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Health care attorney Dennis Hursh discusses his article, “What every physician should know before buying into a medical practice.” He emphasizes that while receiving an offer to buy into a practice is …
Buying into a medical practice: key legal and financial checks for physicians [PODCAST]
I’ve been listening to Viola Davis’s memoir, Finding Me, and it’s been sitting heavy on my mind. She vividly describes how being both Black and poor isn’t just a struggle—it’s a one-two punch that shaped every aspect of her life. It’s not just about lacking resources; it’s about being trapped in a system that was never designed to let you win.
That message keeps hitting me because I’ve …
Why Medicaid is failing Black children despite record spending
One of my friends from school studied with me in 9th grade. She was exceptionally pretty, the kind of beauty that stood out. She was the only daughter and had a younger brother. She got married at a relatively young age and had one son. After her marriage, she moved to another city. She lived in a joint family and had many responsibilities, managing a lot of issues on her …
When a friend’s mother became my patient and changed my life
Current studies identify the negative impacts of failing to diagnose and treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which contributes to well-described impairment, morbidity, and mortality. Timely diagnosis, acceptance, and treatment do, in fact, improve outcomes. Benefits include a decrease in negative impacts on self-esteem, depression and other mood disorders, substance use disorders, suicidality, motor vehicle crashes, and criminality. These consequences result from easy distractibility and impulsiveness, which can be damaging …
Why ADHD isn’t just a childhood disorder and what that means for adults
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Child psychiatrist and entrepreneur Marissa Caudill discusses her article, “How a customer relationship management tool (CRM) can help physicians regain control and beat burnout.” She argues that a significant driver of physician …
I’m a family medicine-trained doctor working in a rural ER. I drive 90 minutes to get there, and I do it because if I don’t, no one will. The county I serve has seen its nearest hospital close. The OB unit is long gone. Specialist referrals are hit or miss. And the patients? They’re sick. Sicker than they should be. Because when access to health care disappears, what follows is …
Rural hospitals are vanishing—and lives are vanishing with them
Verdicts in excess of $10 million, or even $25 million, are no longer rare occurrences in medical malpractice litigation. Though most of these awards are handed down by empathetic juries concerned for an injured plaintiff, 40 percent of the award or more may go to pay attorney fees and other investors in the lawsuit. Third-party litigation funding (TPLF), …
Third-party litigation funding threatens access to health care
Childhood obesity is not just about kids outgrowing their clothes faster than their parents can buy them— it’s a growing public health crisis. If we don’t step in now, the next generation might need bigger coats and even bigger health care budgets. Today, approximately one in five children and adolescents in the U.S. have obesity. The annual medical expenses related to childhood obesity in the U.S. is estimated …
Fat guy in a little coat: Preventing childhood obesity
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Physician assistant David Olson discusses his article, “Taking a break from medicine: a journey to rediscover joy and purpose.” He describes feeling trapped in an unhealthy, borderline abusive relationship with medicine, citing …
Taking a break from medicine: a physician assistant’s journey from burnout to world travel [PODCAST]
In a clinic in India, I once watched a young mother wait for hours to be seen, clutching her child and a paper folder filled with years of handwritten notes. There was no digital health record, no streamlined triage system—just patience, resilience, and the unspoken expectation that care would eventually come.
That moment has stayed with me—not because it was unique, but because it was far too common. It reminded me …
Gen Z is already transforming mental health care—are we listening?
Since my training days in the Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency at Ohio State University Medical Center and Columbus Children’s Hospital (1996–2000), to my days in private practice (2000–2008), to my days practicing as a hospitalist physician (2008–present), I’ve had the great fortune of working with, collaborating with, learning from, and befriending many nurses who roam this Earth and, especially, my surrounding community. With those thoughts in mind, I …
Why nurses are the true heroes of my 25-year medical journey
An excerpt from Narrative Medicine: New and Selected Essays.
One of my adult daughters recently reminded me of a cherished memory. When she was about four years old, we spent a few hours together at a small, independently owned bookstore. I selected books straight off the shelves and read to her, and later we joined a circle of children and parents to …
What independent bookstores and private practice doctors teach us about human connection
Poisoned puppies, rats on cocaine, transgender mice: these might sound like the beginning of a bizarre joke, but they’re at the center of growing political attacks on medical and scientific research. Senator Ted Cruz calls it the “woke nonsense” of the Biden administration’s “far-left ideology,” and Donald Trump has amplified the message, using a primetime congressional address to claim researchers are attempting to turn mice transgender. In a House committee …
How fake news about transgender mice is hurting real patients
Let’s talk about a trend I’m seeing—and honestly, I can’t stay quiet about it anymore.
Across the country, more and more NP programs are telling highly experienced family nurse practitioners (FNPs) working in acute care settings that they can’t precept ACNP (Acute Care Nurse Practitioner) students. Meanwhile, those very same programs are approving Physician Assistants to precept ACNP students in those exact same roles.
I’m all for collaboration, and I respect the …
The preceptor paradox: PAs get the nod while NPs are sidelined
Silence is a prison that locks away the truth,
hiding it in the shadows of life.
Words yearn to be spoken,
but are instead swallowed whole.
It’s a safer alternative
than facing an empty void.
Your gaze is directed elsewhere,
avoiding the person who sits
before you … one who is waiting for
compassion that never arrives.
So, the spaces between words
grow longer and
the disconnect becomes stronger.
Words exchanged fall flat,
drowned out by the ticking clock
and the clicking of a keyboard
as …
Within the white walls of silence
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Physician advocate and physical therapist Kim Downey, physician coach Erin Hurley, and patient advocate Dawn Veselka discuss their article, “Spreading hope one card at a time: How small acts of kindness can …
Spreading hope one card at a time for doctors’ well-being [PODCAST]
Today I want to speak into something we don’t talk about enough. In a world where female physicians are constantly pulled in every direction—as doctors, mothers, wives, daughters—we often forget our own personhood.
Between closing charts, answering endless patient messages, kissing boo-boos, and making sure every event has the right outfit, we forget to eat, to sleep, to breathe. And no one is doing this to us maliciously—but it happens, because …
Why female physicians are done asking for permission
When I was a kid, my dad and I used to go on regular weekend hikes up to Henninger Flats at the Eaton Canyon Natural Area in Altadena, California. When we made it to the top, we would sit at one of the wooden benches overlooking the San Gabriel Valley, enjoying our midhike snack, usually a fruit of some sort and a handful of trail mix. On a clear day, …
How Earth Day can inspire better health for doctors and patients
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world five years ago, and the world seems to be contemplating that history lately. Numerous articles reflect on that time now that we are passing that first major milestone. In many ways, we are still struggling with the fallout and will be for the foreseeable future.
In mid-2021, things started returning to “normal” in the health care setting. The absolute jubilation of having a vaccine available …
The heartbreaking pandemic story I will never forget
Functional precision oncology is taking precision medicine to the next level. It is changing the way we fight cancer by testing a patient’s live tumor outside the body to determine the treatments most likely to work. This approach promises to double cancer response rates, improve survival, and reduce costs. It’s personal, data-driven, and long overdue, yet most cancer centers still don’t offer it.
Even many doctors are unaware that the standard …
Functional precision oncology: a game changer in cancer therapy
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