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.

Will patients trade human imperfection for computerized perfection?

James C. Salwitz, MD

Physician

June 2, 2013

The Atlantic this week published a provocative article entitled “The Robot Will See You Now.” Using the supercomputer Watson as a starting point, the author explored the mind-bending possibilities of e-care. In this near future, so many aspects of medicine will be captured by automated technology that the magazine asked if “your doctor is becoming obsolete?”

The IT version of health includes continuous medical monitoring (i.e. your watch will …

Address the financial burden of medical treatment

Yousuf Zafar, MD

Physician

June 1, 2013

Everyone is talking about health care costs these days. The presentations usually start with a chart of rising health care expenditures, the tip of the line pointing skywards. Next come exhaustive (and exhausting) tables, more charts, all punctuated with a final shrug of uncertainty from the speaker: What is the solution to rising costs? Of course, there is not just one.

But in the morass of data, we can lose the …

Being a psych patient in the emergency department

Greg Smith, MD

Physician

June 1, 2013

So you’re in the emergency department, probably in a small, windowless room, dressed in paper (or, if you’re lucky, crazy green cotton cloth) scrubs. You’re lying in a bed with a plastic mattress and scratchy sheets staring across the room at the door that has a small chicken-wire reinforced tempered glass windowlette in it and is ajar just enough to let you see the shiny black shoe of the security …

What I look for in an EMR: Think of a good story

Rob Lamberts, MD

Physician

June 1, 2013

So how’s my new practice going? In some ways things are going about as well as they could. My patients are amazed when I answer their emails or (even more surprisingly) answer the phone.

“Hello, this is Dr. Lamberts,” I say. This usually results in a long pause, followed by a confused and timid voice saying something like, “well…uh…I was expecting to get Jamie.”

Yet I am often able to deal with …

Charging passengers by the pound is unfair

Arya M. Sharma, MD

Physician

June 1, 2013

obese airplanes

Recently the wires have been active with suggestions that people with obesity pay more for airline travel. This discussion was prompted by a Samoan airline announcing that they would begin charging passengers by the pound. It was also stimulated by Bharat Bhatta, an economist from Norway suggesting that heavier passengers pay a surcharge while lighter passengers are offered discounts.

The logical argument …

Fearing HIPAA: My patients are getting worse care

Rob Lamberts, MD

Physician

May 30, 2013

Dear HIPAA:

I’m sure you get a lot of hate mail, especially from folks in my profession, so when you got this letter from me you probably assumed it was more of the same. Let me reassure you: I am not one of those docs. I do think patient privacy is important, and actually found you quite useful when facing unwanted probing questions from family members. I believe the only way …

Please don’t call me a hospitalist

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

May 29, 2013

I must confess that I love my job as a hospital medicine doctor. To me, very few specialties in medicine can be as rewarding as the one I’ve had the privilege of practicing for the last five years. We manage an array of medical illnesses, interact with staff from across the hospital in every different specialty, and follow our patients all the way through their—hopefully very short—hospitalization. We take ownership …

Read more…

Please don’t call me a hospitalist

Why I rely on non-physician providers

Don S. Dizon, MD

Physician

May 29, 2013

I still recall my first rotation as an inpatient attending at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). Perhaps it was the anxiety that I remembered most; that I was “in charge” of a service. Fortunately, having done fellowship at MSKCC, the system was not a foreign one, and I knew exactly where to go to get oriented—I went to Jane and Dorothy, …

Read more…

Why I rely on non-physician providers

Saving the patient a trip to the ER is harder than it looks

Shirie Leng, MD

Physician

May 28, 2013

I read the New York Times. I read the health section as much as I can to keep track of what the paper is saying about health-related issues. I read Jane Brody. I like Jane Brody. I’m not sure what Ms. Brody is, but I don’t think she’s a clinician.

In her article “Avoiding Emergency Rooms,” she makes some suggestions on how people should get care if they need …

Introducing the Automated Psychiatrist Machine

Maria Yang, MD

Physician

May 28, 2013

Are you tired of waiting fifteen minutes only to spend ten minutes with your psychiatrist? Do you hate rearranging your busy schedule, fighting traffic, and trolling for a parking space just to spend a few minutes with your doctor? Wouldn’t it be easier if you could take care of your mental health according to your schedule, instead of someone else’s?

We are pleased to introduce the Automated Psychiatrist Machine (APM). The …

We must change how we discuss procedures with our patients

Kevin R. Campbell, MD

Physician

May 27, 2013

Medicine is about balancing risk and benefit. Certainly, as healthcare providers, we attempt to provide the best care for our patients based on available evidence. Physicians often are seen as shepherds, helping to guide patients through disease and therapy. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, ultimately medicine will be personalized and tailored to one’s particular genetic make-up. However, the need for a clear discussion of treatment options …

Another reason why the house call is dead

James C. Salwitz, MD

Physician

May 27, 2013

We think the reason doctors rarely make house calls is money. Doctors can charge, but it is hard to charge enough to justify the time it takes to drive door-to-door, fill the tank and attend lengthy visits. Thus, the house call has faded into history. However, I have another theory about the end of this valuable service: perhaps it is increased emotional distance between patients and their doctors.

I watched an …

What I’ve learned from saving physicians from suicide

Pamela Wible, MD

Physician

May 27, 2013

A psychiatrist in Seattle had picked out the bridge. At 3 a.m. he would swerve across his lane and plunge into the water. Everyone would assume he fell asleep.

A surgeon in Oregon was lying on the floor of her office with a scalpel. Nobody would find her until it was too late.

An internal medicine resident in Atlanta heard an anesthesiologist joking about …

Inspired after seeing my 5-year-old patient

BirdStrike, MD

Physician

May 26, 2013

Off I go to work a few shifts at a desperately understaffed rural hospital in a state far away. The rental car GPS leads me to the ED address and it’s not there. All that is there is what looks like a small supermarket with a funeral home next door. I see a security guard in the parking lot. He has a lump in his cheek and a badge that says “Sam.” …

Do Lego Friends promote stereotypic gender roles?

Natasha Burgert, MD

Physician

May 26, 2013

She spends hours with them. Literally hours. And, apparently she is not alone.

Lego Friends have captured the heart of my daughter, as well as thousands of other school-aged girls across the country. In fact, the Lego Friends series has been a financial boom to the Lego corporation in just a few months.

The Friends series is essentially pastel colored building sets, ultimately creating items …

The winds of change are blowing us out of the hospital

Jordan Grumet, MD

Physician

May 25, 2013

The sweat coalesced on my forehead. I leaned forward to push the weight of my body into the wheel chair. I was terrified. Behind me strode the baffled parents with their arms full of coats and scarves. The young boy shrunk into the chair and balanced his IV’ed arm on the rest, trying not to disrupt the tubing that had been so painfully inserted.

I was lost. A week into my rotation as a volunteer …

Who should be able to certify medical necessity?

Marjorie Stiegler, MD

Physician

May 25, 2013

These days, there is a lot of talk about expanding scopes of practice for the group of folks who used to be called physician extenders and then midlevel providers and more recently non-physician providers, many of whom are now getting degrees with the title “doctor” incorporated.

While it seems to vary, these folks may include nurses, physician assistants (one day to be called physician associates perhaps), pharmacists, and more. Lots …

Professionalism is not a stable trait

Patti M. Thorn, PhD

Physician

May 25, 2013

In my work as an academic medicine education specialist, and, perhaps more importantly, in my experience as a patient, I have observed time and time again a common scenario. I call it the grumpy physician trickle down scenario.

Here is how it plays out. A physician, likely good-hearted, well-intentioned, competent, and compassionate, develops frustration with system operations (scheduling, inefficiencies, miscommunication, the list goes on). The physician internalizes the frustration, perhaps believing …

Read more…

Professionalism is not a stable trait

The dark side of social marketing to physicians

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Physician

May 24, 2013

As a Swede, I know all about socialized medicine. I grew up with it and I learned my trade in it. I worked under budget constraints, treatment protocols and formularies in the late 70′s and early 80′s while American doctors were essentially practicing the way they wanted here.

I remember one of my surprises when I arrived in this country: I had learned in medical school that trimethoprim-sulfa was the drug …

Think of a soda ban like seatbelts

Claire McCarthy, MD

Physician

May 24, 2013

soda

I’m sad that a New York judge struck down the 16-ounce size limit for sodas and some other sweet drinks. I think Mayor Bloomberg had the right idea.

I get that whole personal freedom argument (although the court just said that it was arbitrary and out of Bloomberg’s purview), that this was a “nanny state” idea. But honestly, when it comes to obesity, …

Read more…

Think of a soda ban like seatbelts

Physician

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts