Physician

Physicians writing on KevinMD about the life of the profession: the work itself, the exhaustion, what women physicians are paid and asked to carry, the losses the profession has been slow to name, and who decides how physicians work. Five maintained records draw on this archive: Physician burnout: what physicians say, in their own words, Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words, Women in medicine: what women physicians say, in their own words,, Physician suicide: what physicians say, in their own words, and Physicians and administrators: what physicians say about who runs medicine, in their own words.

Work getting you down? What you watch on TV might be making it worse.

Ara Feinstein, MD, MPH

Physician

August 19, 2019

As a trauma surgeon, it’s my job to diagnose and fix the violent destruction of the human body. One of the questions I get asked very frequently is, “How do you deal with that?” My standard answer is, “After a while, you get used to it.”

And while I recognize there is some truth to that, lately I’ve been more honest with myself about the emotional toll that violence …

Asking patients the right questions isn’t as easy as you think

Mary Braun, MD

Physician

August 19, 2019

I made my 10:20 a.m. patient wait while I told my support staff about my day off.

“I was getting an ice cream when I saw a car accident. By the time I got there, it was clear that there were no serious injuries and all I did was to distract the passenger so she wouldn’t panic while we waited for EMS. Her husband hit a tree with their van, and …

4 reasons why this radiologist loves practicing teleradiology

Katie Lozano, MD

Physician

August 18, 2019

Some radiologists perceive teleradiology as the “dark side” of our profession. I may have counted myself among those skeptics, but I now see the light and am happy to share a place among the converts.

Most of my career has been in traditional private practice, but there’s not a great deal of difference in how they operate versus a teleradiology practice. Both organizations exist to provide clinicians and patients with diagnostic …

How coding is like Scrabble

Therese Zink, MD, MPH and Andrew Saal, MD, MPH

Physician

August 18, 2019

One of the great nuisances in medicine is diagnosis coding. According to Medicare and insurance companies across the U.S., each and every disease must have a unique number. Everything must be quantified and recorded. Why? To facilitate analysis, number-crunching, regulations, reimbursements and, of course, we sometimes joke, to perpetuate the jobs of the coders. They usually know the nuances better than the doctors.

Is it truly possible to describe Mrs. Brown’s …

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How coding is like Scrabble

10 reasons why doctors get sued

Ton La, Jr., MD, JD

Physician

August 17, 2019

The one thing doctors want to avoid like the plague is a lawsuit — a medical malpractice lawsuit.

To be sued means the doctor loses precious time from work, endures emotional personal and family distress and is unable to fully invest oneself in providing the very best medical care possible. It is a dark cloud that hovers over the majority of physicians at least once in their lives. Some medical specialties, …

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10 reasons why doctors get sued

4 actionable tips for new medical interns

Liang Chen, MD

Physician

August 17, 2019

People often compare internship to drinking from a fire hose. Overwhelmed by new information and workflow, interns (especially international) usually do not have a clear direction about how to optimize their working/learning experience. Here are some tips for interns to smooth their transition from a newbie into a high-functioning intern in the setting of medicine inpatient wards.

Success leaves clues

Don’t explore yourself, specifically ask your upper-level resident about the most productive …

The trauma of separating young children at the border

Nickey Jafari, MD

Physician

August 17, 2019

Being a medical resident is really hard. This is not only due to the infamous number of hours you work, but you are truly responsible for patient care for the first time. That is a heavy responsibility, especially when you constantly feel inadequately prepared. You never feel like you have enough time to read, and you never stop feeling like you could be doing a better job.

Despite the schedule and …

I’m a jail physician. Here’s what likely happened to Jeffrey Epstein.

Jeffrey E. Keller, MD

Physician

August 16, 2019

Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide while in custody at a Manhattan detention facility has focused intense media scrutiny into jail suicide prevention procedures. Suicide is the biggest cause of death in jails in the U.S. — by far. Because of this, all jails (including the facility where Epstein was housed) have a suicide prevention policy. Since the process was an epic …

Clinical performance data: a physician’s friend or foe?

Robert Pearl, MD

Physician

August 16, 2019

According to a recent Harvard report, physician burnout is “a public health crisis that urgently demands action.”

