“You sure know a lot about your condition.”
Many patients with long-term illnesses have heard this. When it comes from a medical professional, it’s never a compliment. It’s a statement that is usually, at best, laced with disapproval.
The thing is, patients like me, who have long-term complex conditions, are encouraged to know a lot. As someone with CVID and other issues, I’ve attended seminars and patient Q&As with immunologists. There’s a …
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Join Kim Downey, a physical therapist, and Anthony Avellino, a pediatric neurosurgeon and author of Finding Purpose: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey of Hope and Healing, as they explore the critical topic of physician well-being. …
“Each licensee shall furnish the board his current address.” “When a practitioner is closing, selling, or relocating his practice, he shall meet the requirements.” “The practitioner shall retain in his records.” When it came time to renew my Virginia state medical license, I noticed something troubling – a complete lack of gender equality in physician licensure application language.
However, …
It is not news that private practices are struggling to thrive. Challenges such as decreasing reimbursements, higher cost of service delivery, attracting and retaining great staff, and increasing administrative burden are closing practices daily. While many of these systemic challenges are outside our direct control, there are actions we can take immediately to increase our probability of success.
Adopt the attitude of an entrepreneur. Physicians frequently tell me they run practices, …
At the heart of medicine lies humanity. This narrative documents a personal story where I felt deeply connected to this principle as a first-year medical student.
I felt nervous and unsure as I was about to practice medical interviewing with a standardized patient. The scenario was unfamiliar to many of us, involving the care plan for a patient (“Chris”) with stage 4 metastatic lung cancer. Together with his partner (“Jordan”), they …
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Join Amna Shabbir, an internal medicine physician, as we delve into the complex emotions surrounding Match Day outcomes. We explore strategies for navigating feelings of rejection, shame, and disappointment while emphasizing the importance …
An excerpt from Sugar Free.
“What do you want to do?” Ginny said.
“Chinese jump rope.”
“Tilly, you always want to play Chinese jump rope,” Renée said.
“So?” Tilly said.
Renée didn’t have an answer to that.
They let Tilly go first. Renée and Ginny faced each other, put the large elastic loop that was the jump rope around their ankles, and backed up until it was taut.
“What happened to you?” Tilly said to Ginny. …
AlphaFold Three is a monumental leap forward in biomedical research and drug discovery, signaling a new era where artificial intelligence (AI) merges seamlessly with molecular biology to unlock mysteries that have long eluded scientists. Developed by Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, AlphaFold 3 is not just an upgrade to its predecessors; it’s a transformative tool that extends the boundaries of what we can understand and achieve in medicine.
AlphaFold 3 builds …
Burnout and satisfaction are major issues for the physician workforce in the United States. Many feel trapped working in a specialty in which they are unhappy. For most practicing physicians, however, there are few realistic options to make a major career or specialty change due to the opportunity costs of reduced pay and the time required for additional residency training.
One little-known medical specialty stands above the pack, with particularly high …
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Join Tamir Aldad, a physician executive. We’ll explore the rapid growth of telehealth, the impact of venture capital investments, and the concerning trend of overprescription of medications like Adderall and benzodiazepines. Discover the …
Health care in the United States is in a state of turmoil. Many Americans are struggling to pay for health care. Even if they have health insurance, many have to pay high out-of-pocket copayments and, in the end, feel that what they do pay for is not worth the cost.
As a result of the COVID pandemic, many health care workers faced mounting mental health crises from burnout, physical and mental …
When I heard about the new AvertD genetic test, pronounced like “averted,” I was compelled to contact the CEO of SOLVD Health, the maker of AvertD, and ask him to answer some of my questions. To my surprise, he was willing to do so, and here is what I learned from the training documents that will be mandatory for all prescribing MDs.
First, AvertD is not for use in patients receiving …
Intriguing question: What is one word that can free us?
You might think it is love.
Love is so powerful in lifting shame, sadness, and loneliness, but that’s not the kind of freedom I’m referring to. Instead, I’m referring to the freedom to put aside others’ presumed or verbalized expectations of us and do something in our own best interest.
That magical word is “could.” At first glance, this might not seem like …
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Join Ron M. Aryel, a pediatrician whose journey challenges conventional views on insurance companies and electronic medical records (EMRs). Ron shares his remarkable story of transforming his practice in Reno, Nevada, into a …
There are few things in a doctor’s life more exciting and overwhelming at the same time than finding your first job out of training and *gulp* negotiating your first employment contract. For many people, not just doctors, talking about how much money you’ll make can feel incredibly uncomfortable. You might feel overwhelmed or anxious about the process, making you want to sign the first contract that’s put in front of …
An excerpt from Narrative Medicine: Harnessing the Power of Storytelling through Essays.
I work for an organization that manages the medical and mental health needs of children and adults who are severely and persistently ill. Typical diagnoses in the population I serve include intellectual/developmental disorder, autism spectrum disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, substance use disorder, and many other conditions that impact mood, cognition, reality testing, conduct, and …
Treatment plans are crucial to a behavioral health practice as they can help improve client outcomes. Setting mental health treatment plan goals and objectives is a crucial aspect of the process, and providers and their clients need to work together in identifying long-term therapy goals. They should also communicate openly about the objectives used to achieve these goals.
The concept of SMART goals can be valuable here. SMART stands for Specific, …
Modern medicine often fails to effectively manage complex chronic conditions. Physicians are often constrained by tightly packed clinic schedules, leaving only brief windows of time for each patient encounter. While this setup may allow for basic diagnosis and treatment planning, there is scarcely enough time for comprehensive patient education, let alone providing the necessary support, guidance, and empowerment that complex patients need.
Fortunately, the post-pandemic surge in telemedicine has brought fresh …
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Join medical student Elizabeth Picazo to explore the intersection of health care and politics. Elizabeth shares her insights on the implications of Proposition F in San Francisco, discussing its impact on marginalized communities …
I limped into work one morning and, tired from the day which had yet to begin, paused when I did not recognize the name of my first patient. This likely meant that I saw him once, enough to—maybe—remember the basics of his health care, but not his name. If that sounded weird, it was the way my brain worked after twenty years of being a doctor.
I pulled up his chart …
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