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Navigating life’s transitions: How I turned my struggles into support

Physician

July 3, 2024

I’ve historically struggled with graduations and transitions—it’s why I help people with transitions now, as I’ve learned how essential it is to have support during these often isolating and destabilizing times. While transitions can be full of celebrations, gratitude, and pride, there are also times when we may experience grief, regret, loneliness, and everything in between.

Sitting with my current transition, I acknowledged many reasons why I tend to skip over …

Battling aplastic anemia: my journey with ATGAM equine therapy

Deborah C. Smith, RN

Conditions

July 3, 2024

This paper is written from the author’s perspective after receiving ATGAM equine immunotherapy for the treatment of aplastic anemia. This journey began in 2017 with the diagnosis of T-cell lymphocytic leukemia without having achieved remission. The author experienced extreme fatigue and shortness of breath. A full cardiac and pulmonary work-up was completed, and all findings were within normal limits. A CBC revealed a hemoglobin level of 4.4! Thus, the journey …

Historical trauma in ethnic health disparities [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

July 2, 2024

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

We explore the complex factors contributing to ethnic health disparities in the United States with our guest, Melody T. McCloud, an obstetrician-gynecologist who was bestowed a Distinguished Alumni Award by Emory University School …

From medical student to intern: Embrace your inner artist

Audrey Nguyen, MD

Physician

July 2, 2024

“A message to the new generation of interns: you’re not just a doctor—you’re an artist, too.”

It’s the first day of residency. You enter the hospital, trying to recall basic medicine after months away from patient care. Gone are the days of hovering between unpaid trainees and health care providers. Gone are the days when you could deploy the instinctive, age-old adage, “I’m just the medical student.”

During graduation this year, I …

Why doctors risk jail time to treat pain and addiction

L. Joseph Parker, MD

Meds

July 2, 2024

This is a strange time in America. While tools for treating pain and addiction, unchanged essentially from the late 1800s to the early 2000s, are now being developed, daring to try to utilize these medications and the science we have learned about them can be a huge risk. Not for the patient but for the doctor. There is a stigma that has always been attached to these areas of medicine, …

Providing clarity in behavioral health: How patients, providers, and payers can benefit from measurement-informed care

Kevin Ramotar, PsyD

Conditions

July 2, 2024

Mental health conditions are among the most common health concerns in the United States, with 1 in 5 adults living with a mental illness. Yet those who need care have long been faced with issues of access, understanding, and stigma. While the coronavirus pandemic gave way for some of these issues to be addressed, allowing free-flowing conversations about mental health to become more commonplace, legislation to be put …

A mother’s harrowing hospital experience

Laura Buchman, MBA

Conditions

July 2, 2024

An excerpt from NERVE: Surviving Medical Madness.

“There are moments which mark your life. Moments when you realize nothing will ever be the same and time is divided into two parts, before this and after this.”
— N. Kazan

It was a peaceful, uneventful drive—until it wasn’t. My husband and I flipped to the local news radio station and heard them discussing an extreme weather event just as we looked straight ahead …

A doctor’s journey with Sjogren’s [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

July 1, 2024

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Join us for a conversation with Kara Wada, an adult and pediatric allergy, immunology, and lifestyle medicine physician, as she shares her personal journey with Sjogren’s. Discover how her experience as both doctor …

An ankle away: the urgent call to listen to our bodies

Dorinda White, MPA

Conditions

July 1, 2024

In 2017, amidst the routine of caregiving for my elderly father, I experienced a sudden and unexpected turn of events that brought me face to face with an undeniable truth: the importance of knowing and listening to our bodies. I slipped on a carpet and broke my ankle while pushing my father forward in his wheelchair. It was a moment that not only challenged my preconceptions but also illuminated a …

Harnessing the power of AI and personalized videos: a new era in patient education and clinical care

Shitij Arora, MD

Tech

July 1, 2024

As a physician and digital health practitioner, I have seen firsthand the challenges of ineffective patient education and the immense potential for technology to revolutionize how we inform, engage, and empower patients in their health journeys. Imagine a future where every patient, regardless of their language, cultural background, or health literacy level, can receive tailored, engaging, and easily understandable video content that empowers them to manage their health effectively. This …

