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A story of how one physician overcame burnout. He is not alone.

Physician

February 26, 2016

Donald Ross (an obvious pseudonym) has practiced in a medium sized town for around 20 years. I count him as a protege as we worked together during his residency. As a clinician educator, we work with many interns and residents, and sometimes we develop lifelong relationships. Donald Ross and I share a love of golf, ACC basketball (although we root for rival teams), and internal medicine. We periodically communicate through …

This doctor never gave up. And look where he is today.

Greg Shumer, MD

Medical Education

February 26, 2016

There comes a time in most people’s training when adversity threatens to become overwhelming and swallow them whole. It could be as a medical student, while spending countless hours in the library or when on demanding rotations.

Or, it could be during residency, from the 80-hour work weeks or the stressful patient care situations. It might even happen well into training, when the weekly grind just becomes too much. Burnout, generally …

The medical subplots of 2016’s Oscar-nominated films

Lipi Roy, MD, MPH

Physician

February 26, 2016

I’ll just come out and say it: I love movies. OK, perhaps not the most scandalous statement of 2016. Yet after a long, stressful week of caring for sick patients, watching the big screen, spellbound by the expressive dialog and thrilling action sequences, my mind subconsciously gravitates to one thing: the medical aspects of the film. Even when one would least expect it, as in the finance and mortgage juggernaut, …

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No textbook can teach doctors the stages of grief

Katie Lin, MD

Physician

February 26, 2016

It’s 2:00 a.m., and the fluorescent bulbs flicker gently overhead along the quiet hallways of the intensive-care unit.

Tonight I’m the ICU resident on call, and the weight of that title sits heavily on my shoulders. My team is in charge of keeping our critically ill patients safe from harm overnight. Although the supervising physician is only a phone call away, I’m the acting team lead for any codes called during …

Fix high-deductible health insurance. But it won’t be easy.

Michael Kirsch, MD

Physician

February 25, 2016

May I whine for a few sentences, please? My staff and I have a high-deductible medical insurance plan. As the costs of coverage increased each year, we had to find a product that we could afford for our small private practice. As any small business owner knows, margins are tight, revenue is declining and expenses inexorably rise. And physicians, unlike other retailers, cannot raise our fees. Would you want to …

This inspiring doctor proved Zika virus doubters wrong

John Schumann, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 25, 2016

I recently told you of my admiration for Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the Michigan pediatrician and epidemiologist whose strong research and advocacy was able to finally bring a shining light to the problem of lead in the water supply of Flint.

Continuing with a theme, I now bring you the story of Dr. Adriana Melo of Campina Grande, Brazil.

Dr. Melo is an OB-GYN who subspecializes in maternal-fetal medicine (MFM), the …

The stories have gone from medicine and that’s a shame

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

February 25, 2016

I was at a dinner meeting for our hospital last week, and before everyone went in to sit at their tables and hear the evenings’ speeches, there was some time for the usual networking over wine in the reception room. I got chatting to an established local primary care physician, a respected member of the hospital staff who has been in practice for over 30 years.

He’s quite a presence and a …

4 questions every woman should ask about heart disease

Kevin R. Campbell, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 25, 2016

February is American Heart Month, and the Go Red For Women campaign reminds us to bring awareness to cardiovascular disease in women all month long. Today in the U.S., nearly 44 million women are living with heart disease. Even though heart disease is quite prevalent in women, only 1 in 5 women are aware that they are at risk for developing a cardiovascular problem in their lifetime.

Cardiovascular disease is the #1 …

Why are mental health questions still allowed on physician job applications?

Pamela Wible, MD

Physician

February 24, 2016

DearPamela

Dear Pamela,

Question for you in regards to disclosure about mental illness. In every job that I have applied for, as part of the credentialing process, there are questions about felonies, treatment for drug/alcohol abuse and mental illness. Why are mental health questions still allowed to be on there? I have had postpartum anxiety/depression three times now, and I feel like it is …

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Why are mental health questions still allowed on physician job applications?

An oncologist reflects on his inpatient internal medicine service

Nathan A. Pennell, MD, PhD

Physician

February 24, 2016

I recently finished 2 weeks of inpatient hospital service, and the sense of relief was so palpable it felt like taking a breath after swimming the length of a pool underwater. At first, there is anxiety and a sense of excitement at the challenge, but soon you feel strong and assured that you’ve got this under control. The house …

Helpful tips for your first day at a new hospital

Elizabeth Lumpkin, MD

Physician

February 24, 2016

An excerpt from Road Warrior Physician: Locum Tenens a How-to Guide.

