Physician voices

12,748 articles · Since 2006

Articles, page 207

The future of the health care experience will be unrecognizable

August 20, 2020Aug 20, 20202

Future doctors will celebrate that they no longer prescribe the same drug at the same dosage for hypertension or pneumonia or arthritis or cancer or many other conditions. Who knows even if drugs will be the mainstay of medical treatment. Tomorrow’s treatments will be tailored to one’s age, gender, weight, race, overall medical condition, severity of the medical threat, and genetic profile, among other variables. We don’t all wear the …

5 power tips to refine your critical thinking skills

Priti Golechha, MD

August 19, 2020Aug 19, 2020

One thing, which is constant in health care, is that it is continuously evolving. The challenges health care leaders are facing are not simple. They are often multifaceted, which require strategic, creative, and inclusive solutions. There are competing priorities and…

Here are five simple tips to help you practice your critical thinking skills.

1. Ponder on the challenge. Spend as …

Why gardening is the best medicine

John La Puma, MD

August 18, 2020Aug 18, 20204

My first glimpse into the power of urban gardening was not through bucolic farmer’s markets or verdant nurseries, whose beauty I only came to after medical school. My introduction was in our small suburban backyard of clay soil. My dad planted silvery, wild-armed globe artichokes, because they could produce flower buds and leaves we could eat, to improve our digestion. That glimpse was enough to ignite my curiosity about homegrown …

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Why gardening is the best medicine

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How physicians can find jobs in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries

Nerissa Kreher, MD, MBA

August 18, 2020Aug 18, 2020

Fifteen years ago, my career path took a detour. As a two-physician household, we were managing my husband’s match and my job interviews in the cities he was considering. Boston, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles – could you get any more diverse? Definitely, an awkward way to interview; hard to sell excitement when it was clear that it really depended upon “the match.”

Boston! As soon as we got the match results …

A physician’s work is hard. And it is sacred.

Andy Lamb, MD

August 17, 2020Aug 17, 2020

In today’s increasingly technological, data-driven, depersonalized world of health care, I wonder if the concept of “a good death” is even possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has caused me to reflect on this. What does it look like? How do you define it? As I did, a patient came to mind. He was a retired minister in his 80s. I had cared for his wife as well until she …

The next time you’re on call, please rethink what white and black clouds mean

Dante A. Mesa, MD

August 16, 2020Aug 16, 20205

I distinctly remember one of many times I was reminded of “my place” in medicine. It was during the third year on a call day shift that had been lighter than most for our bustling hospital. As the residents were discussing who it was that had brought the good energy, I slipped in to mention that I often felt I had a white cloud energy myself. And the senior on …

How to recruit more students into family medicine

Kenneth Lin, MD

August 16, 2020Aug 16, 20208

In 2019, a Policy One-Pager produced by the Robert Graham Center reported that the percentage of the active U.S. physician workforce in primary care practice declined from 32 percent in 2010 to 30 percent in 2018. Although family physicians represent 4 in 10 primary care physicians, in several states, a large percentage of family physicians are older than 55 years and anticipated to …

4 ways to decrease your dread of being on-call

Katie Townes, DO

August 15, 2020Aug 15, 2020

Have you ever been faced with an upcoming shift at work and felt an impending sense of doom? This type of anticipation can be a real killjoy. However, taking calls, working nights, weekends, and holidays is all part of the…

Worst. Call. Ever.

I was just drifting off, entering the first phase of sleep when the whole body is relaxed, and you’ve entered that sweet twilight zone.

…

Why are COVID antibody tests of questionable relevance being marketed to the public?

Michelle Finkel, MD

August 15, 2020Aug 15, 2020

It started mid-March with the sensation that I had cut one of my knuckles. Within two weeks, several fingers were swollen like sausages, and my fingertips had developed painful, burning spots. Soon thereafter, my husband noted one red, swollen toe. We are both emergency physicians, but we could not understand what was causing the symptoms, and it was not until a month later that we started to see

…

A medical trainee’s experience with mental health

Toby Terwilliger, MD

August 15, 2020Aug 15, 2020

In May 2018, I stood in disbelief as I learned that two of my colleagues took their own lives in a single week. I had only recently come to accept my own struggle with mental illness, and I understood how isolating the battle could be. I grieved for them, for their families. But I also wondered at how a culture of concealing mental health disorders among medical trainees may have …

How improv helps physician leaders

Terri Malcolm, MD, MBA

August 14, 2020Aug 14, 2020

I hit the submit button and thought, “Oh no, what have I done?” I stared at the computer screen, completely frozen, and told myself maybe there was a system error and the order didn’t complete. Then I heard the familiar chime and watched in horror as the banner notification slid across monitor. “Introduction to Improv – Registration Confirmed.”

