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Family physician Jonathan Bushman discusses his article, “The hidden moral injury behind value-based health care.” He shares the story of a young physician who was told to remove her most complex patients …
This isn’t burnout, it’s moral injury [PODCAST]
Come sit down and I will start
To tell a tale of Harvy heart,
And how his feud with Brian brain
Flushed their friendship down the drain.
Brian brain and Harvy heart
Were never very far apart.
Harvy fast and Brian slow,
They worked together, don’t you know?
Then one day they had a spat
Over whom to point their loving at.
Harvy thought that he should lead
Since hearts are much like trusty steeds!
Brian brain thought he was best
Since loving …
Why heart and brain must work together for love
It is a question that has stopped more than a few of my physician clients in their tracks: Who are you outside of the white coat?
I do not mean your hobbies, though yes, of course those matter. I mean your identity. Your core sense of self when you strip away the pager, the patient lists, the provider ID, and even the deeply ingrained instincts to care, to fix, to achieve. …
Who are you outside of the white coat?
Medical errors happen every day, and patients are being harmed in hospitals. Despite years of tracking and reporting outcome-based quality measures, preventable harm remains widespread, prompting the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to launch the Patient Safety Structural Measure (PSSM). This measure, released in August 2024, focuses on structural and cultural root causes of harm rather than just retrospective results of quality improvement initiatives.
In our consultancy practice, we’re …
How hospitals can prepare for CMS’s new patient safety rule
A physician’s financial journey isn’t always linear, and the journey can’t always be predicted in a how-to book. While the hospital-employed physician normally gravitates toward a path filled with benefits and retirement plans, the equity owner physician, or physician practice owner—both terms used interchangeably—has a much different pathway. Let’s dive into the equity owner physician a bit further.
Why choose ownership?
Like the term “business owner,” equity ownership physician is a generic …
Physician practice ownership: risks, rewards, and reality
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Anesthesiologist and clinical mental health counselor Maire Daugharty discusses her article, “Why peer support can save lives in high-pressure medical careers.” Drawing from her personal experience of losing three colleagues to suicide …
How peer support can save physician lives [PODCAST]
We’ve all seen the hype.
AI will revolutionize health care. It will cut documentation time. Improve diagnoses. Save lives. Maybe even replace doctors.
But here’s what I know after 11 years as a hospitalist: Hype without evidence is dangerous. And AI—especially in medicine—isn’t just software. It’s treatment.
If we’re going to let AI influence life-or-death decisions, it needs to meet the same standard as any clinical intervention. That means rigorous trials, transparent design, …
Why AI in health care needs the same scrutiny as chemotherapy
When my son was in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), it felt like the end of the world. But the world did not end. Instead, my whole self was born. And I knew that I would carry this experience into the classroom.
I had been an award-winning professor for seven years before I found myself pacing the sterile aisle between cribettes on the many early morning hours when my newborn …
The humanity we bring: a call to hold space in medicine
For decades, you were told that whole milk was the devil in a glass. Doctors (including me), dietitians, and public health agencies told you to toss the red cap and grab the blue — skim, 1 percent, or 2 percent milk. Why? Because whole milk had fat. And fat, particularly saturated fat, was supposed to clog your arteries like grease in a kitchen drain.
Except we were wrong.
The fat in whole …
The truth about fat in whole milk and your health
In today’s interconnected society, individual health shapes the well-being of communities. This is evident in the role of pain clinics, which have evolved beyond their traditional mandate of managing chronic pain. A recent peer-reviewed research publication in the SVOA Medical Research journal highlights how pain clinics are contributing to societal safety by addressing risks that extend beyond the clinical setting; promoting safer roads, stronger families, and healthier workplaces.
The clinical …
How pain clinics contribute to societal safety
About a month ago, I developed a very sudden and alarming skin condition—clusters of painful, itchy bumps that quickly spread across my arms, legs, and chest. At first, I was not overly worried. I made an appointment with my primary care physician, expecting answers. But the exam was brief—she took a cursory glance and speculated it was an allergic reaction. To her credit, she didn’t jump to conclusions. She snapped …
Why primary care needs better dermatology training
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Physician and public health advocate Judith Eguzoikpe discusses her article, “Hope is the lifeline: a deeper look into transplant care.” She pulls back the curtain on the kidney transplant process, revealing that …
Beyond the surgery: the human side of transplant care [PODCAST]
Many health care providers are still coming to terms with the opioid epidemic. The development of drugs such as Oxy opened a door for widespread opioid use, and the aftermath of this failure has led to rampant addiction in our country’s most vulnerable. As the system gradually regulated legal opioids, dangerous alternatives like heroin and fentanyl increased in prevalence. Other nonopiate medications like amphetamines have also become common in communities. …
Why health care must adopt a harm reduction model
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Frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits are endemic and infect everyone whether they realize it or not. The greed of plaintiffs, attorneys, medical experts, and malpractice carriers, coupled with the ineptitude of the tort system, causes hopelessness in physicians. Everyone else pays the price.
Plaintiffs sue for malpractice even when a claim has no attributable merit. Plaintiff attorneys, who are looking for business, advertise “if we don’t win, you don’t pay.” Once …
Why frivolous malpractice lawsuits are costing Americans billions
As nurse practitioners, our professional licenses are more than credentials. They are symbols of trust, responsibility, and commitment. It is vital we never take them for granted, because when they are compromised, not only do we suffer, but our entire profession pays the price.
We must be vigilant: Safeguarding our licenses is on us alone
No one cares about our NP licenses as much as we do. They grant us the privilege …
Protecting what matters most: Guarding our NP licenses with integrity
A veteran came into my clinic with quiet frustration in his eyes. He was 100 percent service-connected and medically retired, struggling to survive in San Diego. He handed me a DMV disability form—something that could save him hundreds of dollars in car registration fees. But another VA doctor had already refused to sign it.
The form asked whether his disability caused “an impaired gait.” It was vague. He had chronic back …
How AI helped a veteran feel seen in the U.S. health care system
I have only recently started thinking about strikes. They seemed like something other people did: railway workers, bus drivers, teachers, dockworkers. People with contracts. People who clocked in and out. Not doctors. Not surgeons. Certainly not me.
You and I were supposed to absorb and adapt. To advocate from within. And we did, for a long time. We bent ourselves into shapes that did not fit. Worked around all the broken …
Why physician strikes are a form of hospice
It begins with thunder. Not just the kind that splits the sky, but the kind that settles into the chest — low, rolling, remembered. It’s been years since the hurricane, but each crack of lightning still pulls my body into defense. I never used to be afraid of storms. Now, my body remembers before my mind does.
That night, I was post-call. Exhausted, planning to ride out the storm the way …
How a doctor defied a hurricane to save a life
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Critical care physician Jess Bunin, co-founder of All Levels Leadership, discusses the article, “Civil discourse as a leadership competency: the case for curiosity in medicine.” They challenge a core tenet …
Civil discourse as a survival skill in health care [PODCAST]
Words matter.
In a recent conversation with a physical therapist friend who lives with chronic illness, she shared that the term “wellness” doesn’t resonate with her—it feels like an impossible state to attain. She prefers “well-being,” explaining that it more accurately reflects how she feels and functions in daily life.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve spoken and written about physician wellness and well-being, often using the terms interchangeably. But that …
Focusing on well-being versus wellness: What it means for physicians (and their patients)
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