Physician

The challenges and triumphs of self-publishing in a conventional world

Physician
November 6, 2024

Over the past several months, I’ve’ been busy assembling various essays into a book—essays I’ve written and published here on KevinMD and elsewhere. The manuscript is now complete. Here’s a brief pitch I’ve given to about two dozen publishers (I do not have an agent):

Dear Acquisitions Editor:

I am writing to ascertain your interest in publishing my manuscript tentatively titled Narrative Rx: A Quick Guide to Narrative Medicine for Students, Residents, …

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Shortcomings of plaintiff attorneys in Byrom vs. Johns Hopkins

Physician
November 5, 2024

As shown in my earlier post, when prosecuting Byrom vs. Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital with inductive reasoning, as is traditional, the medical intervention is compared to the standard of care in a very general and subjective way. The medical intervention “more likely than not” departs from the standard of care. “More likely than not” corresponds to a level of confidence of around 51 percent and a type-1 error of …

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The gifts of sobriety: Navigating career disappointments with grace and resilience

Physician
November 4, 2024

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
—Victor Frankl

I celebrated three years of sobriety earlier this year. It’s been a long, circuitous path, marked by seeking help, practicing acceptance, and diligently working a twelve-step recovery program.

Brené Brown, who’s been sober for twenty-seven years, shared in a 2019 article that her sobriety …

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The derm identity crisis at social events

Physician
November 4, 2024

Whenever I attend a social event, at least 10 to 20 percent of the attendees (second- or third-level friend or family connections) come to me with casual consultation requests.

To me, casual consultation requests are kind of similar to advertisements on free apps, with one difference: the time after which the skip button surfaces is highly variable and can be followed by multiple ads with no rhyme or reason.

What this does …

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The shocking truth behind the DEA’s role in America’s pain crisis and doctor prosecutions

Physician
November 3, 2024

The United States federal government is a single entity, despite its three equal branches having more heads than a hydra and more arms than Mahakali. One part of that federal government is not supposed to create and propagate standards that another part arrests you for following, as confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzales v. Oregon. When it comes to the criminalization of medicine by the DEA and other …

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Why mask bans are the latest attack on American freedom

Physician
November 3, 2024

In the land of the free, we find ourselves facing a perplexing and troubling trend: the rise of mask bans across America. These bans, ostensibly aimed at public safety, represent a dangerous overreach that threatens the very freedoms we hold dear.

America has long prided itself on being a bastion of individual liberty, where the government’s role in dictating personal choices is limited. Yet, with alarming bipartisan support, we’re witnessing an …

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Why are we allowing politicians to practice medicine?

Physician
November 2, 2024

When I was doing my medical training at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City (a proud and fine hospital that has sadly closed), the official word was that we could not counsel patients to use condoms to prevent HIV transmission. Like many other doctors in training, I was bothered by this edict but kept in mind that St. Vincent’s had been at the forefront of providing compassionate care to …

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How to beat the 5 devils of modern medicine and live a longer, happier life

Physician
November 2, 2024

As a fellow cardiology practitioner, I am compelled to share some critical insights on the importance of preventive care and holistic approaches to longevity and happiness. Our profession constantly reminds us of these aspects, and it is time we take a more comprehensive approach to our patients’ well-being.

Throughout my career, spanning several decades and continents—from Hong Kong to New York, Singapore, and Shanghai—I have encountered a myriad of health challenges. …

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When medical malpractice is not medical malpractice

Physician
November 1, 2024

In medical malpractice, inductive reasoning regards the standard of care as the duty to do no harm. If there is a complication from a medical intervention and the medical intervention differs from the standard of care in any conceivable way, the difference alone is sufficient to conclude that the medical intervention departs from that duty.

However, unanticipated threats require nimbleness. This is a calculated risk. It causes a difference, but it …

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Why this doctor stayed stuck in a job for years and how she finally broke free

Physician
November 1, 2024

My work was draining. The joy was no longer there. Sure, I loved caring for patients, but the schedules, the call, and missing my children’s life events were all catching up to me. It all was too much. After two decades at a Level 1 hospital, I was the epitome of a “burned-out” physician. My mind would harken back to the Clash’s famous song from the 1980s—”Should I stay or …

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Why the RVU system makes attaining the quadruple aim laughable: a deep dive into a broken health care model

Physician
October 31, 2024

The quadruple aim represents an ambitious, holistic vision for the future of health care: improving population health, enhancing the patient experience, reducing per capita costs, and improving the work-life balance of health care providers. While many health care systems have adopted this framework, the widespread use of the relative value unit (RVU) system fundamentally undermines these goals. Far from facilitating the quadruple aim, the RVU system creates a chasm between …

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How Betty Ford’s breast cancer battle revolutionized health care in the 1970s

Physician
October 30, 2024

It is rare that an ABC movie of the week endures. Buzz Kulick’s 1971 Brian’s Song is the notable exception. IMDB describes the movie as a “beloved tearjerker,” which portrays the friendship between Chicago Bears teammates Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo in the mid-1960s. Central to the plot is not only the race-based prejudice that existed in professional football at the time but also the public depiction of cancer in …

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What would we do if we weren’t doctors?

Physician
October 30, 2024

I have often wondered where I would be if I had never been accepted to medical school. After all, I got in by the slimmest of margins. I even failed at one application round, finally matriculating at Boston University after an icy post-college winter delivering UPS packages through the snow-covered streets of Cambridge and a depressingly lazy summer punching receipts at the exit to BJ’s Wholesale Club. Now, thirty years …

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Toward a work-life compass: Work-life balance doesn’t exist

Physician
October 30, 2024

A four-day workweek is being touted as better, especially for jobs that are cognitively oriented. The brain needs more time for rest and relaxation than a five-day workweek allows, so four days of work and three days for everything else will provide a work-life balance.

For more than two decades, particularly after I had my first child 17 years ago, I’ve been trying to achieve that elusive work-life balance. I …

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How a single act of kindness can transform the world

Physician
October 28, 2024

Since I was a child, I have despised the words “May you live long.”

I felt like it was a curse.

My younger brother, who knows my thoughts, used to joke, “Allah kre tumhari itni lambi umar ho, tum marne ko tarso!” (May Allah bless you with such a long life that you will pray for your death.)

He still wishes the same for me. (He wants me to suffer.)

I used to say …

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How the DEA’s use of predictive algorithms is worsening crises in urban communities and raising suicide rates among African Americans

Physician
October 28, 2024

The true definition of criminal behavior has always been problematic. Are we criminals because we break the law or because we have been convicted? Famous and revered people throughout history have clearly broken the law but are almost never defined as criminals. All the founding fathers of the United States self-admittedly committed treason against the crown, a capital offense. In contrast, others, like Stalin and Hitler, had every legal right …

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Why good doctors are being jailed—and what it means for you

Physician
October 27, 2024

Today, in America, if you are suffering from certain medical conditions, physicians are being taught that you cannot be trusted or even treated. This results from a decade of law enforcement targeting physicians, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners for making medical judgment calls the police don’t agree with when it comes to the treatment of certain conditions. I use the term “police” here to include federal agencies, knowing that, while policing …

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Most medical school students are being seriously compromised in their future medical careers

Physician
October 27, 2024

The mythical belief that almost 100 percent of medical school students have accepted over the last century—that one can practice medicine without the need for a business education—has contributed not only to the crisis in health care and the physician attrition crises we see today, but also to the rapid disintegration of private medical practice in our nation.

The confusion covertly introduced into medical students’ minds stems from the missing segment …

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The maternal and child health crisis in Sudan: a call to action

Physician
October 25, 2024

The war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has created one of the world’s largest displacement crises, forcing more than 10 million people to flee their homes. The warring sides, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, are inflicting horrendous violence on people across the country. Hospitals have been attacked, markets bombed, and houses razed to the ground, leading to a catastrophic toll on the health of …

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