Physician

The joy of surgery: How one doctor discovered her passion

Physician

May 3, 2023

When my now ex-husband and I first met, he asked me about my favorite things to do. At that time, I did not have a ready answer. It was my third year of general surgery residency, a time for proving that I could handle it all: being the in-house senior surgery resident on call, starting to manage surgical teams, and being responsible for lists sometimes reaching dozens of patients. I …

Breaking free: the power of physician autonomy in patient care

Grace Torres-Hodges, DPM, MBA

Physician

May 2, 2023

What guides and directs your decisions in your private practice? As the physician owner, it should be your choices and decisions, made without influence from third parties. That is physician autonomy.

In 2012, an article by E. J. Emmanuel and S.D. Pearson defined physician autonomy as “the freedom to determine both the conditions of practice and the care delivered with the principal goal that care decisions are aimed at promoting the …

Use ChatGPT to apply the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” in health care

Harvey Castro, MD, MBA

Physician

May 2, 2023

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a best-selling self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. The book outlines universal principles that can be applied to personal and professional success. This article explores how health care professionals can use these principles to improve patient care, collaboration, and effectiveness.

1. Be proactive. Health care professionals must be proactive in staying up-to-date with the …

The powerful bond that overcomes the toughest challenges

LaBianca Wright, MD

Physician

May 2, 2023

Towards the end of a busy clinic afternoon, I felt my phone buzz with a page in my jacket pocket. It is rare to receive pages on our phones in the middle of the day because we usually get messages through the EMR or direct calls to the office. I called back the number to the sound of an exasperated ER doctor who had been trying to reach the PCP …

The 4 habits of highly effective physician leaders

Anonymous

Physician

May 2, 2023

How big is my ego? The trouble with a career in medicine is that you spend four years in a classroom and not managing people. It is impossible to gauge the size of your ego if you don’t have a stack of small unit leadership situations with which to calibrate it. The most needed quality as a physician leader (or any leader) is humility. Athletes and prior military folks tend …

How writing and storytelling helped me recover from burnout

Jennifer Lycette, MD

Physician

May 1, 2023

About five years ago, I did the first public reading of my non-academic writing. I was a 40-something-year-old physician, and I was terrified.

It was at a narrative medicine event, and I’d been selected to read one of my personal essays. A few days earlier, an experienced performer had given me some pointers. Identified which word in each sentence should be emphasized. Where I should add dramatic pauses, I now had …

Why doctors are burning out: the missing piece in medical education

Curtis G. Graham, MD

Physician

May 1, 2023

It is staggering to think that our medical school scholars have fallen in line with the dictatorial components of the “deep state of medical education.” John Abramson, MD, a graduate scholar of Harvard, Dartmouth, and Brown medical education institutions, recently published in “Imprimis,” a publication of Hillsdale College, eloquently and astutely links the disintegration and decreasing quality of health care in our nation to the “medical-industrial complex,” let alone, the …

How world leaders’ health has shaped history and the role of modern medicine in leadership

Harvey Castro, MD, MBA

Physician

April 30, 2023

The health of world leaders has often played a critical role in shaping the course of history. Decisions made while under the influence of poor health or illness can have far-reaching consequences, and the untimely demise of some leaders has altered the trajectory of nations. This article explores the lives of a few famous leaders whose health issues significantly impacted their countries …

Inside the life of a hospice physician: Bringing peace to the dying

Lauren Roth, MD

Physician

April 30, 2023

“I don’t know how you do what you do.” About 90 percent of the time, this is the response I get when I tell people that I am a hospice physician. “Isn’t it sad to work with dying people all the time? You lose all of your patients… that must be so difficult.”

Having been exposed to the many different ways that people can die throughout my medical training, I see …

Generational differences in medical practice: Exploring work habits of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials

Harvey Castro, MD, MBA

Physician

April 29, 2023

The medical field has always been an ever-evolving landscape with technological advancements, treatments, and diagnoses. But the workforce behind these advancements also plays a crucial role in shaping the medical industry. Over the years, different generations have contributed unique work habits and values, impacting how doctors practice medicine. In this article, we will explore the work habits of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials and discuss how these generational differences …

Doctors and nurses are dying by suicide, as America’s health care workers call for change

Jessica Singh, MD and Lorenzo Norris, MD

Physician

April 28, 2023

In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 swept through hospitals in the tri-state area, Dr. Lorna Breen, a physician who served as the medical director of the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, contracted COVID while caring for patients. Shortly after returning to work under relentlessly overwhelming circumstances, she died by suicide.