Curses! No malfunction. It’s official. I registered for an improv class. What was …

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How improv helps physician leaders

Accountability partnership: a secret ingredient for entrepreneurial success

Akash Sharma, MD, MBA & Amelia L. Bueche, DO

August 13, 2020Aug 13, 2020

Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely road. Everyone dreams of life after a successful round of funds being raised, staff being hired, and plunging headfirst into the making and shipping of widgets. But there are many days which no one talks about, where a budding entrepreneur must find a way to get ideas from their brain to a whiteboard to a minimum viable product. In those times, progress can seem elusive, and …

Lifelong learning through skillful self-reflection

Priti Golechha, MD

August 12, 2020Aug 12, 2020

The dictionary definition of learning is "the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught." For leaders, the most crucial and common way of learning happens through experience, and as we often say, leadership is flying…

The dictionary definition of learning is “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.” For leaders, the most crucial and common way of learning happens through experience, and as we often say, leadership is flying the plane while building it. Moreover, the onus of making the process of learning an active one is on the leader, and self-reflection is the key to it.

So, what’s self-reflection? …

Doctors show up. Until they won’t anymore.

Nick Benton, MD

August 12, 2020Aug 12, 20207

There are many jobs where people work long and hard. But I will assert that none train as long and hard, and at so much expense, as doctors/surgeons that manage the emergencies for their specialties and take night call, on…

The key point I am trying to make is that doctors, as a profession, basically agree to “show up.” That is what sets us apart …

A message for health care workers: Be kind to yourself

Annalise Sorrentino, MD

August 11, 2020Aug 11, 2020

I was reading this article in the New York Times about Dr. Lorna Breen, and it literally took my breath away. This awful pandemic has claimed so many lives, in so many different ways. Sadly, it made me think of…

I was reading this article in the New York Times about Dr. Lorna Breen, and it literally took my breath away. This awful pandemic has claimed so many lives, in so many different ways.

Sadly, it made me think of a medical school classmate of mine who took his own life a few years ago. He arranged for this to post to Facebook:

…

Doctors: Never pass judgment on the human being in front of you needing help

Suneel Dhand, MD

August 11, 2020Aug 11, 2020

Oh, how we all learn and change with our experiences. It’s one of the greatest things in life that most of us (hopefully) are not the same person now that we were a few years ago. Looking back to when I first become a physician at the age of 22 (yes, that’s the typical age that most medical students across the world become doctors, because medical school comes straight after …

Personal development and growth during COVID times

Francis Yoo, DO

August 10, 2020Aug 10, 2020

As a physician and proponent of introspection, inner work, and self-awareness as integral components of health, wellness, and spiritual development. I watched with intrigue the dramatic increase in the number of COVID-19 related articles, social media posts, and videos purporting to offer solutions for these troubled times. They professed to teach people how to fight fear, manage anxiety, cope with grief, and/or overcome unpleasant emotions. This onslaught reflected a pervasive …

Doctors are fleeing the medical field. Here’s why.

Anna Gladstone, DO

August 10, 2020Aug 10, 202020

The first day I started work as an attending physician in primary care medicine, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. This was not the heroic, selfless, service-oriented job or the romantic life "as seen on TV" I had…

Riddled with heavy school debt, despite my best efforts to join debt relief programs, I had a frustrating job with nothing but red tape and hurdles to jump over. And …

A surgeon’s medical mission experience in his own town

Cory Fawcett, MD

August 10, 2020Aug 10, 20202

Many physicians would like to use their skills on the mission field, but have a hard time finding an option that fits into their busy schedules. Several years ago, I looked for a medical mission, but I couldn’t find one…

Many physicians would like to use their skills on the mission field, but have a hard time finding an option that fits into their busy schedules.

Several years ago, I looked for a medical mission, but I couldn’t find one that would work for me, so I came up with the idea of setting up a medical mission experience in my own town. A local mission meant I wouldn’t need to …

Women in medicine: a conversation with my daughter about lessons learned

Toyin M. Falusi, MD

August 9, 2020Aug 9, 2020

A few weeks ago, I became a full professor of medicine. The grand moment happened 28 years after graduating from medical school. The week after the promotion letter, my daughter's MCAT results were in, and she was hitting submit on…

A few weeks ago, I became a full professor of medicine. The grand moment happened 28 years after graduating from medical school. The week after the promotion letter, my daughter’s MCAT results were in, and she was hitting submit on medical school applications. Fun fact, I had her at age 28, my chief resident year.

In her quest to understand the application process and career trajectories in medicine, my

…

Physician voices

Articles, page 207

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