“The impact of the pandemic on the lives of Americans will be felt for years, if not generations, to come. This includes its alarming effect on health behaviors that contribute to the already formidable challenge of obesity in this country. Now, more than ever, we must look for creative solutions within …
Weight gain during the pandemic: An obesity medicine specialist explains [PODCAST]
“Interviewing for medical schools was intense, excruciating, and terrifying. Despite the difficult questions, there are three that stand out to me. The first was to differentiate sympathy from empathy, where I spent 30 minutes defending my answer to be met with complete silence. He could have asked me anything, yet he sat …
How to keep your optimism in medicine [PODCAST]
“Mid-career colleagues: it’s time to go back to the future.
Time to learn again. Time to build professional and social networks at work. Take a lunch break. Bring home a few fewer RVUs.
I recently started a monthly journal club for our small section of gastroenterologists as a way to recreate some of what …
Attention mid-career physicians: Let’s find our ikigai [PODCAST]
“COVID was ominously not only drowning people in their own spit but struck in different shades to alter human personality that kept helplessly getting lost in the maze of their own minds. It made the young maniacal, hearing voices and talking to walls in a schizophrenic frenzy. It made the elderly become …
Unmasking the faces of COVID: pages from a neurologist’s diary [PODCAST]
“We all go through our early lives in the S-curve of our medical education–college, medical school, residency, early practice. As you reach the mastery phase, I would posit that there is a downward dip as we realize that we are no longer in that exciting hypergrowth phase. The search for a new …
Physicians and the midlife dip [PODCAST]
“We won’t know until 2022 or later whether there will be an increase in claims related to the pandemic. When a medical error occurs, it’s not like an automobile accident. Everybody nearby knows when there’s been an automobile accident because they hear screeching tires, a loud crash, and then sirens. But when …
Malpractice claims from the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]
“We know this is true in our hearts and minds, but we also know it to be true in documentable terms. Studies have proven that strong, empathic engagement between doctors and their patients increases patients’ willingness to report symptoms and concerns. That in turn improves diagnostic accuracy. Empathy increases patient engagement …
Love is the strongest medicine [PODCAST]
“How do we combat all these beliefs that can make doctors into bad investors? I have a few thoughts.
First of all, don’t panic. Most of us are indeed starting behind the eight-ball when it comes to wealth accumulation. But even with a shorter runway, physicians make enough money to make up for …
Why doctors are such bad investors and how real estate can help [PODCAST]
“These are extraordinary times. Leaders have the opportunity to seize the day, to lean into this turning point in health care delivery, to drive organizational transformation, and to emerge from the devastation of the pandemic with an organization in which patients and clinicians thrive.
You simply have to ask yourself, are you willing …
Health care leaders’ roles in pandemic recovery: Caring for caregivers [PODCAST]
“We can move from being a reactor to creator. Creators think of the future and make it start happening today. Reactors are just dealing with the crisis at hand, not progressing, feeling stuck, feeling like life is unfair. Reactors are people-pleasing, reacting to everything said, constantly worrying about how to win …
Physicians need growth days [PODCAST]
“With the obvious accounted for, we turned to the obscure, the area of medicine where judgment and experience come into play. Fortunately, we received sound advice and guidance from the infectious disease physicians. Stick to the basics, they stressed, only do them better. We continued our patient on the first-line anti-TB drugs …
Our extraordinary lungs’ power and fragility [PODCAST]
“We need you to join the ranks of this time-honored profession with new eyes and determined minds and eyes that see medicine’s problematic foundations and minds that are willing to act on it. Because it is you, future medical students, who will soon take up the mantle of pushing medicine to change …
Advice from graduating medical students to new ones [PODCAST]
“Ever the teacher, the Dr. Lown we knew modeled ‘The Lost Art of Healing’ (the title of one of his books) in the clinic, the laboratory, and the halls of power. As health professionals, we watched him listen carefully to his patients; as citizens, we saw him listen deeply to our …
In memory of Bernard Lown [PODCAST]
“Legislative advocacy has become difficult for the severe autism population since the DSM-5 lumped Asperger’s syndrome with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Further complicating the matter, a new population recently emerged who identify as “autistic” without having a diagnosis from a qualified health care professional.
Without a clear distinction for various parts of the spectrum, …
Why it’s time to split the autism spectrum [PODCAST]
“My thoughts immediately went to the tragic loss of one of my best clients, a physician who recently passed away after battling COVID-19. I remember him not only as an excellent physician but even more so as a great person.
Unlike many physicians I speak to in the course of my work, this …
Estate planning mistakes for physicians to avoid [PODCAST]
“Even though there has been a lot of progress, LGBTQ youth are still struggling with discrimination. I am disheartened that 40 percent of LGBTQ youth surveyed by the Trevor project in 2020 seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, and the amount of LGBTQ youth reaching out to the Trevor project …
Teaching young children about the existence and acceptance of LGBTQ people [PODCAST]
“Taking control of distress is done by embracing the concept of ‘mental fitness.’ Being mentally fit enables one to overcome the negative emotions that have traditionally sabotaged our lives, both personally and professionally. Similar to physical fitness optimizing our bodily strength, mental fitness promotes achievement in our performance, relationships, and sense …
It’s time to reframe second victim syndrome [PODCAST]
“Before COVID-19, I left the practice of medicine for what would turn out to become an entire year. While away, I found a new way of seeing our hearts and bodies as humans in the medical profession, allowing me to return.
Here are five lessons I learned in the hope they might help …
What I learned from stepping away from medicine for a year [PODCAST]
“Don’t be the patient that says: ‘Doc, just tell me what to do …’ Instead, you should ask for information to empower yourself to make decisions about your healing process. Framing questions around the clinician’s experience is always a good starting point; pretend to be the doctor for just a moment and …
Don’t be the patient that says these words [PODCAST]
“Continuing to do this work the way I was doing it was not sustainable. I needed to get off the merry-go-round. I just didn’t know how. I didn’t think I could stop myself—transplant was my duty, my responsibility, and what I was trained and programmed to do. It was hard to imagine …
A transplant physician faces facts about his career [PODCAST]
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