KevinMD.com

June 27, 2012Jun 27, 2012

An excerpt from Behind the Mask. Why do you do it? Do what? Get up in the middle of the night? Rush in to the hospital to patch mangled bodies, sew holes closed, stick my finger in a dike spewing…

An excerpt from Behind the Mask.

Why do you do it?

Do what? Get up in the middle of the night? Rush in to the hospital to patch mangled bodies, sew holes closed, stick my finger in a dike spewing blood and, hopefully, repair what’s broken and allow some unfortunate soul to live and love another day? A good question. I could have been a pediatrician, almost became one as a matter …

Read more…

Why I am a surgeon

Conditions and diseases

10 topics to discuss with your teen this summer

Natasha Burgert, MD

June 27, 2012Jun 27, 2012

In a pediatrician’s office, summertime is teen check-up time. And, I love it. Annual checkups are a time for me to catch up on the school year, brag about amazing extra-curricular accomplishments, and swoon over summer vacation plans. It is…

In a pediatrician’s office, summertime is teen check-up time.

And, I love it.

Annual checkups are a time for me to catch up on the school year, brag about amazing extra-curricular accomplishments, and swoon over summer vacation plans. It is also a time for anticipatory guidance, private conversations, and facing the often sobering reality of teen life.

Throughout this past year, I have had the privilege of being involved in the lives of many …

Conditions and diseases

Lesser known symptoms of seasonal allergies

Sakina Shikari Bajowala, MD

June 26, 2012Jun 26, 20122

My boys and I suffer from tree pollen allergies. More than birds chirping or flowers blooming, I have come to associate boogery sleeves and sneezing with the onset of spring. But these are the typical symptoms, which are easily recognizable…

What I’d like to address in this post are some lesser known symptoms of seasonal allergies, which may also be rearing their ugly heads this spring. Red eyes and …

Real physician voices, twice a week

Free, and one click to unsubscribe.

Physician voices

Ask your doctor smart health questions

Dinah Miller, MD

June 26, 2012Jun 26, 20125

Going to the doctor can be confusing. Doctors make recommendations based on what they know, and patients are conditioned to trust their doctors. While I think it's wonderful that patients trust their doctors, there are times when patients want more…

Going to the doctor can be confusing. Doctors make recommendations based on what they know, and patients are conditioned to trust their doctors. While I think it’s wonderful that patients trust their doctors, there are times when patients want more input into their health care, and if this is the case, then let me make some suggestions as to what might be important questions to ask. There is nothing specific …

Read more…

Ask your doctor smart health questions

Health policy

Should personal anecdotes play a role in health policy?

Brad Wright, PhD

June 26, 2012Jun 26, 20127

There’s something compelling about the personal narrative that vast mountains of quantitative data cannot rival. Anecdotes are, quite simply, powerful. They tap into our shared humanity, making something seem somehow more real by putting a face on it. This is why, if you follow politics for very long, you will find numerous cases of policymakers championing issues that have touched their own lives in some way. For example, Senator X doesn’t care about issue Y, until they …

Physician voices

Imagining what goes through a patient’s mind after surgery

Bruce Campbell, MD

June 26, 2012Jun 26, 20122

“I will never forget that day.” She smiled broadly. “It was about a week after my cancer surgery and I had finally worked up the courage to look in the mirror. I knew you had rearranged things a bit, okay.…

“I will never forget that day.”

She smiled broadly.

“It was about a week after my cancer surgery and I had finally worked up the courage to look in the mirror. I knew you had rearranged things a bit, okay. Moved stuff around. Taken things apart and jammed them all back together, right?”

I probably would not have said it quite like that, but she was correct that her surgery had involved removing part of her …

Patient voices

Ability to pay for medical expenses should be a vital sign

Ioana Baiu, MD

June 25, 2012Jun 25, 20123

We are a new generation of physicians and physicians in training. The words "stem cell therapy," “Robertsonian translocation," and "artificial tracheal transplant" were part of our vocabulary from the first day of medical school. At the astounding speed at which…

We are a new generation of physicians and physicians in training. The words “stem cell therapy,” “Robertsonian translocation,” and “artificial tracheal transplant” were part of our vocabulary from the first day of medical school. At the astounding speed at which scientific advancements are made, our ability to incorporate new material is in a constant state of change.

Slowly, the heavy textbooks became relics, as we migrated towards a mobile knowledge, a …

Physician voices

Playing specialist roulette every time I send people to another doctor

Rob Lamberts, MD

June 25, 2012Jun 25, 201213

“I want you to get me a new doctor,” she told me, a bit of disgust coming out in the sharp tone in her voice. “What happened?” I asked. “He asked me if I was nauseated, and I told him…

“I want you to get me a new doctor,” she told me, a bit of disgust coming out in the sharp tone in her voice.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He asked me if I was nauseated, and I told him no, I was just vomiting. Then he asked if I was feeling pain in my stomach, and again I told him no, it was just vomiting. He then told his nurse to …

