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.

Doctors are in the way of progress. And thank God they are.

Jean Robey, MD

Physician

July 14, 2017

Yesterday was the perfect storm.

The combination of articles printed over the weeks seem to give me a morose outlook on the medical profession.

Article 1: A specialist had reasoned the medical world was in shambles because “specialist” try to rule the world with unnecessary obscurity. His example was acid reflux and how addressing it was a failure in delivering simple remedies. My throat was bitter with betrayal.

Article 2: An insurance company …

Don’t be impatient with your doctor

Erin O'Laughlin, DO

Physician

July 13, 2017

Fifteen minutes. This is the typical amount of time allotted for any single follow-up or acute type appointment in Primary Care. 30-minute spots are reserved for new or complicated appointments. Now, I just want that to sink in for a minute. I want everyone to sit down and think real hard for a moment, about how much they can get done in 15 minutes.

How long does it take you to …

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Don’t be impatient with your doctor

Doctors experience PTSD every day

Jeff Kane, MD

Physician

July 12, 2017

A long time ago, when I was interning in an emergency department, several ambulances arrived at once from the site of a bombing. They unloaded three victims plus a mass of assorted limbs. As I placed an endotracheal tube in one patient, the awfulness suddenly hit me: These people had probably been sitting peacefully at home only a half-hour earlier, and now they were a mass of gore. Overwhelmed, I …

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Doctors experience PTSD every day

The great dilemma: Go part-time now or retire early?

Dr. Curious, MD

Physician

July 12, 2017

Early retirement is a hot topic these days, particularly in the field of medicine. It is associated with the concept of financial independence, and together they are known by the acronym FIRE (financial independence and retiring early). In essence, FIRE means having enough saved that you can live off your investments, and no longer need to work for a salary. While FIRE is not for everyone, it is something my …

It’s time to stop the bullying in medicine

Farah Khan, MD

Physician

July 11, 2017

In a recently published JAMA meta-analysis, medical students were found to have a higher prevalence of suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms than the general population. From the mental exhaustion that begins in medical school to the physical fatigue that peaks with residency, it is not shocking that medical trainees are suffering. Current discussions have ignored one of the biggest hindrances for the …

What this physician practice did to fight burnout

Diane W. Shannon, MD, MPH

Physician

July 10, 2017

As a physician who left clinical medicine because of burnout and as a writer, I’m drawn to stories of physicians whose professional and personal lives have improved after reasoned interventions. So my ears jumped to attention earlier this month when a colleague at a summit on physician burnout described the positive results his practice had achieved in reducing burnout. Read Pierce, MD, is interim director of the Hospital Medicine Group …

Think doctors make too much money? Think again.

Patrick Connolly, MD

Physician

July 9, 2017

Lots of people write about how “doctors work so hard.” But let’s look at it from an economics and value-creation perspective.

I’m a neurosurgeon, so you know I do pretty well financially, but how much value am I adding to society? Here are a few examples:

1. A mail carrier couldn’t work because of a herniated lumbar disc. We’ll figure he makes $50,000/year. I operated on him; he goes back to work. …

We’re smart doctors. But why aren’t we so smart about our health?

Jenny Hartsock, MD

Physician

July 9, 2017

As doctors, we are good at lots of things — we are smart, efficient, hard-working, proficient, role models and leaders. Then why do so many of us place our own health and well-being after our jobs?

As a physician, my most prevalent discussions with patients always boil down to very simple recommendations: eat right, exercise, sleep and manage your stress. Lifestyle changes are really the key to solving many of the …

Is the medical profession at its end?

James C. Salwitz, MD

Physician

July 8, 2017

At the graveside, they still talk about judgment, intelligence, and the wisdom that is the practice of medicine.

Deans and health care leaders wax poetic as they tell stories of great cures to lift in memoriam remarkable healers. Yet, though we bow to Hippocrates, Osler, and Salk, the time has come to mark a revolution in human history: The art of medicine is dead.

It is not that doctors have fallen from …

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Is the medical profession at its end?

We are not shielding our patients from harm

Jordan Grumet, MD

Physician

July 8, 2017

You’ve been swindled.

At least that’s the conclusion I’ve come to. It wasn’t the hucksters or the snake oil salesman. It wasn’t big business, big medicine, or some greedy hospital administrator. It was most likely pharma with a large dose of helping from your doctor. Plain and simple.

