Physician

Keep healthy boundaries and not define yourself by your profession

Physician

February 22, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic helped bring out people’s true colors. After two years of the unrelenting pressures of the pandemic, people’s true colors came out, and I will have a frank about this truth. As physicians, we often put our patient’s comfort before ours, but at what point does one have to stop and reflect on this.

As physicians, we are often put on a pedestal and have unrealistic expectations. We want …

Who will heal the physician?

Eliza Humphreys, MD

Physician

February 21, 2022

I was a third-year medical student in 1999 when the landmark report titled “To Err is Human” was released by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), unveiling the uncomfortable truth about the fallibility of physicians and our medical system. I remember it vividly.

The publication’s scandalous revelation that nearly 100,000 preventable deaths occurred in hospitals each year shocked me. I recall feeling simultaneously offended and defensive at the implication …

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Who will heal the physician?

Changing how we think about difficult patients

Joan Naidorf, DO

Physician

February 21, 2022

An excerpt from Changing How We Think About Difficult Patients: A Guide for Physicians and Healthcare Professionals.

After I finished my residency in EM and started working as an attending physician, I realized I had a problem. I believe a lot of you have the same problem. Some of our patients are so angry, oppositional, and non-compliant that we get angry …

A physician’s top 10 fears

Christine J. Ko, MD

Physician

February 20, 2022

I recently had a good (albeit unexpected) cry and figured out that I have been in an unremitting fear cycle for about two-plus years. When the COVID pandemic first shut things down across the United States, my family and I had just started a much-anticipated ski vacation. On the way to the resort, we heard that Vail and other Colorado resorts had just shut down. When we checked into our …

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A physician’s top 10 fears

I risked my career to save my life

Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD

Physician

February 20, 2022

Early into my military career and as an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident, I started to acknowledge the fact that, during periods of sleep deprivation that were initially inherent to my military training hours and then surgery call requirements, I found myself thinking dark thoughts that I had never experienced before. I scheduled an appointment with a Psychiatrist and was diagnosed with depression. Scratch that. I was diagnosed with “high …

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I risked my career to save my life

Artificial intelligence is worse than the old boss

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

February 19, 2022

It seems that each positive story I read about the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) is countered by a negative story.

One internal medicine physician writes: “Someday, with enough computing power and artificial intelligence, we may be able to have systems that can do some basic medical advice and education about health care that could end up saving doctors a lot of time and …

What happens when you can’t fix it? Tales from the home front.

Susan Hart Gaines

Physician

February 19, 2022

The details have been changed, but the story is true. A physician I know goes to work each day by 7:30 a.m. He is a confident, competent leader in every way within his clinic. But each night, he goes home to a spouse who is losing steam in every way. Diagnosed with a chronic condition, she is growing increasingly weak and dependent. He asks her how she is, and she …

An unplanned conversation leads to a mentorship opportunity

Charlotte Grinberg, MD and Richard Dale

Physician

February 18, 2022

Charlotte: I initially met Richard at a wedding. Standing near the much-desired sushi buffet, we quickly started talking about the broken infrastructure of the health care system. At the time, I was an exhausted intern in internal medicine, happy to have the right weekend off. I shared big dreams of one day creating a new model of medical delivery. Richard, a senior executive with decades of leadership experience, listened compassionately. …

Want to publish a children’s book? Here’s how.

Robert Chan, MD

Physician

February 18, 2022

It was my son’s birthday, and I wanted to give him a gift he would remember. He had written a story when he was seven years old about eating boogers. As a urologist, I can attest that this is not a healthy habit and do not recommend it. I helped him publish his first book, Boogers for Brunch, on Amazon.

I …

Residency doesn’t have to be a war

Anonymous

Physician

February 17, 2022

This summer is supposed to be my turn to start residency in the States. I hear enough about work-life balance; but have mostly seen residents push the limits of what could be considered a human existence because it’s known: If you don’t work yourself to death, someone else will.

