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.

Just like driving lessons, parenthood is terrifying

Claire McCarthy, MD

Physician

September 27, 2015

I did something really death-defying with my daughter this summer.

I taught her to drive.

Truly, teaching a teen to drive is scarier than just about anything else we do as a parent. It’s scarier than giving birth, as there are usually skilled people around during labor who can take over if things go awry. It’s way scarier than first days of school or first dates, scarier than most illnesses and injuries …

It’s time for hospitals to take nutrition seriously

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

September 27, 2015

I remember the day like it was yesterday. I was a medical student, rounding with my team, and we had just talked to a diabetic patient who was recovering from a myocardial infarction. The attending looked over at the side and saw some chocolate donuts and cakes lying on the tray table, which had been brought in by the patient’s relatives. The attending shook his head disapprovingly and said, “I don’t think those are going to …

How call rooms reflect the personality of residency programs

Katie Lockwood, MD

Physician

September 27, 2015

An intern pushed open the call room door so that twelve medical students could crowd their eager faces together to see where we might sleep for the next three years. Only a few months away from medical school herself, the intern acted as if sleeping in such quarters were second nature. She gestured to the fluffy quilts the residents had brought from home to adorn their beds and giggled about …

Tips to meet challenges of administering and tracking immunizations

Yul Ejnes, MD

Physician

September 26, 2015

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

When I entered practice over 25 years ago, planning for influenza vaccination season was straightforward. Every late spring, we looked at how many doses we gave out the previous year, added a few doses, ordered the vaccine, and immunized our patients in the fall. If …

Conversations lead to better health, not interrogations

Matthew Walvick, DO

Physician

September 26, 2015

Most patients think they need to come to their doctor’s visits with a strict agenda. It’s a habit forged out of wanting to get quick fix and a by-product of time constraints. This paradigm seems logical and can sometimes accomplish its goal, but too often, this approach falls short in harnessing the immense value that can result from a connected physician-patient relationship.

I can vividly remember the days when the idea …

How a neurosurgeon balances life and work

Jeffrey S. Henn, MD

Physician

September 25, 2015

“For Me There Are Mountains.”

This is the title of a poem written by a college friend. It’s been almost 30 years, and I have yet to come across words that better define my life, words that immediately resonated with my soul and “understood” me — understood that for me, mountains symbolize at once life’s challenges and rewards, and understood that “there are” is neither choice nor conviction, there just are.

For …

When it comes to end-of-life care, perhaps we do need a bigger hammer

Richard D. Sontheimer, MD

Physician

September 25, 2015

While sitting one evening with my terminally ill elderly mother, she again asked me to help her end her suffering. This time it was, “Could you just go get the hammer and hit me in the head?” Her previous requests had included “Son, you are a doctor, can’t you do something to help me with this?” And then, “They treat animals better than this.”

On previous occasions, I had to remind …

Doctors: All of you have a superpower

Saurabh Sinha

Physician

September 25, 2015

Recent essays have shed light on the Herculean task of maintaining humanism in medicine in the face of added responsibility during residency and the seemingly inevitable cynicism embroiled in patient care. The solution appears to be rooted in active reflection on the process of training and clinical practice and recognition of what it is that brought us here.

In this moment of active reflection, I contend that you have …

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Doctors: All of you have a superpower

When a doctor is in doubt, she asks a family member

Val Jones, MD

Physician

September 24, 2015

I learned a valuable lesson recently about how difficult it can be to make the correct diagnosis when you see a patient for a very short period of time. In the acute rehab setting, I admit patients who are recovering from severe, life-altering brain events such as strokes, head injuries, and complex medical illnesses. It is challenging to know what these patients’ usual mental function was prior to their injuries, …

Thank you for your humanity: A resident night float story

Gregory Shumer, MD

Physician

September 24, 2015

BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP … I pressed a button to silence my pager and rose groggily from the bed in the on-call room. I hadn’t truly been asleep, just catching a quick rest between pages. It was 2 a.m. I was 19 hours into my shift and, from the looks of the page, there was a new patient ready for admission to our family medicine inpatient service. I picked up the …

Do patients contribute to the God complex in surgeons?

Dr. Henry Woo

Physician

September 23, 2015

Medical oncologist, Dr. Ranjana Srivastava wrote on the subject on how doctors treat doctors may be medicine’s secret shame in the Guardian back in February 2015.

About a month later, vascular surgeon Dr. Gabrielle McMullin used a book launch speech to expose the problems of sexual harassment in the surgical profession. She highlighted a story of where a neurosurgical trainee had refused sexual advances and subsequent to launching a formal complaint, …

Women medical organizations are still relevant. Here’s why.

Fatima Fahs

Physician

September 23, 2015

Did you know that September is Women in Medicine Month?

When I tell someone I’m involved in the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), my favorite response is, “Are organizations like that still necessary? It’s 2015.”

First, thanks for the clarification of what year we are in. Isn’t it shocking that in 2015 women in medicine are still not equal to their male counterparts? And second, to answer your question: Yes, AMWA is extremely …

Seeking help for mental health problems: Change the culture for providers

Katie Fortenberry, PhD

Physician

September 23, 2015

“I don’t need meds,” the young psychology major told me confidently. “Or therapy really. Maybe I’ll just touch base with you every once in a while. I should be able to handle this on my own.” The young woman’s physician had been concerned enough in a recent visit about this patient’s panic attacks and passive suicidal ideation to refer her to meet with me for a primary care psychology consultation. …

What I learned about childproofing from working in the ER

Archana Reddy Shrestha, MD

Physician

September 23, 2015

As a new mother, working in an emergency department made me want to go home and childproof every nook and cranny of our house. On a daily basis at work I care for children, most often toddlers, injured at home in various ways. I learned of all the potential household dangers and how to keep my children safe.

I remember vividly caring for the 2-year-old girl who burnt her entire hand …

The human physician will soon become history. Here’s why.

Robert Khoo, MD

Physician

September 22, 2015

In the age of spiritual machines Ray Kurzweil in 2001 predicted:

By 2020, a $1,000 computer will match processing speed of the human brain — 20 billion calculations per second.

By 2030, it will simulate the brain power of a small village about 1,000 human minds.

By 2048, it will have the brain power of the entire population of the U.S.

I predict that within 20 to 30 years the computer will replace the …

Much of the human spirit lies outside a physician’s power

Deborah Pierce, MD

Physician

September 22, 2015

I first met Marie five years ago. A petite, soft-spoken woman in her thirties, she was the patient of one of the residents whom I supervise at our community hospital. Marie worked in housekeeping for a large corporation; she and her husband, a bus driver, had a six-year-old son. Now she was twenty-six weeks (six months) pregnant with their second child.

Marie’s blood pressure was markedly elevated (168/120), she had fairly …

3 things Walter White can teach doctors

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

September 22, 2015

Breaking Bad has been rated one of the best TV shows of all time, and for good reason. The improbable story of a regular and shy high school chemistry teacher, faced with a terminal diagnosis, turning into a gangster and drug kingpin certainly makes for good television.

A compelling storyline set against the backdrop of one of the nation’s most beautiful landscapes: For …

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3 things Walter White can teach doctors

It is time for an honest conversation about money and cancer

James C. Salwitz, MD

Physician

September 22, 2015

There are two, old, particularly nasty rumors, about cash and cancer. The first, which seems to be fading, is that scientists cured the disease long ago, but the pharmaceutical industry suppresses the cure so they can get rich selling worthless therapies. This never made sense to me, since the company or person that cures cancer will be rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. In addition, I have personally known several thousand …

When patient-centered care becomes patient-dictated care

Elaine Khoong, MD

Physician

September 21, 2015

“I’d like an MRI for my leg pain. I haven’t had an MRI for many years, and I’m worried.”

These were some of the first words I heard from a patient I was seeing for a new patient visit. Based on this patient’s story and physical exam, her pain was most consistent with a muscle strain. My preferred approach to manage this complaint was to ask the patient to rest her …

How good of a clinician are you?

Sandeep Palakodeti, MD, MPH

Physician

September 21, 2015

In psychology, the Lake Wobegon effect refers to a mythical town where “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” In other words, humans have a tendency to overestimate their capabilities, particularly in relation to others.

As a physician, I have yet to meet a fellow doc who didn’t think that their patients loved them or that they weren’t great clinicians. And …

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How good of a clinician are you?