Physician | KevinMD.com

You won’t necessarily be admitted to the hospital. Here’s why.

Edwin Leap, MD

Physician

August 19, 2015

When we take our sick or injured loved ones to the hospital, we often hope that they will be admitted. In many instances, this is a very reasonable request. When heart or lung disease are at work, when severe infections, dehydration, fractures or strokes occur, admission may well be the only option. However, sometimes our desire to admit our family members is a throwback to a simpler time in medicine; …

The story of how one physician recovered from burnout

Tom Murphy, MD

Physician

August 19, 2015

shutterstock_110328875

Time was baffling. It seemed like just yesterday; I sat in a posh auditorium in Chicago as an enthusiastic young adult during my first day of medical school orientation at Northwestern in 1995. Eighteen years later I was a forty-three-year-old burned out physician, practicing in Boise, Idaho, doing Google searches on the most effective way to end my life. During my time …

The most feared medical specialty? It’s actually one of the safest.

Susan G. Curling, MD

Physician

August 18, 2015

shutterstock_175398194

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

I often hear patients say, “I am not afraid of the surgery, just the anesthesia.”

But should patients worry? Physician anesthesiologists suffered a crisis in confidence in 1982 when the ABC television program 20/20 aired, “The Deep Sleep: 6,000 …

Spending time with patients. That’s my job.

Nathan A. Pennell, MD, PhD

Physician

August 18, 2015

I’m sure I am not alone in saying that I am almost obsessively conscious of time. Namely, that there never seems to be enough of it. As busy oncologists, we all have constant demands on our time, from our leadership, colleagues, drug company reps, insurers, and our families, not to mention the time we try to carve out for ourselves. But …

After surgery, the scars will always remain

Bruce Campbell, MD

Physician

August 17, 2015

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”
– George MacDonald

As we adjust her position on the surgical table, I spot some short, vertical scars on the front of her neck. The parallel slashes sit directly over her enlarged thyroid — a goiter — and appear to have been deliberately placed. There are two sets of scratches, one set on either side of the neck, nearly identical in length and evenly …

7 ways physicians can improve health care quality

Robert Pearl, MD

Physician

August 16, 2015

Patients want to receive health care that is of the highest quality. Physicians want to provide it. But what is “high-quality health care?” On that, few agree.

Ask most Americans and they’re unsure where to find it. They know they want to be kept healthy, have rapid access to personalized care whenever they need it and be charged only what they can afford.

Ask the leaders of the national medical and surgical …

What does a doctor look like?

Lara Devgan, MD, MPH

Physician

August 15, 2015

As a plastic surgeon, I am interested in how people look. Whether I am piecing together a fractured face or reconstructing a cancer-scarred breast, I am focused on appearance, symmetry, contour, and lines. I am always thinking about how our bodies are the physical manifestations of who we are.

What I am never thinking about is how that sentiment applies to me.

An intern …

Read more…

What does a doctor look like?

Slowly, slowly

Christy Duan

Physician

August 11, 2015

“What is the meaning of life?”

A perfectly reasonable question, albeit a strange one considering that I was in the third grade, it was recess time, and I was having a philosophical conversation about death with a grasshopper I had just caught.

Ever since I could remember, I was fascinated by death. But my life was characterized more by loss than by death. When I was three, there were no funeral processions …

Read more…

Slowly, slowly

The real cost of MOC is stunning

Tara F. Bishop, MD, MPH

Physician

August 11, 2015

In the past few years there has been tremendous criticism of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM’s) maintenance of certification (MOC) program. The MOC program was significantly expanded in 2014 and required doctors to get 100 MOC points every 5 years and do at least one MOC activity every 2 years. These requirements also came with increased fees for the MOC program and increased failure rates for the recertification …

Read more…

The real cost of MOC is stunning

This is what a successful direct primary care practice looks like

Rob Lamberts, MD

Physician

August 10, 2015

I recently attended (and spoke at) the Concierge Medicine Assembly in Atlanta. My role was to give the perspective of a “successful” direct primary care (DPC) practice. This being the second such conference in three weeks, I’ve learned that my panel of 600+ patients and survival for two and a half years puts me in the higher ranks of solo DPC practices. The Atlanta conference was actually a combination conference, catering to …

#ILookLikeASurgeon I am a surgeon and this is what I look like

Admin

Physician

August 10, 2015

It’s time to celebrate diversity in surgery with the #ILookLikeASurgeon hashtag.

Inspired by surgery resident Heather Logghe, who says it best: “As women surgeons, whether we are in our first year of training or an emeritus professor, it’s most important that we ourselves believe we ‘look’ like surgeons. Because we do.”

And it’s taken off.

Below is a continuously-updated Storify of this movement.

Spread the word!