Physician

Publicity and sharing our experiences are our best tools against legal injustice

Physician

January 24, 2022

An excerpt from Rheum for Improvement: The Evolution of a Health-Care Advocate.

Their expert witness, “Dr. Z,” was simply a hired gun willing to do their bidding for a price. He had completed only one year of a rotating internship in family practice in the 1960s. He had not done a residency and had no rheumatology training. He had not seen …

What it’s like to work with International SOS

Bamidele Olatunbosun, MD, MBA

Physician

January 24, 2022

At the beginning of August 2021, during the early stages of opening my practice, I decided to take an opportunity that I would be forever grateful for. The organization International SOS was looking for physicians and other health care providers to join a massive once-in-a-lifetime operation at Fort Lee military base.

At the time, the country was attempting to end the war in Afghanistan quietly. We were told that there would …

Playing the hand you are dealt

Paul Pender, MD

Physician

January 24, 2022

Anyone can win at poker when dealt a royal flush. But what can you do when the cards you are dealt don’t appear winning at all? My answer: Make the best of what you have.

Recently I learned of a colleague who sustained a broken back in an accident. He continues to work, wearing a brace and not taking pain medication. I know from watching his videos that he routinely handles …

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Playing the hand you are dealt

San Pedro de Macoris: a physician’s photojournal

Glenn Mark Losack, MD

Physician

January 24, 2022

Once hailed as “The Paris of the Caribbean” the city of San Pedro de Macoris (SPM) was established in 1822 and became one of the major producers of sugar, molasses, bovine cattle, rum, and Major League Baseball players.

In the mid-1800s Cuban immigrants threatened by a slave revolt and their own war of independence, settled in SPM and established the country’s first “ingenious” or sugar mills or bateyes. They brought their …

Coming back from the brink of burnout

Anthony Avellino, MD, MBA

Physician

January 23, 2022

I understand what it feels like to be in the depths of depression and hopelessness. I have had a lifelong battle with stuttering, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, depression, and suicide.

I continually fight these battles and have learned to heal and recover through family, friends, and ultra-running. Since attempting to take my life on September 12, 2009, I have developed wellness tactics to help me journey through life to achieve optimum performance and …

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Coming back from the brink of burnout

Please don’t stop fighting for what brought you to medicine: a tale of 2 physicians

Sarah G. Bodin, MD

Physician

January 22, 2022

Remember in Jurassic Park when Ian Malcolm describes Chaos Theory to Ellie Satler, watching a drop of water roll down her hand? It might roll to one side or the other based on any number of differences in the hair on her hand, subcutaneous blood flow, imperfections in her skin, all tiny variations in a complex system, affecting the outcome. The scene came to mind last week when in 24 …

Telemedicine exhaustion is real

Ni-Cheng Liang, MD

Physician

January 22, 2022

I’m angry. The sound cut out again, for the fifth time in the last hour. “Why can’t I get through one telemedicine visit without some technical problem?” I ask myself. I can feel the chest discomfort, my shoulders tense, I start to flush, tell-tale signs of frustration and anger bubbling up. I did not go to medical school to become tech support. After 12 patients, it’s finally time for lunch. …

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Telemedicine exhaustion is real

The new rules of time management

Laura Berenstain, MD

Physician

January 22, 2022

Pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist, woman, mother, wife, friend, mentor. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t trying to “work smarter, not harder” to get it all done and feel good about myself, only to begin climbing the mountain with a fresh list the next day. My goals were simple: peace of mind and a sense that I was in control of my life and doing a good job for all …

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The new rules of time management

I’m sorry, but I can’t “clear” your patient

Michael McCutchen, MD, MBA

Physician

January 21, 2022

Every primary care provider has been there. A patient comes in requesting a pre-operative evaluation or places a phone call or EMR message expressing the need for “clearance” before having a surgical procedure. Sometimes, we even get a request from the surgeon’s office with paperwork for “clearance.” Time is always, seemingly, of the essence regarding these evaluations, and either the patient or the operating surgeon requests this be done expediently …

Doctors have had it with tall tales (and those who tell them)

Steve Adelman, MD

Physician

January 21, 2022

The majority of my coaching clients are physicians. It isn’t easy for them these days. For the most part, doctors are rational types who believe in science, data, and facts. They have trouble understanding why so many of their patients seem to have signed on as extras in the unreality show of a skilled Pied Piper with a large and devoted following. How sad that so many people have followed …

Unrequited: love in the time of COVID-19

Rosemary Eseh-Logue, MD

Physician

January 21, 2022

If you knew we are like the “Two Fridas,”
that our hearts are connected,
would you change your mind?
Would you stop
as you are about to cut
the artery feeding your heart and mine?
If you knew that when you cry because of your loneliness,
because of your longing for your family,
that I cry, too, (though behind your back,
after I have comforted you)
would you change your mind?
If you knew that your isolation,
with the tubes and gadgets
coming …

A shout out to small hospitals

Mike Sevilla, MD

Physician

January 20, 2022

I’m a small-time doc in a small town, and I work at a small hospital in the Midwest, and I’m proud of it. The huge university hospitals (like Cleveland Clinic) get all the glory (especially in society and in the press), but small hospitals like mine drive this country.

It has been really weird working at a small hospital, where it seems like …

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A shout out to small hospitals

I go on because I must: for my patients and for my children

Huma Farid, MD

Physician

January 20, 2022

I stare at the sharply rising line in front of me, its stark outline harshly highlighting the data–data that shows that we are in the midst of yet another surge. That graph haunts me, intruding upon my thoughts, hovering at the edges of my life. I hold my breath, not knowing when this sly encroacher will become an intruder that will disrupt the normalcy of these last few months, …

Breaking down the real cost of the opioid epidemic

Rebecca Thaxton, MD

Physician

January 20, 2022

I have been writing of late about recent developments in the opioid saga. My first piece talked about a fresh decision in California’s seven-year-old The People vs. opioid pharma case. The next one focused on how the middle-man, distributors, contributed to the epidemic’s picture.

Now, I wanted to write an overarching piece hitting some astounding highlights that summarize the opioid crisis through its decades-long lifespan. …

Can patients just say no to treatment?

Charles Hebert, MD

Physician

January 19, 2022

When can a patient say “yes” or “no” to a recommended colonoscopy? A blood transfusion? A COVID vaccine?

As 2022 opens, health officials predict a tsunami of new coronavirus cases worldwide due to the Omicron and Delta variants. For more than a year, official messaging has been that vaccination is the way out of the pandemic.

But ongoing vaccine hesitancy has hindered progress. The Centers for …

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Can patients just say no to treatment?

A message to physician job recruiters: First impressions count

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

January 19, 2022

More than half of all physicians in the United States are employed by health care organizations, and the numbers have been trending upward since 2019. Recruiters who work for health systems are tasked with finding the best physicians available, and their roles have become more important than ever. In-house job recruiters, and recruiters contracted with health systems, represent the face of the organization. They are often …

It’s time to rethink board recertification

Olapeju Simoyan, MD

Physician

January 18, 2022

Doctors are reporting an alarming rate of dissatisfaction and burnout, with some leaving the practice of medicine altogether. Administrators and insurance companies are often blamed; however, our own professional organizations impose a significant portion of the problem.

Several years ago, Danielle Ofri wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about how doctors’ precious time was being wasted on recertification exams. That year (2014), I took my first …

How do we embrace the plot twists in our life?

Amy Vertrees, MD

Physician

January 18, 2022

The most memorable books have twists, turns, and surprises. A plot twist is a literary technique involving a radical change in an expected outcome. It involves withholding critical information until the time is right, changing our perception of preceding or current events. There are often hints along the way, foreshadowing what is to come, but realization does not come until the twist happens, and often only appreciated in retrospect. Red …

The letter this physician wants to write to her patients

Yuliya Malayev, DO, MPH

Physician

January 17, 2022

Before there was doom-scrolling, there were sad books. For me, it was Chapter 18 in Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. The chapter is a fictional portrayal of Mr. Grossman imagining his mother’s last words. The protagonist—modeled on the author—and their two mothers have the same fate at the hands of the Nazis. I tried several times to get through that chapter, through that letter, and through the book. I …

A booster shot of humility

Nathan C. Armerding, DO

Physician

January 17, 2022

Since the first cases of COVID-19 started trickling into the U.S. in January 2020 (or December, depending on what sources you believe), leaders have made confident statements promising containment, to eradicate the virus, to provide resources for hospitals in need, to research and identify treatments that work, etc.

I think that we can agree that no matter what side of the aisle you are on, having a highly charged controversial presidential …

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A booster shot of humility