Patients and caregivers writing on KevinMD about the experience of illness and the health care system from the other side of the exam table: navigating care, the doctor-patient relationship, being heard, and what patients want physicians to understand. Physicians who have become patients write here too. For the record of what pain patients and physicians have said to each other about opioids and chronic pain since 2007, with patient authors cited at the same weight as physicians, see Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words. For what patients, families, and physicians have said about dying, hospice, and the decisions families face at the end of life, see End of life: what physicians say, in their own words. For what women and the physicians who treat them have said about pregnancy, menopause, and the conditions dismissed for years, see Women's health: what physicians say, in their own words. For what physicians have said about consent, honesty, and who decides, see Medical ethics: what physicians say, in their own words.
by Sujatha Prabhakaran, MD
Suicide is arguably the most preventable cause of death. It is also a tough thing to talk about. But talk we should, because suicide costs Americans a lot. In 2000, self directed violence cost $1 billion in medical costs and $32 billion in lost productivity. Self-directed violence affects men and women of all racial/ethnic groups. However, as highlighted in the 2011 …
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Mental illness in men, and how physicians can prevent suicide in males
My oncologist’s office implemented a new EMR system when I was in the middle of chemo. Once the nurses learned the system, I saw no difference in the care I got from them.
Not quite so with the doctor. My experience with him changed dramatically.
Before EMR I would enter the exam room and sit on a chair, play Angry Birds on my iPhone and wait. My doctor would walk in, make …
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EMR, a patient’s perspective
by Carolyn Savage
Our names will be forever connected with one of the most significant medical errors ever made inside a fertility clinic.
In February 2009, through a process referred to as a frozen embryo transfer, another couple’s embryos were mistakenly transferred into my body. Eight months later, I gave birth to a baby boy who we relinquished to his genetic parents a few minutes after …
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Medical error in a fertility clinic
by Rima Rudd, ScD
We take the written word for granted.
Signs and billboards are everywhere – offering directional information, alerts, warnings, and advertisements. Streets, public squares, buildings, agencies, and institutions are numbered and named. We are surrounded by the written word in public locations and within public and private institutions. Individual entrances and even elevators in some large buildings carry names. The lobby, the inside hallways, …
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Literacy related difficulties in health settings and the written word
Last weekend I had the privilege of supervising University of Miami Miller School of Medicine students at a free public health screening in Pompano Beach, Florida. The screening was sponsored by the medical school, with the assistance of community leaders, and held in a local public school. The program organization, recruitment of student and faculty volunteers and management of the program was undertaken and implemented by the students. It is …
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Free health screening: A service to our community’s health
by Kate Gray
I call William my spirited child. Like many 3 year-olds, he loves to run and jump, and does it without the slightest sense of fear. His boundless energy has always been one of his most endearing features, but in a split second, it also almost took him from us forever.
A few days before Christmas, my husband Mark and I had some last minute holiday …
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Forever grateful to the doctors and nurses who saved my son
It’s not easy being a parent of teens these days. Previously rational children transform into moody, unreasonable creatures whose need to shock is only surpassed by their efforts to fit in.
Add a measure of impulsiveness and experimentalism, and it’s no wonder risky behavior skyrockets during these years. What a parent can do is to keep the lines of communication open, stay informed of the health dangers of some of the …
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10 health dangers that your teen may face
When I had a heart attack two years ago, I was taken immediately from the E.R. to the O.R. for emergency treatment, including cardiac catheterization and a stainless steel stent implanted in a major coronary artery that was 99% blocked. But, overwhelmed and terrified, I knew nothing about what was about to happen, even though I have a vague memory of the cardiologist explaining something to me before I was whisked …
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Patients are not to blame for the miscommunication about cardiac stents
by Jerry Levin
For all of us — young, old, and those in the middle — life is simply an interlude between doctors’ visits. This perspective, while obvious, perennially stays beneath our consciousness since we are consumed by the daily pursuit of personal identity as if our mind-body-and-spirit were to function without incident and without end. More powerfully of late is the recognition that the explosive neglect of mental …
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Patients are closing the health gap online
On the subject of shopping for and preparing nutritious meals, one piece of advice that I like to share is that it’s best to stick to the outer walls of the supermarket and avoid the center. So with only a few exceptions, like flour, oil and beans, that’s exactly how I shop. What does it mean to shop at the edges of the supermarket? Let me show you what I …
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Supermarket tips for preparing nutritious meals
Last year it was the “Save the Boobs” video. This year it’s the “I (Heart)Boobies” bracelets.
Some people were very offended by the video’s slow-motion close-ups that were more reminiscent of a beer commercial. Now, some schools are banning kids from wearing the bracelets. And in a recent post on Salon, Tracy Clark-Flory made the eloquent case that we’re more than the sum of our body parts, and recounted her mom’s battle with metastasized lung cancer.
I agree …
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Save the Boobs, and whether humor has a role in breast cancer
As far as my chemo nurse Olga (not her real name) is concerned, I can do nothing right.
She scolded me for sending an e-mail when she thought I should have called and vice versa. She scolded me for going home before my next appointment was scheduled. She scolded me for asking to speak to her personally instead of whichever nurse was available. She scolded me for calling my oncologist directly. …
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Sharing information about your health with specialists is difficult
Few patients enter our health care system prepared for the unexpected and embarrassing circumstances that can routinely happen.
Most can accept it when we’re treated with modesty and respect. But not many are prepared for those times when you might be unnecessarily exposed or treated rudely. The possibilities for embarrassment are endless and it is usually unexpected. When avoidable incidents do happen, most patients are not prepared to speak up. Many …
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When your privacy is violated in the doctor’s office
by Zakari Tata, MD
Informed consent has continued to generate a lot of interest in medicine worldwide.
The reason is because patients in medicine and subjects in clinical trials need protection from the multitude of injuries and harms that have been caused by intentional or accidental actions. The controversies generated by various lapses of informed consent, in my opinion, have not been addressed and more safeguards need to be put in place …
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A balanced approach to informed consent
How important is a doctor’s skill in the physical examination of a patient?
To the lay person, a doctor’s examination might seem really important. “Of course it is, Dr M … Come on.”
But is it so? Or, perhaps, is the examination a charade, a show, a necessity to complete the medical record.
It turns out that many in the profession think doctors may be losing the skill of palpating and listening. At …
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How important is a doctor’s skill in the physical exam of a patient?
This post was inspired by Dinah, a psychiatrist over at Shrink Rap.
She recently described how a psychiatrist friend of hers has been going through some phase-of-life changes. Recently he has regretted some of the advice that he previously had given to patients who were going through the same life changes he’s now going through himself. He realizes that he was not nearly so qualified to give the advice …
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When should psychiatrists give advice to patients?
When I was a medical student on my first clinical rotation, obstetrics, I was criticized for not using enough medical jargon when I spoke to the patients.
I took that criticism as a compliment and have always attempted to speak clearly and without too much “inflation” of my terms. In my opinion, the more clearly we physicians communicate, the better will be our patients’ understanding of their ailments.
The important topic of doctor-patient communication led a …
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How to improve doctor patient communication
People sort of want to try alternative care. They’re working up to it, but then they read more about it; they read about the theory and they say, “No I don’t believe that theory. That can’t possibly work. There’s nothing to it. I’m not going to do it.” But, the problem is that the theory of why something works or the explanation is not necessary related to the effect of …
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Why alternative care seems to work