How to live when you know you are dying

Sonny Miles, MD

Physician

July 1, 2024

We had been meeting for a number of months when she posed the question. We met in person one time, but other than that single appointment, all of our meetings were virtual. She had metastatic cancer. She didn’t actually want to know that her cancer had returned. The metastatic disease had been found when they couldn’t complete her colonoscopy and ordered a scan to see why. She helped me understand …

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How to live when you know you are dying

From patient care to powerful stories: an interview with KevinMD [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 30, 2024

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Welcome to a special episode of the podcast where we turn the tables on Kevin Pho, the founder of KevinMD. In this episode, pediatrician Lisa Sieczkowski interviews Kevin, delving into his motivations behind …

This doctor sometimes listens to pirates

Ryan McCarthy, MD

Physician

June 30, 2024

I read in a dusty novel that a famous pirate said there are no legacies in this life. Our lives, he said, float atop a fickle sea, and when we die, nothing remains. Many hands work the decks and, in the process, are worn, discarded, and forgotten. The sea gives, and eventually, she flushes the flotsam, leaving no monuments to souls and their adventures.

Well, this is not entirely true. And, …

What if AI focused on respecting the craft of medicine?

Kyna Fong, PhD

Tech

June 30, 2024

Health care technology has a long history of getting it wrong. The electronic health record (EHR) boom of the late 2000s was a remarkable transformation — taking our sector from paper charts to computers in a matter of just a few years. Unfortunately, most of the technology that was so feverishly adopted was developed without clinical input and with a focus on medical reimbursement and policy-compliance checklists over medical care. …

Blue Zones uncovered: a physician’s first-hand experience

Michelle Tollefson, MD

Physician

June 30, 2024

A windy, bumpy road led my family into Costa Rica’s remote Nicoya Peninsula, one of the world’s five so-called Blue Zones. Our arrival in 2021 satisfied a wish I had made while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer to visit this fascinating, biodiverse region where people are documented to live healthier, longer lives.

I have taught my students in the lifestyle medicine program at Metropolitan State University in Denver about the literature …

How physicians can fight back against private equity takeovers [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 29, 2024

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

Join us for a discussion with Nathaniel Arana, CEO of NGA Healthcare, as we explore the growing influence of private equity firms in the health care sector. Over the past decade, private equity …

Working with your patients to promote healthy brain aging

Roy Hamilton, MD

Conditions

June 29, 2024

As a behavioral neurologist and professor in the departments of neurology, psychiatry, and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania, my research focuses on using noninvasive brain stimulation technologies to help people with cognitive problems due to neurological disorders. I also study human cognition with the goal of better understanding how different parts of the brain work in order to help people preserve their brain health and cognition …

Scams perpetrated on authors by impersonators and bad actors

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

June 29, 2024

Shortly after publishing a book, I received what seemed like a promising film adaptation offer from a reputable-sounding company. Despite initial excitement, I discovered it was a sophisticated scam. This experience taught me to stay vigilant and verify unsolicited offers—not only book and movie deals but any business promise that appeals to your ego and seems like a get-rich-quick scheme.

Many accounts similar to mine have been reported on the internet. …

Interdisciplinary care teams play a pivotal role in mitigating the clinician shortage

Jamie Babcock, ANP-C

Policy

June 29, 2024

The evolving health care landscape presents a growing demand for skilled providers. To meet this challenge, health care leaders must prioritize innovation and explore solutions that leverage existing resources to deliver the high-quality care that patients deserve.

The U.S. health care system faces a looming crisis: a critical shortage of clinicians. The Health Resources and Service Administration predicts a shortfall of nearly 140,000 physicians by 2036. Compounding this issue, a …

Paper vs. electronic records: Why a blend is essential for modern health care

Deepak Gupta, MD and Sarwan Kumar, MD

Physician

June 29, 2024

It is time to consider a blend of paper and electronic records. Paper records will not remain relevant forever, nor will electronic records remain infallible. The purpose of any record is to ensure that the past is preserved. If the past is lost, the present feels weakened. However, this sense of weakness arises only when the present constantly relies on the past. What if there were no past to refer …

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