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.

Searching online from a patient perspective can make you a better doctor

David R. Stukus, MD

Physician

June 23, 2017

As a pediatric allergist, I treat several conditions that commonly affect children, including asthma, food allergies, eczema and allergic rhinitis. Almost everyone knows someone affected by some form of allergic condition, which makes for frequent questions from families, referring providers, and the public at large.

Early in my career, I noticed that many patients (and even colleagues in other specialties) were asking me questions that were either outdated or born entirely …

Quality is this physician’s religion

Kjell Benson, MD

Physician

June 23, 2017

My hospitalist medical group consists of as great collection of atheists, agnostics, and skeptics as you will ever find. But we all agree that quality is our religion. We believe to our last breath that patient care is sacred and an invaluable gift. And so, as with all faith, there is no halfway. You believe, or you stand around scratching your head asking what those other fools are worshipping. Just …

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Quality is this physician’s religion

Doctors and cops can fight mistrust the same way

Nonye Aghanya, FNP-C

Physician

June 22, 2017

I read an article by Dr. Jarret Patton that reminded us that “Cops and doctors have the same problem: People don’t trust them.”

I remember thinking to myself that I had to do something to help clarify the source of this age-old problem and also to help improve the situation. It is important for us to remember that our past life experiences, diverse cultures, goals and …

Customers come second: That’s something health care can learn

Ankit Garg, MD and Megha Garg, MD

Physician

June 22, 2017

“Management’s overall aim should be to create a system in which everybody may take joy in his/her work.”
– W. Edwards Deming

“Your skin is not thick enough to hear me yell for even ten minutes!” a 92-year-old patient’s family member shouted at me while attending a care plan meeting. I was soon asked to leave the room left with case manager, social workers and mid-level managers.

Later that evening, as I claimed …

Open up. Doctors need more transparency.

Stephanie Cudjoe, MD

Physician

June 22, 2017

“Transparency” is the name of the game in the 21st century. Transparency is now required in any service-oriented profession, whether plumbing, law or real estate. Now, transparency has made its way into the field of medicine. I say this because medicine has historically been an opaque profession. Many physicians leveraged the fact that they were put on a pedestal to deliver a paternalistic style of medical care.

With the advent of …

Want to fight burnout? Embrace the suck.

Sasha K. Shillcutt, MD

Physician

June 21, 2017

I was approaching 24 hours in the hospital and waiting for my partner to come into my operating room so we could do “hand-off.” That’s when I spend 15 minutes going over all of the events of the surgical case and explain my patient’s health history, his current status, my current treatment strategies, the heart ultrasound findings, and our plan for the rest of the case. As I was awaiting …

Are hospitals a dangerous place to have a baby?

Kaci Durbin, MD

Physician

June 21, 2017

There has been a lot of talk lately about maternal mortality. A recent story published in ProPublica and NPR has been circulating social media, highlighting the problems with our labor and delivery system. The story is heartbreaking, describing a preventable postpartum death in a young, healthy mother. While the article makes many good points, I do believe it is misleading when it comes to …

Before my first job, I wish someone had told me a few things

Uchenna O. Njiaju, MD

Physician

June 21, 2017

I remember one sunny day in Chicago, in June 2011, when my husband and I packed up our two young children, aged 2 and 5 months. Professional movers had collected our belongings and had driven off a day prior. We were headed out of state, to my first job at an academic hospital. It had been a rather hectic few months for me, having just had a baby 5 months …

I just lost my son to suicide. What can I do?

Pamela Wible, MD

Physician

June 20, 2017

Dear Dr. Wible,

I lost my beautiful son Evan to suicide four weeks ago. He was a second year internal medicine resident — a very smart, loving and funny man! He left a lengthy letter and in it he stated, “I do not want any attention drawn to this.” I have been crying all day reading your book and blog and I’ve seen …

Is direct primary care doomed to fail?

Niran S. Al-Agba, MD

Physician

June 19, 2017

A recent Medical Economics article asked “Is the DPC model at risk of failing?”

The piece focuses on two large DPC-like organizations, Qliance Medical Management of Seattle, Washington and Turntable Health of Las Vegas, NV, working in partnership with Iora Health, which recently closed their doors. Qliance and Turntable were not actually DPC practices by strict definition; they were innovative large business operations providing health care services to patients and excluding …

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Is direct primary care doomed to fail?

Radiologists have an image problem

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

Physician

June 19, 2017

Here’s a question that has been debated for several years: Should radiologists talk to patients about their imaging results?

Citing several issues, I came down solidly on the “no” side in a 2014 blog post.

Two major radiology organizations have committees looking into the concept, and New York Times article said, “they hope to make their case [for it] by demonstrating how some radiologists …

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Radiologists have an image problem

A letter from a physician to his father

Fevr Doc, MD

Physician

June 18, 2017

I want to sincerely thank you from the depths of my heart. I don’t show it, and I certainly don’t say it, but you have always been my role model. You positively shape who I am as a man, and your staunch encouragement is invaluable to me.

In a world of words, texts and tweets, you have let your actions speak. You have remained apolitical and areligious, choosing to focus your …

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A letter from a physician to his father

Anonymous anti-vaccination Twitter accounts attacks this pediatrician. He gets louder.

Sean Gallagher, MD

Physician

June 18, 2017

“We’ve had a number of calls about ‘inaccuracies’ in your letter to the editor,” a member of my hospital’s media relations team told me. “Because of that, we’ll have to review it.” I had written a letter to the editor of our city’s major newspaper regarding immunizations and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program’s vaccine court. I was responding to another letter alleging that the court’s mere existence meant vaccine …

When a doctor starts caring for people who aren’t their patients (including their kids)

Rogue Dad, MD

Physician

June 18, 2017

Many people have skills they develop for work that they end up using outside of their job. Some of these skills may be mundane, some may be difficult to master and some may be only tangentially related to their job.

Mechanics are probably asked by family and friends to help all the time with cars making strange noises. Lawyers are asked by to help fix speeding tickets. Accountants are asked if …

Being a doctor makes me a better father. Being a father makes me a better doctor.

Cedrek L. McFadden, MD

Physician

June 18, 2017

I take my 10-year-old son to school as many school days as possible. We recap events from the prior day, and I give him early morning pep talks. It is a rarity, however, that I pick him up from school. During one of those rare occasions, he got into the car, smiling as he handed me a project he completed in class. It was an assignment in which he was …

End-of-life planning isn’t fun, but it’s inevitable

Hassan Patail, MD

Physician

June 17, 2017

Whether you believe in science, God, neither or some combination of the two — we can all agree that death is inevitable. Due to the finality of our lives, each of us should understand and prepare for that moment not only for ourselves but also for our loved ones. As medicine continues to advance and people live longer, we have a generation of baby boomers who are now entering their …

The future is hopeful for direct care physicians

Michel Accad, MD

Physician

June 17, 2017

On the surface, the news from America about health care seems rather grim: cost and dissatisfaction keep rising, reforms are stalling, and, for some, even life expectancy may be declining. If that wasn’t bad enough, President Trump issued a tweet on March 25 predicting that “Obamacare will explode.”

For a small but growing number of doctors and patients, however, the future is surprisingly hopeful. The nascent direct care movement is made up …

Science has been hijacked by puritans and needs rescuing by heretics

Dr. Saurabh Jha

Physician

June 17, 2017

In college, I once marched for the plight of Tibetans. Forty of us marched in Hyde Park, London; after an hour, half retreated to the nearest pub to discuss global injustices. Recently, over a million, including five penguins, marched for science. There were no penguins at our march for Tibetans but our goal, though naïve and unrealistic, was clear — we wanted Tibetan independence from Chinese rule. The goals of …

Interested in being a locum tenens physician? Read this first.

Val Jones, MD

Physician

June 16, 2017

I receive a significant amount of email in response to my blog posts about locum tenens work. Curious colleagues (from surgeons to internists and emergency medicine physicians) ask for insider insight into this “mysterious business” of being a part-time or traveling physician. I am always happy to respond individually, but suddenly realized that I should probably post these conversations on my blog so that all can benefit.

The most common question …

Caught between the ideal of breastfeeding and the reality of doing it

Andrea Eisenberg, MD

Physician

June 16, 2017

On a recent vacation in St. Lucia, I came across this mama nursing her babies. “Public breastfeeding. How great!” I thought. But, after posting this picture on Facebook, these were some of the responses: “Yikes! They need to be weaned!” and “they are pretty big to be still nursing.” This, of course, got my head whirling about people’s attitudes toward breastfeeding.

On the surface, …

Physician

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