I’ve heard conversations about whether it’s proper to get married or have children during residency. Usually, the consensus is “no.” Is all …

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Residency doesn’t have to be a war

Reflections on physician mental health and tips for sustaining it

Rosa Yu, MD

Physician

February 17, 2022

The problem

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, mental health in medicine is rarely discussed. And yet, the circumstances of our profession create the perfect milieu for darkness. The long work hours. The regularity of tragedy and loss. The nights, weekends, and holidays you miss with those you love. The constant pressure to be perfect — to be professional, to be composed, to be vigilant, to not make any …

Metric fever will decimate our primary care workforce

Sara Bajuyo, MD

Physician

February 17, 2022

Primary care doctors have had enough. I’m sick of it as a family physician, and I know you are too. In our never-ending battle with insurance companies and CMS bureaucrats over how to do our job, the new turf is value-based care (VBC), and the latest weapon against us is metrics.

The central goals of VBC are timely access, better care quality, and efficiency. One could argue if …

Fellow physicians, what is our path forward?

Tammie Chang, MD

Physician

February 16, 2022

As our health care system teeters yet again on the brink of collapse, the big questions on so many of our minds are: What does our future hold for us as physicians? What is our path forward?

As physicians, we currently live and work in a constant state of crisis. We’ve seen record numbers of patients, experienced personnel shortages, and instituted crisis staffing and standards of care. We’ve cared for patients …

The paradox of treating pain in a system too full to manage it

David Prologo, MD

Physician

February 15, 2022

My 13-year-old daughter was writhing on the floor from pain in her back and belly, a fever, and intermittent chest pains. She was two days out from a spine surgery intended to fix an 8-month-old gymnastics injury. She couldn’t take any steps on her own, and it was a three-person project just to get her from the couch to the chair.

“Go to the ER,” the hospital answering service said.

I tried …

Kids are not OK: Health care is failing them

Andrew Hertz, MD and Keili Mistovich, MD, MPH

Physician

February 15, 2022

Our medical system is failing our children. The rate of chronic diseases in children is skyrocketing. Obesity has increased. Behavioral health issues are at new highs, making suicide a leading cause of death in children. During the pandemic, rates of pediatric preventive health visits, vaccinations, and screening tests have decreased, thereby losing opportunities for early intervention.

These failures were evident before COVID …

Losing our most valuable non-renewable resource: physicians

Elham Raker, MD

Physician

February 14, 2022

Suppose you have watched the news, been on social media, or have had any conversations with others. In that case, it should not be a surprise that health care workers are physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted and extremely burned out.

We are currently entering our third year of a global pandemic. So, burnout physicians are not a big surprise, especially when doctors’ opinions are marginalized over political beliefs about a virus. …

A love letter from your doctor

Eve Makoff, MD

Physician

February 14, 2022

You know who you are.

I’m writing to tell you no matter how wrenching our time was together, or messy, or scary, or short were the hours, I love you. I cherish you. And no matter how hard I tried, it was you who gave more. Because you let me in when I showed up unannounced in my pale blouse and loud heels.

You might have been curled up …

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A love letter from your doctor

Dog poop, the social contract, and pandemic behaviors

Therese Zink, MD, MPH

Physician

February 13, 2022

Dogs have been part of my extended family for most of my sixty-plus years. With a dog comes poop.

It doesn’t really matter on a farm, but in the city, there is an expectation, a social contract of sorts. In the public parks and boulevards, the dog owner is expected to scoop the poop.

While some dog walkers dutifully pick up their dog’s poop, others don’t bother, and before I know it, …

I am not leaving medicine because I like the clinical practice part of my job

Barbara Lazio, MD

Physician

February 12, 2022

The headlines read “Why Healthcare Workers are Quitting in Droves,” “Docs are Leaving Practice,” and “Physician burnout declared a public health crisis.” The side-gig, financial independence retire early (FIRE), and non-clinical career posts pop up in my daily professional media feeds. Believing in the power of suggestion, I wonder if I should start looking for career number two.

Start. That’s a joke. …

Mildred Mitchell-Bateman, MD: an icon in psychiatry

Courtney Markham-Abedi, MD

Physician

February 12, 2022

New Haven, West Virginia, is a small town nestled in Appalachia and located approximately eight miles from the juncture of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. Newspaper articles from the 1950s and ’60s suggest that the town’s demographic makeup and surrounding area as nearly 97 percent Caucasian.

In 1926, as commissioned by West Virginia, a psychiatric facility was opened and named The Lakin Hospital for the Colored Insane. In the tradition of …

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