The doctor’s digital twin will see you now

Tech
March 14, 2024

Imagine a day when you wake up from a perfect six hours and thirty-six minutes of restorative sleep. Overnight, a wearable device or implanted chip has been continuously monitoring and capturing a comprehensive set of your biological and physiological variables. The ingested data from the variables collected is processed through an adaptive machine learning algorithm to create a physician-directed longevity score to increase health span—the length of time a person …

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From passion to burnout: When a doctor’s love hurts

Physician
March 14, 2024

If only I had managed Mrs. Smith’s blood pressure better, she wouldn’t have had that car accident.

If I had made the case for a statin better, Mr. Wu would not have had the diverticulitis episode.

These types of thoughts have been with me for all of my decades of practicing medicine. Somehow, I’m supposed to blame myself for things that are less than ideal about my patients’ situations and about which …

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Navigating the health system with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 13, 2024
YouTube video

 

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We sit down with Denise Reich, a patient advocate, to explore her journey of navigating the healthcare system with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Denise shares her experiences from the initial mention of EDS during …

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Remembering Colgan Air Flight 3407: a medical responder’s story

Physician
March 13, 2024

Fifteen years later and I can still see it.

I wasn’t able to go to the scene that night, but several of my colleagues did. As morning broke, a new shift of my colleagues went to the scene. And on the next morning, I did. We were there to provide medical support to the hundreds of investigators, evidence collectors, workers, and firemen who were helping with the scene. We were working …

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Why we all need to care about the primary care physician shortage

Physician
March 13, 2024

American College of Physicians  

It is somewhat cliché these days to talk about physician workforce shortages, but recent data highlights that the problem is getting worse. Two research publications this past year were particularly alarming.

First, in a recent analysis of internal medicine resident career plans from 2019 to 2021, only 9.4% of internal medicine residents indicated they planned to pursue a career …

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From overdose to ICU: a doctor’s battle for a young woman’s life

Conditions
March 13, 2024

An excerpt from Adventures of an American Medical Student.

I can still remember Ms. Osborne’s long, messy, brown hair and pale, attractive face like it was yesterday. She was young, and she presented to the Brighton Medical Center Emergency Department (ED) unconscious after an OxyContin overdose. I saw her as soon as she arrived with Brent Johnson, a young, trim, handsome MD who was wearing hunter green scrubs embroidered with …

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“No” can be a complete sentence

Physician
March 13, 2024

Nope, nada, no gracias, non, rara—they may sound different, but they all mean the same thing: no. In our world of instant messaging, the immediate gratification society seems to have lost the ability to unplug, unwind, and say no to unnecessary demands, which inevitably causes us more inner distress than any good.

The journey into my medical career was anything but easy. It was grueling and made me question myself – …

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How situational judgment tests help medical schools evaluate applicants

Education
March 13, 2024

Within 48 hours of every job posting, hundreds of applications pour in. As the hiring manager, you want to fill the position within two months, or your supervisor might cut it out of your budget. After triaging the unqualified applicants using data-driven filters and artificial intelligence tools, you still have a few hundred left. At this point, many hiring managers invite the remaining candidates to take a situational …

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Exploring the benefits of Dry January for older adults [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 12, 2024
YouTube video

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We sit down with Michael Pessman, a gerontologist, to discuss the unique risks older adults face with alcohol consumption. We’ll explore the enhanced physical and mental health benefits of participating in Dry January, …

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Primary care for all Americans: What the U.S. health care system can learn from Scituate, Rhode Island

Physician
March 12, 2024

In the quaint New England town of Scituate, Rhode Island, with a population of 10,000, a health care revolution was brewing. Dr. Michael Fine, a passionate family physician, had moved to Scituate with his family in 1992 to serve a quiet, rural community with significant health care challenges. By 1999, though, Scituate’s residents had become very worried about the cost of health care. Two insurers packed up and left …

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Ditch the guilt and stress: Embrace your core values like this inspiring doctor mom

Physician
March 12, 2024

Kim Downey:

I recently had an enlightening conversation with Dr. Sarah Wittry. We enjoyed learning about all that we share in common!

As a physical therapist, I was delighted to hear that Dr. Wittry’s medical career began in physiatry/PM&R.

Having friends and relatives who have benefited from hospice care, I have tremendous respect for her current work in palliative medicine and hospice.

We spoke of how it has felt to each of us to …

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High-profile legal cases: social media’s role in modern justice [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 11, 2024
YouTube video

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We explore the intersection of high-profile legal cases and social media with renowned psychiatrist and author Doug Bremner. In this episode, we’ll be discussing the impact of social media on public perception, the …

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Malpractice lawsuits: a data-driven approach to risk management

Physician
March 11, 2024

The first book I ever read was The Last Angry Man. I could never have imagined then how it would influence me now.

It is about a fictional character, Dr. Samuel Abelman. He is a general practitioner practicing in New York City during the 1950s. He is in the twilight of a career that spans fifty years of commitment to the Hippocratic Oath.

In the 1950s, the emerging professional trend is specialization. …

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Burned by the system, sparked by surgery: a resident’s odyssey

Physician
March 11, 2024

“Medicine is a form of art.” Those are the words my grandfather told me as I embarked on my journey through medical school. Medicine resembles literature; we, physicians, enter into people’s lives, and we become part of their life tales. The way we do our work influences how these stories are told. Some tales speak of loss and sorrow, while others resonate with healing and joy. It’s akin to sculpture, …

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The power of syncing life with nature’s yearly cycles

Physician
March 11, 2024

Humans are naturally attuned to various biological rhythms, such as daily (circadian), weekly (circaseptan), monthly (circatrigintan), and yearly (circannual) cycles. These rhythms not only govern our sleep, eating habits, and energy levels but might also influence the design and functioning of systems we create, like technology and organizational processes.

For instance, it’s commonly advised to restart computer systems weekly to maintain optimal performance. This practice mirrors the circaseptan rhythm, suggesting that …

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Prioritizing self-care for health care workers [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 10, 2024
YouTube video

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Join us as we sit down with general surgeon Scott Ellner to discuss evidence-based strategies aimed at improving the well-being of those on the front lines. In this insightful conversation, Scott delves into …

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The humorous essay that predicted today’s medical anxiety epidemic

Conditions
March 10, 2024

In elementary school, we read an essay named “The Man Who Was a Hospital” by Jerome K. Jerome. This is a humorous essay in which the writer describes his misadventure in a humorous way. He says that once, he was reading a liver pill circular when he suspected that his liver was out of order. He went to the British Museum Library to study the details of liver disease. He …

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Psychological safety: an overlooked factor in clinician burnout and moral injury in health care

Physician
March 10, 2024

I remember when I first decided to step away from medicine. While I wasn’t burned out like some of my colleagues whom I would later coach, I did have what I now understand to be compassion fatigue. It was a familiar feeling I had felt before, and I knew that if I continued down the path, it would take me right back to the night I almost ended my life.

Called …

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Panic button: Escaping the broken health care escape room

Physician
March 10, 2024

Escape rooms have become very popular. Entering a room of seemingly unconnected clues with a group of family members or coworkers creates a sense of fear and excitement that ultimately leads, if successful, to a great sense of accomplishment and relief. The entire experience is designed to enhance trust among team members and inspire confidence in working together to solve difficult problems. When it comes to improving the health care …

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