Dr. Breen had no prior mental health conditions.

As her story made national headlines, Dr. Breen’s death became …

The struggle of internationally trained physicians in Canada

Dr. Irma Faruqi

Physician

April 27, 2023

I moved to Ontario, Canada, a little less than a year ago, with a sense of adventure and a spring in my step. I was excited at the thought of being reunited with family, apprehensive about the hurdles in my path to becoming a practicing physician, but hopeful that there would be light at the end of the tunnel. There had to be.

I had been chief resident at an ACGME-accredited …

A pediatrician’s view on critical self-talk among patients and doctors

Eliza Humphreys, MD

Physician

April 26, 2023

A young teen patient, eyes averted, clutching a cell phone, sits in my office. It’s a scheduled annual exam, and the patient reports some ailments—fatigue, anxiety, and poor sleep. Across the room, the parent sits in apparent composure, but as my eyes meet the parent’s gaze and hover here for an instant, I register pain, frustration, and desperation. The patient’s symptoms are not new, and there may have been calls …

5 pieces of advice every young doctor needs to hear

Sapana Adhikari, MD

Physician

April 25, 2023

As I finish my 21st year of clinical practice, I have been reflecting a lot about my career. Several friends asked me for advice as their children begin medical school. Instead of repeating myself, I decided to make a list. Here are the five things I would tell my younger self.

1. Just apply. Recently, I attended a luncheon and sat next to a female physician. I hadn’t met …

The truth about hard cases and abortion: Separating fact from fiction

Michael McCutchen, MD, MBA

Physician

April 25, 2023

Though celebrated by anti-abortion advocates across the country, the overturning of Roe v. Wade by no means closed the book on the abortion debate. However, it was a victory for both human rights and federalism. The decision reinforced that the U.S. is a constitutional republic composed of individual states, each with its own agenda. States are now individually empowered to enact abortion legislation anywhere along the human gestation cycle. As …

A pediatrician’s memorable experience with a patient with Down syndrome

Alexander Rakowsky, MD

Physician

April 24, 2023

Recently, two of my most beloved teachers came to our continuity clinic as Mrs. Melendez brought in her daughter, Maria, for her annual physical (not real names). I have known the Melendez family for nearly the entire 18+ years I have been at this clinic, at first taking care of their four older children who were at that time in early middle school through high school. At one of the …

To improve health care, respect doctors’ humanity with a living wage

Kelley Butler, MD

Physician

April 23, 2023

“What should we do?” I asked my partner. I looked down at our dog, who was limping in pain and whose treatment was just quoted at nearly $1000. Just yesterday, our brakes collapsed, and repairing our car would also be a hefty expense. He sighed, knowing we didn’t have the money for either but definitely not both. My partner and I are both resident physicians in San Francisco and here …

The secret life of physicians: work, home, and the battle for balance

Scott Abramson, MD

Physician

April 23, 2023

When we physicians discuss “work-life balance,” we often imply that our dedication to our work is so consuming and imbalanced that we end up sacrificing time with our families. To achieve a better balance and promote a healthier family life, we strive to limit our work hours to make more time for our home lives.

I wonder if the reverse can also be true. When our home life becomes overwhelming or …

Physicians in crisis: How wage-fixing in health care is limiting compensation and driving doctors away

Aaron Morgenstein, MD & Allison Nazinitsky, MD & Corinne Sundar Rao, MD

Physician

April 22, 2023

Physicians are frustrated, and rightfully so, by the number of individuals and companies that do not provide direct medical care to patients yet profit off our services. Salary suppression is one of the many reasons physicians are leaving traditional medicine and seeking alternative careers. Although physicians have seen an increase in pay over the past 20 years, it has not matched the inflation rate. For example, Medicare reimbursement lags over …

How the NFL could have boosted CPR awareness

Harrison Bell, MD

Physician

April 22, 2023

January 2nd was a rough day for the sports world. People were captivated by the on-field “death” of a player. Players, coaches, fans, and staff were stunned by seeing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in real-time, maybe even for the first time. Thankfully the NFL had excellently trained teams on the sidelines prepared for these emergencies. Chest compressions were started in seconds, and spontaneous circulation returned in less than ten minutes. Damar …

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