There are few things that are more frustrating than to be delayed while en route to your assignment. It happens, so be prepared for it. Keep all travel emergency contact numbers handy. This is one of my prime Evernote uses. Note any additional flights in and around yours in case of delay or cancelation. Have the main …

Am I a health care business metric or a physician?

Craig Bowron, MD

Health Policy

February 24, 2016

The title of Noam Scheiber’s January 9, 2016 New York Times piece on hospitalists, “Doctors Unionize to Resist the Medical Machine,” skirts the bigger issue for doctors, which has less to do with contracts, salaries and labor relations, and much more to do with the question, “Is health care just another business, and if so, can physicians be managed that way?”

I’m a silverback hospitalist, and when I started …

Justice Scalia: Why didn’t they perform an autopsy?

John Biemer, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 23, 2016

With the Supreme Court in the balance, every aspect of the unexpected demise of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has received intense scrutiny, from the cause of his recent death to the politically charged choice of his successor. An autopsy was not performed on the 79-year-old jurist, who was found dead in his room in a West Texas hunting resort, and that too has become a lightning rod for …

Should you have a precolonoscopy visit? The answers may surprise you.

Frederick Gandolfo, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 23, 2016

Your primary care doctor has been nagging you for years. Your wife and brother seem to be in on the scheme too. Every once and a while one of your coworkers even says (with a chuckle) “C’mon Bob, you’re fifty-seven, you really need to get it done!”

“OK, enough,” you finally say, “I’ll go for a colonoscopy!” So at your next visit you ask your primary doctor how to set it …

10 simple facts about Zika virus

Tanu S. Pandey, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 23, 2016

1. Zika is an infectious disease caused by a virus and transmitted by mosquitoes. It is one of four worrisome viral infections that have spread rapidly across the world recently including dengue, chikungunya, and West Nile virus, all of which are transmitted by mosquitoes or ticks. The most dangerous mosquito type is the one that spreads yellow fever (Aedes).

2. Though Zika is mostly spread by mosquito bites, there is emerging …

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10 simple facts about Zika virus

Why daughters need their fathers

Meg Meeker, MD

Physician

February 23, 2016

Men, we need you.

We — mothers, daughters, and sisters — need your help in raising healthy young women. We need every ounce of masculine courage and wit you own because a father, more than anyone else, sets the course for a daughter’s life.

After more than 20 years of listening to daughters — and doling out antibiotics, antidepressants, and stimulants to girls who have gone without a father’s love — I …

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Why daughters need their fathers

The challenges this doctor faces when caring for the homeless

Vincent DeGennaro, Jr., MD, MPH

Physician

February 23, 2016

“Fifty-three-year-old homeless woman with diabetic ketoacidosis and severe emphysema exacerbation.” And suffering from adomicilia, too, I added in my head.

Much like apraxia means the inability to perform purposeful movements (praxis), adomicilia jokingly means those who are not domiciled, a pretentious attempt at gallows humor in the medical profession.

I read through the patient’s electronic record imagining a withered woman, wrinkled from years of drinking and smoking, perhaps with signs of schizophrenia. Most …

Tips to rank your match list. Here’s how this medical student did it.

Jennifer Adaeze Anyaegbunam

Medical Education

February 22, 2016

As an early third year medical student, I had a few attending physicians tell me that MD stands for “make decisions.” I find myself subject to these sorts of pep talks when I answer their clinical questions with a response influenced by a high pitched vocal inflection that suggests that I’m uncertain.

For example, while being pimped on the next step in managing a patient, I might have responded with a …

These are the technologies that can help achieve the cancer moonshot

Bertalan Mesko, MD, PhD

Health Technology

February 22, 2016

In his State of the Union address in 2016, President Obama pledged a new national effort to find a cure for cancer. This is the cancer “moonshot.” Last year, he announced the launch of the Precision Medicine Initiative — a bold new research effort to revolutionize how we improve health and treat disease. These two strategies together hold the promise of curing cancer or, at least, transforming it …

It’s time to free doctors from their boxes

Rhea Boyd, MD

Health Policy

February 22, 2016

The American health care system is set up to care for a certain subset of the population — sick people — people with chronic disease, acute illness, acute injury, and complex disorders like cancer or metabolic issues.

The problem is, this set up doesn’t create market incentives to care for the well effectively, or to identify those at risk for disease and efficiently and reliably intervene, at scale.

To reconcile this cognitive dissonance …

Real physician voices, twice a week

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