Half of all doctors report troubling symptoms: depression, exhaustion, dissatisfaction, and a sense of failure. These physicians are twice as likely to commit a serious medical error, research finds. Experts predict that if left unaddressed, burnout will further erode the mental health of doctors and radically undermine …

New doctors are prioritizing the wrong things

Fred N. Pelzman, MD

Physician

August 16, 2019

Every year, there’s this rite of passage, the passing of the baton, as our graduating senior residents move on to fellowships, or into spots as hospitalists, or to practice jobs here in New York City or other cities, and a fresh new group of newly-minted physicians arrives ready to take up the gauntlet of training as Internal Medicine doctors under our …

The powerful, surreal scene in an El Paso hair salon

Laura Adler, MD

Physician

August 16, 2019

I am a psychiatrist living in El Paso. My husband was the orthopedic traumatologist on call at the academic center last weekend when 22 El Pasoans were murdered and 26 wounded in a mass shooting at a busy Walmart in town. The rest of this week has been oddly surreal for me or maybe numb. Until this afternoon. Something happened while I was getting my hair done that made me …

How a neurosurgeon uses a No Room for Error mentality when making life decisions

Marc Arginteanu, MD

Physician

August 16, 2019

As a doctor that specifically deals with brain and spine surgeries, I have adopted a No Room for Error mentality in the operating room. I believe this same mentality can be helpful in making the best possible life decisions.

What do I mean by No Room for Error?

It is natural to visualize the successful achievement of a goal. For instance, prior to performing the most common surgery I perform, resection of …

Privilege is your superpower

Stacie Walton, MD, MPH

Physician

August 16, 2019

The team stood around the older woman’s bedside. As one of the medical students, I prepared to meet my assigned patient. While being assigned to me, Mrs. R yelled, I’m not letting that n***** take care of me!

As the only Black person in the room, her words meant for me hung in the air. Frozen in place, my heart racing, I fantasized walking out of the room. Without a break …

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Privilege is your superpower

A letter before the yearly checkup

Christi Bartlett, MD

Physician

August 15, 2019

Hey there, Dr. Brown.

Just wanted to send a little note to warn you that I’m coming to see you soon for my yearly “checkup.” You and I both know that this is my annual opportunity to spew all of my worries on you and for you to reassure me that I’m not dying. Have you blocked at least an hour for me? I’ve got a boatload of random symptoms that …

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A letter before the yearly checkup

The deadly silence of physician depression and suicide

Craig M. Slater, MD, MBA

Physician

August 15, 2019

“It is high time for us to recognize that the physicians who spend so much of their lives caring for us are often suffering in silence, and effective interventions would be good medicine for all of us.”
– Joan M. Anzia, MD

On February 4, 2007, I attempted to take my own life.

It was Super Bowl Sunday, and the Colts were playing the Bears. My wife Charlene and I were home, and …

The System has a tremendous advantage over physicians

Jodie Eckleberry-Hunt, PhD

Physician

August 15, 2019

My niece, whom we will call Anne, recently completed her residency. I remember Anne as a child: always smiling, always happy, idealistic. She excelled academically and chose medical school despite my reservations. I watched Anne proceed through medical school and residency, transforming before my eyes into an anxiety-riddled, sleep-deprived, irritable, and jaded physician. She said to me late in her residency, “I’m afraid I am becoming an asshole.”

This is ironic …

ER staff deserve a safe place to do their jobs

Edwin Leap, MD

Physician

August 14, 2019

Many years ago, it was called the emergency room. Now we call it the emergency department. However, unlike so many departments in the world, the emergency department has almost too many purposes, duties, and mandates to number.

However, in the process of being the under-funded safety net for American health care, it has also become a place of remarkable danger where medical and nursing staff, support personnel and even patients face …

Replace doctors with robots now, please

Joel R. Cooper, DO

Physician

August 13, 2019

It’s a widely held belief that eventually all living human doctors will be replaced by robots. Some say as soon as 2035.

I say, “Why wait? Replace me now!”

If the idea of a robot diagnosing and treating — and examining — you and your loved ones seems objectionable, please reconsider.

There are actually several advantages of robots over so-called “human” doctors:

Doctors are prone to burnout. If a robot burns out, just replace …

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Replace doctors with robots now, please

The doctor trap: What it is and how to escape it

Mark Leeds, DO

Physician

August 12, 2019

There is a trap used to capture monkeys that uses a tree with a hollowed-out trunk. The opening is just large enough for the monkey to put its hand inside. While the monkey can easily pull its empty hand out at any time, inside the hole is a larger space containing delicious nuts that the monkey craves. When the monkey grabs a large handful of nuts, it is unable to …

Doctors: Step boldly into your calling

Stephanie Wellington, MD

Physician

August 12, 2019

We often associate our calling with our career. That’s what I did from the very moment I decided to become a doctor. That’s all I focused on. I studied for it. I invested time and money into it. Like many doctors, my identity was intimately woven into what it means to be a doctor. It’s who I became to the exclusion of everything else.

From the outside looking in, I was …

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Doctors: Step boldly into your calling