Gene therapy has been used recently to cure previously incurable diseases, including sickle cell anemia. It is a horrible disease that I have seen so many times in the ER that it haunts me at night, especially one patient. He was a sweet man with a loving and patient demeanor who tolerated the agony he suffered on a weekly basis with saintly patience. My daughter was helping out in the …
Gene therapy’s impact on incurable illnesses
Is it time to reconsider the age of medical consent for teens? This is a question I have been asking myself as my children are approaching 18. For many years, I’ve dreaded the thought of my medically challenging child turning 18 and suddenly being thrust into the not-so-warm and fuzzy adult world. I have nightmares about her navigating insurance. I cannot visualize my very passive and indecisive child on the …
Rethinking teen medical consent: Navigating complex health needs
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We sit down with Kim Downey, a physical therapist, and Frances Mei Hardin, an otolaryngologist, to dive into the nuances of navigating difficult discussions in the medical field. From delivering challenging diagnoses to …
Navigating crucial conversations in health care [PODCAST]
The McLaughlin 360 Evaluation: preparation (part one)
Have you ever heard the expression, “The truth will set you free”? Well, it might. But before it sets you free, it’s probably going to piss you off.
If you are seriously interested in self-improvement, you have to ask hard questions. And then listen!
About a year ago, I embarked on a personal exercise to learn how to be a better leader and person. I began …
From perfunctory to profound: 4 self-evaluation questions that blew my mind
In medicine, we are taught to be professional and, at all times, to keep our emotions at bay. While this approach may work for some professionals, it is particularly challenging in medicine, especially in primary care. As a family physician, I have witnessed the journey of my patients over the years—sometimes spanning generations within a single family. I have seen my teenage patients grow into responsible adults and parents. I …
What’s love got to do with it? The emotional toll of the practice of medicine
I am a pediatrician who trained in a residency program that taught us insurance companies were evil entities intent on profits over patient care. As ICD codes and CPT codes expanded, my colleagues complained that these were ways insurers could deny care and keep them from making a living. When electronic medical records (EMR) entered the scene, many doctors complained again about the tyranny of spending all their time typing …
EMRs and insurance: a pediatrician’s success story
It was November 2014. I was leaving the parking structure of my local children’s hospital when I realized, “They don’t believe us.”
I didn’t know it at the time, but it would take seven more months to find the cause of my eight-year-old daughter’s unremitting abdominal pain. An ultrasound ultimately revealed a malignant mass on the adrenal gland. Ultrasound is a rudimentary imaging technique, so why did it take …
Suspicions of medical child abuse delayed my child’s cancer diagnosis
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Join ophthalmologist Jade Wong as she shares her firsthand experience of attending a Botox training session that took an unexpected turn when cadaver heads became the teaching tools. Discover the initial shock and …
Cadaver heads, Botox, and an ophthalmologist turned comedian [PODCAST]
Most women, about 60 percent of us, have a biological child. And while the birth of a child is often eagerly anticipated at the end of pregnancy, there are common concerns about the impact and process of delivery. Women worry about all kinds of things. We worry about poor pain control, long labor, deviating from a carefully crafted birth plan, vaginal tearing, and pooping on the floor. Obstetricians have …
The overlooked impact of childbirth: hidden pelvic floor damage
As an allergy, immunology, and autoimmune disease specialist, I frequently see patients whose stories are a harsh indictment of our medical system. They’ve been dismissed, misdiagnosed, and forced to navigate a maze designed for quick fixes, not the complexities they endure. These unseen patients fight multi-system illnesses that defy textbooks. Their journeys highlight just how broken our approach to chronic disease truly is.
Playing “medical hot potato,” they bounce between specialists …
A specialist’s journey in health care advocacy
Older physicians often bemoan what’s perceived as a decline in professionalism during residency training. Caps on the number of inpatients assigned to an intern or resident. Duty hour limits. Wellness retreats. While these may be imperfect, they’re at least aligned with or heading in the direction of what is the right way to balance the rigors of a lifetime of training in and practicing medicine with the safety, quality, and …
Bridging communication gaps in residency training
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We sit down with psychiatrist Lind Grant-Oyeye to explore the transformative power of integrated coaching in physician residency training. We delve into the nuances of integrated coaching, its structured approach to continuous growth, …
Integrated coaching in physician residency training [PODCAST]
Artificial intelligence is upon us and likely will forever change the way we interact with learning and education. Despite this reality, educational institutions seem to fall into either of two camps. One camp seems loath to acknowledge that AI exists. A faculty member who helps with curriculum development at one medical school recently shared, “We don’t know what to do about AI. Do we act like it’s not there, or …
The role of AI in medical education: Embrace it or fear it?
An excerpt from ChatGPT, MD: How AI-Empowered Patients & Doctors Can Take Back Control of American Medicine.
Imagine a ship at sea, its engine idle. The boat drifts dangerously close to the shoals, a mere hundred yards from land. The captain, fearing the worst, radios for help. The lighthouse watchman responds, sending an experienced mechanic named Charlie to the rescue.
With a single precise hit of his hammer, Charlie gets the …
Empowering patients: Navigating medical information with AI
In the English Rule, the losing party in a lawsuit pays all legal costs. It is accepted worldwide; however, in the United States, it was replaced by the American Rule. In the American Rule, both the plaintiff and defendant in a lawsuit pay their own legal costs. Of course, there are exceptions.
In theory, the American Rule encourages meritorious lawsuits and discourages frivolous and even malicious ones. It is noteworthy that, …
Plaintiff attorneys and their contingency fees: causes of chaos in medical malpractice litigation
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
— Frederick Douglass
For doctors beginning their postgraduate professional lives, there are several options. One is the proverbial “hanging up the shingle,” a folk saying meaning going out on one’s own. The advantage is that this doctor is his/her own boss, can run the practice any way desired, and reap all the profits; the downside is such a …
Dream jobs and dream contracts: restrictive covenant nightmares
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We welcome Mary Braun, an internal medicine physician. Mary shares her insights on how perceptions of responsibility for patient outcomes have evolved throughout her career, particularly in light of systemic challenges like the …
Responsibility, burnout, and self-care [PODCAST]
In February 2024, the resident physicians in South Korea resigned in waves. This was not a strike; striking seemed meaningless, and the residents went right on quitting. This occurred after the Korean government promulgated health care reform plans to tackle major problems brewing under the nation’s universal health insurance system. One of the plans–to increase the medical school quota across the nation by 66 percent …
Why South Korean resident physicians are quitting
In the relentless pursuit of saving lives and advancing health care, medical professionals often find themselves on the frontline, where the high stakes of their profession can blur the lines between personal well-being and professional obligations. The noble calling to medicine is, without doubt, a source of immense fulfillment and pride. Yet, this very dedication can sometimes push us towards an imbalance, impacting not just our well-being but also the …
Navigating the tides: Finding balance in the unyielding world of medicine
Taking gap year(s) before medical school does not mean that you have failed or that you are “lesser than” as a student. These are the words I needed to hear as a resolute pre-med student who used to proudly proclaim that I was “going straight through” to med school. It was like a badge of honor—why do anything that would delay my path to becoming a physician?
The pre-med years …
Ode to the gap year(s) before medical school
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