I’ve learned quite a bit being a hospice medical director. Covering dozens of new admissions a week has given me much insight into doctor …

Her patients helped this doctor out of her despair

Jennifer Lycette, MD

Physician

July 8, 2017

Recently I found myself sitting in my car in the parking lot of my clinic, unable to will myself to open the door.

I didn’t want to head into the clinic that morning. Instead, I was filled with despair; overwhelmed with the events of the world.

How can I do it? I thought. How can I walk in there and summon the energy to see my patients?

An even worse thought: Why should …

None of us should have to choose between MOC and DRexit

Karen S. Sibert, MD

Physician

July 7, 2017

I wish I knew who coined the term “DRexit” so I could send flowers or a bottle of whiskey as a thank you gift. There couldn’t be a more perfect term to describe the growing exodus of physicians from our beloved profession, which is turning into a morass of computer data entry and meaningless regulations thought up by people who never touch a patient.

The one bright note on the horizon …

The obsession with diagnosing President Trump

Dr. Saurabh Jha

Physician

July 7, 2017

When I first read about neurosyphilis in medical school, I became convinced that Mrs. Thatcher, who I detested intensely because it was fashionable detesting her, had general paralysis of the insane. The condition, marked by episodic bouts of temporary insanity, which indicated that the spirochetes were feasting on expensive real estate in the brain, seemed a plausible explanation why she had introduced the poll tax.

A little bit of medical knowledge …

10 ways for doctors to think outside of the box

Danish Siddiqui, MD

Physician

July 5, 2017

Thinking outside the box is a somewhat cliché way to illustrate thinking beyond the norm and imagining what “could be” with an innovative mindset. This imagery of being stuck in a box rings true for many physicians, given how many of us are quite literally surrounded by the four white walls of an exam room most of our lives.

Physicians work hard to treat each patient individually, but this feeling of …

My patient is dying, and I don’t know what to do

Jeremy Topin, MD

Physician

July 5, 2017

The patient in front of me is trying to die. Elderly and frail, he is lying in bed. His ribs outlined under the skin that should be smooth. His temples are concave where they should be flat. Both are an outward display of internal damage from his lung cancer. More striking than his cachexia are the strained muscles in his neck and his pursed-lip breathing. He is working hard for …

Communication in health care should be better than it is

Fred N. Pelzman, MD

Physician

July 4, 2017

A few days ago, just after dawn, while I was out walking the dog, our home phone rang and my wife answered it.

She’s used to my pager, cell phone, and home phone ringing at all hours, and so she was not all that surprised when an unidentified voice said,”We’re looking for the methadone dose for patient John Q. Smith.”

She told him I was out of the house at the moment, …

Laying the foundation for a lifetime of eye health

Andrea P. Thau, OD

Physician

July 4, 2017

After life itself, it is said that God’s great gift is vision. 80 percent of what we learn is through vision. Babies are not born with perfect vision. They develop vision over time. A child who never developed good vision does not know what normal vision is — he or she assumes that however they see is normal. There is nothing like the overwhelming emotion I have each time I …

These physicians are crying. Here’s why.

Christopher Bennett, MD

Physician

July 4, 2017

I cried this morning. It wasn’t because of the patient who coded with a wide-complex tachycardia and died in front of me, and it wasn’t because of the patient who tried to spit on me for not giving her a prescription for narcotics. Nor was it my intoxicated 2 a.m. bar fight patient yelling at my other patients, including one whom I’d recently diagnosed with metastatic cancer. It was because …

A wealth of medical knowledge in a country that lacks resources

Yul Ejnes, MD

Physician

July 3, 2017

A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

For many years, I’ve wanted to visit Cuba. When travel restrictions to Cuba were relaxed a few years ago, I hoped that I would get there before the first Burger King opened in Havana. I had my chance in May, as a member …

The 3 phases of a physician’s career transition

Neil Baum, MD, Joel M. Blau, CFP, Peter Moskowitz, MD, and Ron Paprocki, CFP, JD

Physician

July 3, 2017

An excerpt from The Three Stages of a Physician’s Career: Navigating from Training to Beyond Retirement.

The practical aspects of making a medical career transition can be divided into three phases or stages: waking up, taking stock, and taking the leap of faith. Note that this process is the same whether the physician is anticipating a transition out of full-time practice, planning a transition …

Physician

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