Once upon a time, in a magical land of Whoville, lived the Whos. They were a group of little humans who loved Christmas with passion. But not too far from their beloved town and in a place called Mount Crumpet, inhabited the Grinch, a grouchy creature that hated Christmas. During that time of the year, the Grinch would watch people of Whoville adorn their houses and buildings in bright colors …
Most physicians receive a budget for CME expenses, and many of those expire on December 31. It’s important to take action now – if you have funds left, there’s a good chance they will be disappear when 2021 ends, and you will then be spending your 2022 CME allowance.
It’s unfortunate that CME budgets typically expire on December 31. This is an incredibly busy time of year, and most of us …
Trying to match into residency or fellowship can be stressful. I’ve gone through the match once for residency, and I’m currently going through it a second time for fellowship, so I understand your plight if you are going through it too. There are many variables that are out of our control. As much as we may desire to match our desired specialty at our desired location, this uncertainty can lead …
During my 30 years in medicine, and especially as I began leading medical missions in 2005 to the poorest countries in the world, I have seen much need, tragedy, and heartbreak. It is overwhelming. Despite our best efforts medically to help, we fail. What do you do when all else fails? What do you do when someone has lost all hope and feels you have nothing else to offer?
In his …
It has been exactly one year since Pfizer’s first trucks rolled out to much fanfare. Billions followed every twist and turn on the path to getting a vaccine that would save countless lives and give us a return to normalcy. We all hoped for a brisk global vaccination campaign that, in addition to securing our health, would restore our social lives. We yearned for going to large events without the …
Please also read the contrasting opinion article, “Doctoring during Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal.”
The Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal. We need to know the truth: There has been much misinformation and some downright lies on social media and mainstream media regarding this. Some social media outlets have blocked any positive comments regarding Rittenhouse. A man who contributed $25 to a GoFundMe site to support Rittenhouse, (before the social media platform canceled …
“You do not have to be good.”
I’ve long considered having these classic, profound opening words of Mary Oliver’s most famous poem tattooed on my body somewhere. Since I quit clinical medicine a month ago, I’m at that stage where I’m researching tattoo parlors.
It was just this morning, a late October Saturday morning, that I took my kids and the dog hiking in the woods in the rain. …
Did anyone else’s heart sink when you heard about the new COVID variant? Mine sure did. I wasn’t surprised when I heard the news. I felt numb as I know we are in for a challenging period, partially because the colder months are quickly approaching and Omicron has already been identified in numerous countries globally. Echoing the words of a science-fiction movie, “the alien(variant) in amongst us” resonated with many …
Health care workers understand that workplace violence, cognitive overload, and burnout have been challenging their safety and wellbeing long before COVID-19 added to their trauma. Bias and inequities in health care environments were also present well before this novel virus began making headlines. The time is now for us to determine what it will take to keep people in their chosen profession and then rapidly make these changes. Failure to …
The U.S. is progressively falling behind other countries when rated on the percent of the population that is vaccinated against COVID-19.
I ask all my patients if they are vaccinated against COVID-19 and estimate that 80 percent are vaccinated. The unvaccinated can be unscientifically categorized into three groups, highlighting three real but anonymous patients.
Politically indifferent, medically uneducated, under peer pressure
The first patient is in their 5th decade of …
Let’s take a pediatrics patient as an example. She has a rare genetic disorder, heart problems, is G-tube dependent, and home-bound. The child is also on countless medications and requires 24-hour nursing. The family is rich and pays 100 percent of the child’s medical care.
Parents want what’s best for their children, right? I mean, their child’s care is 100 percent …
I am an avid medical blogger. Without a doubt, the most common theme I’ve encountered during the past several years is embodied in the following op-ed: “We must help physicians at the brink of burnout, depression, and high stress,” followed by: “Health care has crossed into a realm of moral injury and systemic collapse.”
I tackled the second essay first. I wrote a no-holds-barred response …
July 2, 1973, is a day etched forever in my mind. A day I remember as if it happened yesterday even though 47 years have passed. A day I thought would never come and then, when it did, would never end. It was the day I entered West Point as a 17-year-old kid with big dreams to “become an Airborne, Ranger, Infantryman and lead men in combat.” That was my …
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I was a medical student learning to deliver babies, bringing new life into the world, as my mom’s life was fading away. I saw all the missed calls from Dad. I knew in my heart something terrible happened. She was in the ICU. Dad told me she had a heart attack. I flew to be with her. When I saw …
The cost of health care in the United States continues to rise, totaling over $3.8 trillion per year. Gastrointestinal diseases contribute significantly to health care costs and were recently estimated to be $135.9 billion annually. Innovation in gastroenterology has traditionally focused on expensive pharmaceuticals, devices, and new procedures. Many of the conditions and …
An excerpt from Doc-Related: A Physician’s Guide to Fixing Our Ailing Health Care System.
Early in my career as a rural physician in Texas, I took care of a couple in their mid-70s named Vernon and Nellie. They drove in from another small town 50 miles away. Nellie usually did all the talking, while her husband, Vernon, sat quietly next to …
Like anyone else, the holiday season can be the source of great joy. And it can add to the stress and overwhelm that physicians already experience. The practicing physician may find herself torn between responsibilities in the clinical setting and the preparations needed to make a memorable holiday experience for family and friends.
It starts with rushing from work to make it to the store before closing. It’s planning, decorating, baking, …
It was a hot afternoon, but no dog day humidity yet. I was driving back from a satellite office when our nurse practitioner called. A patient with a condition we’d seen many times before, a brain hemorrhage, her consciousness waning. The CT scan showed blood in the ventricles obstructing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid.
The pressure was building and our patient was dying. She needed an external ventricular drain to relieve …
An excerpt from All Bleeding Stops.
42nd Surgical Hospital
Phu Bai
Republic of Vietnam
December 1967
Private Ira Stein has so many wounds, has lost so much blood, that the corpsmen nearly bring him straight to Graves. Steve Benson can’t get a pressure. He shakes his head. “Matthew, there’s no point taking this kid to the OR. He’s too far gone. He has no chance.”
“Bullshit!” …
In the early evening, I stand in the grocery store checkout line. A young mother in front of me presses a pig-tailed toddler against her hip as she rummages for her credit card, and a man with silvered hair and a monogrammed shirt shifts impatiently behind me. As I watch the toddler, I’m hit with a twinge of nostalgia. I think of how I used to pull my daughter’s hair …
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