TEDMED is a truly extraordinary conference in San Diego, a fall sibling of TED talks focused on medicine. TED talks are just 18 minutes long, chosen and designed to blow your mind. They don’t all hit that level, but many do.
True to form, the opening session was a mind-blower. 26 year old Charity Tillemann-Dick stepped out on stage and belted out a soprano aria. I thought that was it – an opening …
Our national health status is in imminent danger from the effects of a condition that most population health experts acknowledge is out of control.
I am speaking of obesity — and, in particular, its increasing prevalence in American adolescents and children.
Almost every study that has been done concerning obesity shows a correlation with soda consumption. As a result, some states and municipalities have tried to implement initiatives that make it more …
by Child of the Ocean
I recently came across an interesting article titled “Conscientious Objection Gone Awry — Restoring Selfless Professionalism in Medicine” by Julie D. Cantor, M.D., J.D., in the New England Journal of Medicine.
This article argues against a rule, the Provider Refusal Rule, from the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that legally protects health care professionals who act based on …
A recent article by Pauline Chen features a group of primary care physicians at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, who have created a concierge practice that funnels income into the traditional general medical practice that sees less-advantaged patients.
Surveys (performed by the medical center itself) found that patients rated the quality of interactions with their doctors similarly regardless of their affiliation. The only significant differences in responses had to …
I really don’t want my children to be overweight. I know this because I see the consequences every day in my practice, consequences like high blood pressure, impending diabetes, or poor self-esteem.
At the same time, I really, really don’t want my children to have an eating disorder. I know this because I had one.
In college, I suffered from anorexia nervosa. I’m a little more than 5 feet 9 inches tall, …
Having a heart attack felt nothing like I thought it would feel. For one thing, unlike sudden cardiac arrrest, in which the heart stops beating and you stop breathing, during my heart attack (myocardial infarction), my heart continued beating, and I was conscious throughout despite horrific symptoms – so how could I possibly be having a heart …
An excerpt from More Health Less Care: How to Take Charge of Your Medical Care and Write Your Own Personal Prescription for Lifelong Health.
Bob Baker is a patient of Dr. Lisa Martin. Bob works as an engineer for a Fortune 500 company that holds major commercial and Department of Defense contracts. He’s 45 years old and happily married with two college-age children. Bob’s lifestyle is stressful. He travels …
I used to practice pediatrics. It has been several years since I decided to leave medicine, but people still ask me about it, and I find myself offering neat explanations between gulps of coffee. Of course, the full truth is much more complicated. The full truth has as much to do with our health care system and our culture as it does with me.
My journey in pediatrics was not entirely …
Chaperones are increasingly recommended for routine use in Western medicine. There are semi-official recommendations in both the UK and USA. The AMA has long had this.
The rationale for using chaperones is twofold. In theory their primary purpose is to protect, comfort and assist the patient. In reality though, the usual purpose is to protect the physician against claims of sexual assault or harassment.
Preferably, chaperones should be real professionals, ideally …
At the risk of dating myself, I recall a time when “The Three Rs” summed up American education. In case you aren’t familiar with this phrase, it stands for “Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic.”
I think it’s high time we develop “Three Rs” for patients. Right now, Patient World is ruled by “E” words such as “empowered” and “engaged,” with “empowered” the big one. I think “empowered” is turning into a label, …
When I realized that I would be moving to a different county within Southern California and would have to change jobs, I knew it would be inevitable that I would have to say goodbye to my patients. I was dreading this. I mean, really dreading it. I don’t like goodbyes. I feel as though I am breaking up, and in a way I am.
Like any other relationship, my patient-physician relationships …
If I was Surgeon General, I would follow the lead of our country’s first Mom.
This is serious folks.
We, as an American society, need to solve the obesity crisis. Not just for our physical health, but for our country’s financial stability.
Reducing the spiraling costs of health care is wanted by all. So far, prevention of the diseases which contribute most to our health care costs, (heart disease, cancer and orthopedic issues, …
In a report from the Archives of Internal Medicine, it was reported that most hospitalized patients (82%) could not accurately name the physician responsible for their care and almost half of the patients did not even know their diagnosis or why they were admitted. Of the physicians, 67% thought the patients knew their name and 77% of doctors thought the patients “understood their diagnoses at least somewhat …
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Back to school for many children means returning to the environment in which they are bullied.
Bullying is a form of abuse, defined as recurrent episodes of physical or psychological intimidation. It can take the form of taunting, name calling, threatening, stealing and physical assault. Other forms of bullying include the spreading of malicious rumors or gossip and the intentional exclusion of a child. The result is a victim who becomes …
When is an ice cream label a health literacy tool?
When Dr. Barry Weiss decided to use an ice cream label as a tool to asses whether we (patients) are able to understand medical instructions. Funded by Pfizer-backed Clear Health Communication initiative, Weiss’s research resulted in the creation of “The Newest Vital Sign.”
A health literacy assessment tool, with findings published in the Annals of Family Medicine.
However, the document, Why does …
Several years ago, I spoke at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where Michael DeBakey, the legendary heart surgeon, was master of the universe for nearly half a century.
I heard lots of DeBakey stories during my visit, but one in particular really stuck with me. “A few years back,” someone told me in a voice of hushed reverence usually reserved for descriptions of flawless beach days and single …
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PLoS Medicine recently published an article commenting on an earlier study exploring the link between social networking and mortality.
The result speaks for itself: “the degree of mortality risk associated with lack of social relationships is similar to that which exists for more widely publicized risk factors, such as smoking.” You read that right, according to this study which examined over 300,000 participants in a meta-analysis, social relationships are as important …
Raghav Govindarajan, ACP Associate Member, a neurology resident at the Cleveland Clinic Florida, told us about a case he saw in India that has important lessons for clinicians everywhere. The patient was a 65-year-old man who presented with chronic symptoms of burning discomfort and weakness in his left leg.
His symptoms had started about seven years prior and he had been told that he had “neuritis.” He reported that he had …
A guest column by the American Medical Association, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
As the nation’s largest physician organization, the American Medical Association (AMA) is uniquely positioned to help physicians thrive in medical practice throughout the stages of their careers.
Because the AMA is led by physicians, we understand the many demands and rigors physicians face as they work to provide high-quality patient care, and we are proud to support physicians in their …
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Ten years ago, I wrote the Pew Internet Project’s first report on the impact of the internet on health care, calling it “The Online Health Care Revolution.”
Back then, the idea that people were searching online for health information was revolutionary. All of a sudden, regular people had access to medical information that had always been locked up and out of reach.
Ten years later, I am ready to declare the access …
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