Health policy

Health care change will have to come from the public

Natasha Deonarain, MD, MBA

June 25, 2012Jun 25, 201220

Most of us want to know how to fix this healthcare mess these days. We’re scared about the future and how we’re going to afford costs that never, ever seem to stop skyrocketing. We’re scared about the world our kids are going to inherit and the phenomenal debt they’ll be haunted by throughout their lives. We’re scared about living in a country that’s cowering under the hefty weight of fear …

Physician voices

Why I chose to become a rural primary care doctor

Josh Bell, MD

June 25, 2012Jun 25, 2012

My mom always told me she gave me the "doctor name" (apparently my name looks good with an MD after it), so in some ways I knew from an early age that this was going to be my profession. Though…

My mom always told me she gave me the “doctor name” (apparently my name looks good with an MD after it), so in some ways I knew from an early age that this was going to be my profession. Though I toyed with the idea of being a bank teller in kindergarten, I realized after a while that this was really not the job I thought it was (no offense …

Health policy

Health is not Democratic or Republican, it resonates with both sides

Trishul Reddy, MD

June 24, 2012Jun 24, 20125

A better approach to primary care is imperative for improving the delivery of health services to our nation’s population. As a family medicine resident, I see the need first hand in the mountains of East Tennessee. It’s 11:30pm on a…

It’s 11:30pm on a Sunday night when the medical student and I receive the ER call.

“A thirty-two-year-old diabetic male with uncontrolled sugars and right arm cellulitis, I think he needs admission.”

When I reach the ER, …

Physician voices

Think about the eventuality that comes to ourselves and our parents

Maria Maldonado, MD

June 24, 2012Jun 24, 2012

Recently, I listened with interest to an interview on NPR that posed the question of who needs long-term-care (LTC) insurance. Only one percent of Americans own LTC insurance which defrays the cost of custodial care. Because of recent experiences I’ve…

Because of recent experiences I’ve had with my mother, I’ve have been thinking about how I’d like to spend the rest of my life when or if (I admit to fits of denial) the time comes …

Conditions and diseases

MKSAP: 68-year-old woman with the sudden onset of severe pain

mksap

June 24, 2012Jun 24, 2012

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 68-year-old woman is evaluated in the emergency department for the sudden onset of severe pain, which began 3 hours ago. The pain is…

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.

A 68-year-old woman is evaluated in the emergency department for the sudden onset of severe pain, which began 3 hours ago. The pain is in the middle of her chest and radiates to her back. Medical history includes hypertension treated with hydrochlorothiazide and lisinopril.

On physical examination, …

Physician voices

We are overdosing on medical tests

Dr. Joe Kosterich

June 23, 2012Jun 23, 20127

Once upon a time people only went to the doctor when they felt sick. For most of human existence there was not much the doctor could actually do when you got there. Yet somehow the human race managed to get…

As technology advanced exponentially we developed a range of treatments so that conditions, which used to be fatal …

Read more…

We are overdosing on medical tests

Patient voices

Verbalizes understanding: What exactly does it mean?

Susan C. Shelly, MLS

June 23, 2012Jun 23, 20125

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said he could not define hard-core pornography, but “I know it when I see it.” We in health care seem to have the same reaction to the phrase, verbalizes understanding when it comes to…

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said he could not define hard-core pornography, but “I know it when I see it.”

We in health care seem to have the same reaction to the phrase, verbalizes understanding when it comes to patient education. Patient medical records, including electronic medical records now include free text notes or check boxes indicating the patient verbalized understanding without actually defining this phrase.

In a world where ambiguous …

Conditions and diseases

CPR is less effective than we think

George Lundberg, MD

June 23, 2012Jun 23, 201219

I don't know how many of you readers are old enough to remember the frequent use of open chest cardiac massage, first successfully performed in 1901. It began as a way to resuscitate suddenly dead people, assuming that their hearts…

I don’t know how many of you readers are old enough to remember the frequent use of open chest cardiac massage, first successfully performed in 1901. It began as a way to resuscitate suddenly dead people, assuming that their hearts had arrested or fibrillated.

The surgeon would open the chest between ribs 5 and 6 and rhythmically squeeze the heart to move the blood and re-establish life. Sometimes it worked; usually …

Read more…

CPR is less effective than we think

Physician voices

Contaminating medicine with mercenary incentives

Michael Kirsch, MD

June 22, 2012Jun 22, 20123

Some time ago, I endured a medical staff meeting, where attendance is taken and 50% attendance of all meetings is required. I learned that they are serious about this rule when, a few years ago, I was demoted from active staff when I failed to attend enough meetings. This demotion did not demoralize me, as I was only losing my right to vote, which I did not regard as a …

Physician voices

When patients make the decisions to harm themselves

James C. Salwitz, MD

June 22, 2012Jun 22, 201213

Today would have been easier if I did not give a damn. Easier if patients were clients. Easier if medical advice was causal suggestion. Easier if I believed that patients were solely responsible for their health. Easier if suffering was…

However, despite the popular movement from “the doctor knows best” towards shared decision-making, I feel responsible for my patients. What happens to …

Real physician voices, twice a week

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular