Five years ago today I was at a memorial. Another suicide. Our third doctor in 18 months.
Everyone kept whispering, “Why?”
I was determined to find out.
So I started counting dead doctors. I left the service with a list of 10. Now I have 547.
Immediately, I began writing and speaking about suicide. So many distressed doctors (and med students) wrote and phoned …
What I’ve learned from 547 doctor suicides
It’s every emergency resident’s dream to be part of a big procedure: The rush of a heart-pounding, adrenaline-filled moment of slamming in a chest tube, “criching” someone or being part of the big show — a thoracotomy. The holy grail. Cracking a chest, performing intracardiac massage, cross-clamping the aorta. A last-ditch effort to pull a patient away from the clutches of the grim reaper. A typical level-one center hums to …
A resident’s dream turns into cold reality
There are a couple of times a year when there are no house staff to be found anywhere in the hospital or the outpatient practices. These include the holiday and end-of-year parties, resident retreats, and the annual house staff picnic.
The house staff picnic is a particular favorite among the interns and residents, a full day away from the hospital, dressed like civilians, fun in the sun, barbecue, softball with their …
Physicians die from a death by a thousand messages
The prevalence of burnout among physicians is estimated to be more than 50 percent and has grown in recent years. This alarming trend is largely due to changing patient demographics, increasing cost constraints, new federal and state regulations, and other external factors that have reshaped the daily work experience of physicians. Too often today, physicians spend more time on data entry than in direct …
Fix the system to address physician burnout
I was a chubby kid, but my parents still introduced me to lots of sports. Soccer, swimming, tennis, basketball; so many sports, when all I wanted to do was read and eat Doritos. I wasn’t particularly good at any of them, but some of my teams were better than good. We were champs. My swim team won the Cape Cod Summer League, my soccer team won its division one year, …
The key to health care is to have a great team
I walked into the ICU amidst a chaos of harried residents, chirping alarms, and the whir of the portable X-ray machine. Aromas ranging from old coffee down to vomit and stool mixed together in the usual fashion. In other words, it was a typical morning. I watched as my team gathered into a semicircle around me outside the first patient’s room and I got into my morning rounds stance: leaned …
Resist! The invasion of computers in health care
The diversity of patients seen in any oncologist’s clinic is a microcosm of what makes America so unique. From one room to the next, I am amazed by the various ethnicities, economic backgrounds, and religious faiths that I encounter. Each of these patients forms a composite of beliefs regarding their cancer; just as every tumor we treat is different, so is every patient. This diversity is what makes generalizations in …
Barriers and hope for diversity when it comes to clinical trials
The statistics are staggering.
The high maternal mortality rate in the U.S. has been a matter of great interest and debate, spurring a reflective look into our health care system to determine why our country is on the wrong end of this statistic. The reasons and numbers vary across the country and notably in the state of Maryland, which has had a higher than average maternal mortality rate, the number of …
Is rising maternal mortality just hype? Nope, here’s why.
“She doesn’t look like a person with an addiction problem to me,” replied the physician to the psychiatrist, referring to a patient who was admitted to the hospital for confusion. She was found at home amidst an array of bottles containing various controlled substances, and a toxicology screen positive for cannabis. She was in a higher socioeconomic bracket having retired from a professional job. The psychiatrist explained that addiction crosses …
Don’t be so rigid in your thinking
Brooklyn, New York, Spring of 1992. As I looked out of the New York City taxi window on Avenue T, I saw the building. It had always appeared to me as the most magnificent building I had ever seen that housed people in need of rehabilitative care. I was happy; I was ready, I was in great spirit. “Let’s do this!,” I thought to myself as I stepped out of …
This patient didn’t want my care because of how I looked
“Aren’t you cute,” he said as he smiled and squeezed her cheeks. On the start of a new rotation, a medical student walked into clinic and introduced herself to the attending physician.
With all of the news surrounding the Weinstein debacle, Alyssa Milano has urged women to share their stories of sexual harassment or abuse using the words “me too.” What has transpired is that a whole community of women from …
Women doctors: Speak up, because #MeToo
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”
—George Washington Carver
Earlier this week, I walked into the exam room and introduced myself to a 48-year-old male. As I generally do, I sat in front of him and asked, …
We are all just one diagnosis away from a different reality
It’s something that’s not taught anywhere near enough as it should be in medical school, but every practicing physician quickly realizes that communication is everything in health care. It’s the foundation of the doctor-patient relationship, and what patients will judge you on. Sure, doctors are among the busiest professionals out there. We do an incredibly hectic job. But it’s so imperative to remember the importance of that interaction with your …
10 golden communication tips for doctors. And 3 things they shouldn’t do.
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Online physician reviews: A physician does a study on himself
They say laughter is the best medicine. I really hope that’s true, because I tend to use a lot of it at work. There are two ways it can go: One, it can open up the appointment, setting the patient and physician more at ease and facilitating open and honest dialogue. It makes the visit enjoyable, maybe even fun, and can boost satisfaction. Or, it can seem like the doctor …
There’s a place for humor in medicine
I am going to discuss something that is really important for women. It’s going to get a lot of criticism, and it’s OK. I can take it.
Your clothing.
That’s right. I am here to tell you that what you wear, and how you dress, matters.
Why? Because how you feel in your clothes affects the way you walk, talk, smile, interact, and well, lead.
Don’t mistake what I am saying. I am not going …
There are some sad truths about being an aging male. Your muscle mass usually declines. You start feeling tired more easily. And there’s a good chance either you start losing interest in sex or start experiencing a decline in sexual performance.
Here’s another truth: Your testosterone level probably ain’t what it used to be. Which raises a question: Would testosterone supplementation restore some of your youthful vitality?
That is certainly what manufactures …
Direct-to-consumer advertising: Who’s really to blame?
It was 5:30 a.m., and I was startled to feel the nudge of my husband’s hand on my arm while vaguely hearing the sound of my alarm going off in the background. Although I was not prepared mentally to get up for another day, I quickly jumped out of bed so as not to allow the sound to wake my sleeping daughter in the next room. I cherished no actually, …
Residency and family: How this resident finds balance
My dad died on May 11, 2003. It was Mother’s Day. I was 18 years old. Those are the easy facts. The more difficult ones are those detailing the events that led to his death. My dad was so many things — a brilliant geologist, a loving father, an inventor, a pilot, and a Vietnam veteran — to name a few. He survived three tours on the front lines in …
The smallest human acts can have a lifetime of impact
As an oncologist, I want to provide the best treatment for everyone. That should mean the best chance at a long-lasting remission, if not cure. Whatever that might take. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy — a dark tunnel that I hope patients will enter and then exit, with the sun shining on the other side. But, every …
Doctors have a responsibility to outline options. Patients make the final decision.
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