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.

Commit to a conversation about the gender pay gap

Lauren Kuwik, MD

Physician

March 7, 2018

The gender pay gap is a hot-button issue among women physicians. A few years ago at a local women physicians group meeting, I listened in awe as a gynecologist discussed interviewing for a job early in her career. She and her male co-resident were under consideration for the same position. Upon touching base with her colleague after the interview, she realized he was offered significantly more: on the order of …

Do doctors see patients as machines?

Rajeev Kurapati, MD

Physician

March 7, 2018

An excerpt from Physician: How Science Transformed the Art of Medicine.

While working at a community hospital in the Midwest in the early 2000s, I came to know Walter Stephenson (name changed), who was under my medical care during a lengthy …

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Do doctors see patients as machines?

HIPAA: Are you in violation?

Virginia Thornley, MD

Physician

March 7, 2018

HIPAA (Health Information Portability Accountability Act of 1996) is the privacy care act involving electronic transfer of records so that the identity of a patient remains unknown. It includes any electronic, written or oral transfer of information. When I was a kid, there was no such thing. As a grown-up medical professional, you are surrounded constantly by HIPAA. Charts are placed on doors, so the names are hidden, instead of …

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HIPAA: Are you in violation?

If academic medicine is to avoid becoming academic, it must prioritize patient care

Peter F. Nichol, MD, PhD

Physician

March 6, 2018

One of the definitions of “academic” is the following: Not of practical relevance; of only theoretical interest.

When we look at the term academic medicine, sadly the descriptor “academic” increasingly falls under this definition.

To be fair, there have been some wonderful scholars in the field of medicine: Semmelweis, Fleming, Salk, Sabine, Starzl, and Marshall to name a few. And these few were not readily embraced by their peers in medicine. Barry Marshall was ridiculed …

A stigma no physician can afford

Cherilyn Cecchini, MD

Physician

March 6, 2018

I recently attended a conference in San Francisco, California, where the increasing amount of physician suicide was discussed in concert with the ramifications of a psychiatric diagnosis for physicians. An attendee addressed the audience after the presentation. She disclosed that she was a resident physician and that she had been previously hospitalized for five days with symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, and suicidality. As tears welled in her eyes, she …

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A stigma no physician can afford

To err is homicide in Britain

Dr. Saurabh Jha

Physician

March 6, 2018

A single error oft inters the good that doctors do. The case of Dr. Hadiza Bawa-Garba, a trainee pediatrician in the NHS convicted for homicide for the death of a child from sepsis and hounded by the General Medical Council is every junior doctor’s primal fear.

A boy in shock

Friday, February 18th, 2011 was not a typically unusual day in a British hospital. Dr. Bawa-Garba had recently returned from a 13-month …

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To err is homicide in Britain

Running an emergency department is like a battle: It takes an army

Sam Ashoo, MD

Physician

March 5, 2018

The last few days have been rough. The emergency department is overcrowded, and patients have been very sick. Treatments were labor-intensive, and patients holding in the ED took up valuable resources at the cost of others. I could see the frustration on the faces of physicians, nurses and other staff. A physician and a nurse separately pulled me aside to have conversations about what the ED has become and why …

Is your spouse experiencing physician burnout?

Sara Taylor, MD

Physician

March 5, 2018

Many things in life can only be truly appreciated once reflected upon — like the onset of dementia, depression, and cancer, just to name a few. This got me thinking about the onset of burnout and how the true presentation in life is quite different than reading about it.

The term “burnout” is often thrown around loosely but is an actual syndrome comprised of the progression of “exhaustion, cynicism and reduced …

#MeToo: Tactics for fighting harassment

Torree McGowan, MD

Physician

March 5, 2018

When I was two years old, I ran naked through my living room. Mom reached out and playfully swatted my rump. I skidded to a stop, planted my fists on my little hips, and faced off. “Don’t touch that! It’s mine!” Everyone who knows me and hears the story just laughs and says my sassy started early.

Now, I read story after story of inappropriate comments made to women, and I …

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#MeToo: Tactics for fighting harassment

Medicine systematically disadvantages women physicians at every stage of their careers

Elisabeth Poorman, MD

Physician

March 5, 2018

When my friend was in her fourth year of medical school, she and her boyfriend sat down with their dean to discuss their residency applications. Both have since gone on to have successful academic medicine careers, but on that day in the dean’s office, they were nervous. My friend asked the dean for reassurance.

“I’m sure it will all work out,” she recalled the dean saying. “After all, in 20 years …

Leaders can bring doctors out of burnout

Maiysha Clairborne, MD

Physician

March 5, 2018

As physicians, we are seen as leaders whether we like it or not. And as such, we are charged with modeling greatness. But do we? Our training, while teaching us to be experts and authorities, does not teach us how to be leaders.

One thing our training does teach us: self-neglect, self-sacrifice and unrealistic expectation. This is where I believe our training has failed us. For most of us, our training …

Truth or hype? How to tell the difference in medical news.

Irene Tien, MD

Physician

March 4, 2018

The internet is an amazing source of information and misinformation. How do you know if what you are reading is accurate?

Be a skeptic

Last summer we were inundated with alarmist headlines about “dry drowning” after the tragic death of 4-year-old Frankie Delgado, who died days after an apparently harmless dunk under water while swimming off of the coast of Texas. While this child’s death was heart-breaking, the …

If physicians are burned out, why don’t they just quit? Here’s why.

Nisha Mehta, MD

Physician

March 3, 2018

Those of you that follow me know that I write and speak often on the topic of physician burnout. About a year ago, after my grandmother passed away, my extended family and I got together for a few days. One night, my cousin and I got to talking about my work, and he pressed me on a question that so many have asked me before, “What makes physician burnout different than that which every other profession experiences — and if …

For medical school graduates, the entrance strategy is more important than the exit strategy

Tom Ellis

Physician

March 2, 2018

Two years ago I fielded a call from a surgeon I knew of but had not met. Raised locally, she had left the state for undergraduate school, returning to Texas for medical school and North Texas for her fellowship. Heavily recruited, she wanted to stay close to home and her family, and accepted a position with a group of surgeons practicing at one of the area’s stellar hospitals.

But she wasn’t …

How cancer transformed this physician

Collin O'Hara, MD

Physician

March 2, 2018

“Wouldn’t it suck if you made it all the way through residency and then got cancer at the end?” my buddy Ron, a fellow medical student, and master of dark comedy, joked. I winced at the thought. God has a funny way of foreshadowing.

Three-quarters of the way through pathology residency I noticed my feet were starting to itch, especially at night. It was a deep itch. I scratched so hard …

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How cancer transformed this physician

Physician burnout: When work is not the cause

Maiysha Clairborne, MD

Physician

March 2, 2018

When it comes to physicians burning out, for the most part, it is assumed that work is the primary cause. After all, physicians work long hours, have demanding schedule, and have to deal with the endless politics that comes with medicine. However, I often encounter burned out docs (many of who wear multiple hats outside of the home) who would claim themselves that work was not their primary cause of …

Building our care team made me lonely

Ami B. Bhatt, MD

Physician

March 1, 2018

I began practicing cardiology a decade ago caring for a cadre of young adults with congenital heart disease. I got to know their families (parents often still accompanied them to office visits), and I learned about their lives in addition to their hearts. “How do you remember the patients so well?” trainees often asked me. “Because I remember their story as a person and then the medical journey follows,” I …

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Building our care team made me lonely

You’re a physician and a parent. Which comes first?

Nisha Mehta, MD

Physician

March 1, 2018

If you’re a physician-parent, no doubt you’re familiar with the helplessness associated with the phone call informing you that your child is sick — and needs to be picked up within the hour. You know, the one that coincides with when you were about to start a procedure or a time where there’s no backup available to take over your responsibilities. Murphy’s law.

Many of us have nannies exactly for this …

We cannot afford to lose more doctors to drug addiction

Mark Leeds, DO

Physician

March 1, 2018

It is a miracle that more doctors have not succumbed to substance use disorder at some point in their training or career. It is a fact that many have. The number of doctors and other healthcare providers who have struggled with substance-related issues is probably far greater than we can imagine. This is because of a culture of secrecy and implied threats. Doctors who need help think there is nowhere …

How psychiatrists became lesser physicians

Torie S. Sepah, MD

Physician

February 28, 2018

Recently, a form showed up on my desk to sign, approval for something or other. Not uncommon, given my role at the time as a chief psychiatrist, I signed dozens of such letters, memos, or forms, drafted by an administrative assistant. I signed so many; I never looked at the last line — at how my name had been typed out. Just once my eyes wandered to the end and …

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