most physicians were outraged, while the rest of the population generally supported Brown. As alluded to in a comment, whenever you have an aggrieved party accusing another one in a national forum, controversy is what you’re going to get. The piece was the …
Doctor bashing and confronting physicians in the media
Bullying is a problem within health care.
Stung by a physician’s rebuke, Theresa Brown, an oncology nurse, takes to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to address the issue.
In it, she cites several vignettes that paint doctors poorly:
But while most doctors clearly respect their colleagues on the nursing staff, every nurse knows at least one, if not …
Theresa Brown unfairly blames doctors for hospital bullying
A version of this op-ed was published on April 12, 2011 in USA Today.
“Would you like to discuss your end-of-life plans today?”
It’s a question that I ask my patients, although not as often as I would like. Talking about death may be uncomfortable, but it’s a conversation that needs to happen more often.
We can never know …
End of life care is being influenced by politics
Whenever I speak about social media to doctors across the country, I often get asked, “How do I deal with a negative online review?”
Here’s one way not to handle it: sue the patient writing the review.
There’s a well publicized case in Minnesota, where a resident posted a screenshot of …
Dealing with a negative online review on a physician rating site
Medicare is thinking of using patient satisfaction scores in part to determine bonuses to hospitals.
According to Kaiser Health News,
… patient gripes soon will affect how much hospitals get paid by Medicare.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is finalizing details for the new reimbursement method, required by last year’s health care law. Consumer advocates say tying patient …
Patient satisfaction should not influence how doctors are paid
Kimberly Hiatt was a pediatric critical care nurse who accidentally gave an infant a fatal overdose of calcium chloride last year.
By accounts, it was a calculation error. A human mistake.
After the incident, the hospital fired her.
This past April, she took her own life.
Although it cannot be concluded that the tragedy was directly responsible for her suicide, the incident clearly …
Should nurses be fired for fatal medication errors?
I was quoted recently in the New York Times’ Well blog, in a Danielle Ofri piece on Facebook and doctors.
There’s no question that Facebook has been a minefield of sorts for the medical professions, with infractions ranging from unprofessional conduct by medical students to patient privacy violations by attending physicians.
One solution would be for doctors to simply avoid …
How doctors can use Facebook responsibly
The Affordable Care Act does very little to reform the medical malpractice system.
It only allocates $50 million to various pilot projects around the country.
A recent piece in the New England Journal of Medicine provides more detail. It appears that, instead of capping non-economic damages, many of the projects have a quality …
A medical malpractice system that reduces errors and improves quality
Patient privacy and social media use in health care often go together when reported in mainstream media.
When physician blogs were a relatively new phenomenon several years ago, the majority of the media coverage focused on edge cases, where doctors inadvertently revealed patient information.
Only a minority of the headlines focused on the positive aspects, such as how …
Doctor reprimanded after patient privacy breached on Facebook, my take
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I recently concluded a trip down to Nashville, TN where I gave my talk on the health care-social media intersection at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
My audience normally consists of physicians and hospital staff, so talking to students was a refreshing change.
I had the opportunity to have dinner the night before, and breakfast and lunch the day …
Talking social media and health reform with medical students
The following op-ed was published on February 22nd, 2011 in AOL News.
If you woke up one day with an earache, you could call your doctor’s office for help. Or you could do what the majority of patients do today and Google what to do first.
Type “earache” into your Web browser and the results can vary wildly. Search engines can return results saying that an earache can be from the common cold, …
Guiding patients online is a new physician responsibility for the digital age
How important is it for hospitals to engage in social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter?
It’s essential.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the controversy concerning infant Joseph Maraachli. Without getting too involved in the politics or ethics …
Hospitals need an engaged social media presence on Facebook and Twitter
Doctors are now incentivized to convert antiquated paper charts to electronic medical records.
Despite a few doctors who love their EMR, most readers here at KevinMD.com are skeptical, as the difficulties in transitioning, along with questionable benefits, have been well chronicled.
Recently, the Washington …
How to convince doctors to embrace electronic medical records
Match Day marks one of the most important days in a medical student’s career.
A computer algorithm “matches” prospective doctors with the residency program they’re destined go to.
It’s also a look at the future trends for various specialties. With a major part of health reform about to be implemented, one naturally gravitates towards primary care, where there currently is a …
Match Day 2011: Family medicine grows, but enough to save primary care?
It’s no secret that our health system encourages doctors to order too many tests. Compounded with the widespread belief that more tests equates to better medicine, the reasons why health costs are spiraling out of control aren’t a secret.
In a perspective piece from the New England Journal of Medicine, physician Sean Palfrey notes our dire situation:
Recent advances …
Health costs need to be addressed by doctors, patients, and lawyers
Despite the advances in evidence-based medicine, not every patient benefits.
In a recent column from the New York Times, Pauline Chen looks at a study showing exploring the issue:
For many patients, evidence-based medicine isn’t working. Two-thirds of patients with diabetes, a disease with some of the strongest evidence-based guidelines available, continue to have trouble controlling their blood sugar levels; and only half of all …
Why team based primary care won’t help evidence based medicine soon
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