Why health care will never be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic

Policy
September 6, 2022

The health care industry will never be the same again following the COVID-19 pandemic. We can’t risk dying from a virus that had already killed so many people and disintegrated fruitful lives the world over. We need to use new protocols, technological advances, and safety measures to safeguard ourselves from other possible viruses.

Health care is a complex industry where one small change can have a whopping impact. Unfortunately, the last …

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How to motivate a “lazy” teen

Conditions
September 6, 2022

A high school objective: take in young, immature students, work on them in various ways for four years and send them out educated, confident and purposeful. At least that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Perhaps that’s the way it used to be. But things are different now.

On editorial pages and talk show stages, school systems are routinely blasted by an indignant public. Fingers are pointed. Blame is placed. Why …

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When it comes to feeding infants, support is best [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 5, 2022
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“What really is best and first when it comes to infant feeding: support. Support is best. Whether we are talking about infant feeding or frankly anything else related to postpartum or the fourth trimester, support is critical.

The …

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A personal story about trying new things

Physician
September 5, 2022

You’ve got to understand that I don’t like anything being thrown at my face.

Seriously.

This fear goes back to my childhood in Ontario, Canada, when after school in the winter, the neighborhood kids got together to play hockey. Our back yards abutted on a park which had a big field that, come winter, was iced over by a local parent late at …

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Residency almost killed me — literally

Physician
September 5, 2022

One morning, I was sitting in resident lecture. This time was supposedly protected, but we realized fairly quickly that the work still had to be done, and “I had lecture” never really worked out well as an explanation.

By this time in the week, I had already worked 80 hours, and the luxury of sitting down for an hour in a row was the main upside to the lecture. I kept …

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How a medical-legal consultant helped refute a possible pre-existing medical condition argument

Physician
September 5, 2022

Doing medical-legal consulting is a great way to use your medical training in a non-clinical field that really helps people. One of the many things we can do is help attorneys refute the question of a pre-existing medical condition. Often opposing counsel will try to lay off accident injuries as not related to the accident or injury in question.

As you may know, medical-legal consulting is a new non-clinical field in …

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Medical education has woken up, and that’s a good thing

Education
September 5, 2022

A Black woman whose kidneys only function at 15 percent of normal wishes to be evaluated for a kidney transplant. Although this is very reasonable, before 2021, many physicians would have said, “I’m sorry, but your kidney function is not bad enough to be referred for a transplant.”

This is because the kidney function calculator used before 2021 overestimates kidney function for Black people, making her kidney function seem “too good” …

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How to make primary care rotations more appealing for students [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 4, 2022
YouTube video

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“It is time that every health profession school specifies their criteria for optimal teaching primary care practices and for the training that would optimize their students’ experience. It is time that we, as primary care physicians, advocate …

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Are we too scared to talk to our patients about their weight?

Conditions
September 4, 2022

Talking about weight isn’t easy. Case in point, I was scheduled to perform five back-to-back fluoroscopically guided procedures. This was not unusual, but all my scheduled patients happened to be seriously overweight. Excess fat and skin made it difficult to see my needles during the interventional procedures. Therefore, what was ordinarily a routine procedure suddenly became complex and challenging.

I am an interventional pain management physician. For many of my patients, …

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How whole-person care can make us better healers

Physician
September 4, 2022

My patient at a pain clinic on a military base in Virginia carried the deep wounds of war on his face. Not physical scars, but a sallow, slack complexion and a hollow-eyed look of exhaustion and defeat. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan, he had long been suffering from anxiety, depression, and other complications of PTSD, although his presenting complaint was back pain.

The patient, whom I’ll call Sergeant Carlson, …

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How writing a letter on Substack might recharge your life in medicine

Physician
September 4, 2022

“The good life is ever-changing, challenging, devoid of regret, intense, creative, and risky.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche

One year ago, bruised and battered like any physician practicing in this pandemic, I decided to double down on weariness and start writing a medical letter on Substack. I’ve been writing about once a week, with subjects ranging from the newest coronavirus variant of concern, to a reflection on the hidden strengths in frailty, to the pleasure …

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Grief on the front line

Physician
September 4, 2022

Several years ago, I wrote a piece about my experience of personal grief while working as an emergency physician in Australia. The grief I experienced was due to the untimely death of my older brother Martin — a high-achieving lawyer and sportsman — who slowly withered away as he lost his battle with a rare and aggressive lymphoma. It is fair to say that his death broke me, but …

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Skinny fat and normal weight obesity [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 3, 2022
YouTube video

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“Obesity is genetically common in our family. I was being gaslighted and judged by a bunch of obese people, most of whom were doing nothing to improve their health and obesity issues. Yet they fully believe to …

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My patient left against medical advice

Physician
September 3, 2022

“Mr. Stenson left AMA …”

“Why?” I said out loud to my attending.

“He left with his IVs in …” said his nurse in disbelief.

An hour earlier, before rounds, I sat down with Mr. S to talk about his anxiety attack.

Ten years ago, he was shot ten times in the chest, which left him with PTSD and depression. Not long after, he started having unprovoked panic attacks. What started as once or …

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If a program doesn’t care for fellows, could a union?

Physician
September 3, 2022

In my self-righteous youth, I bristled at the thought of physicians unionizing. Certain our collective altruism and professionalism would prevail. Unions were for oppressed laborers, not well-regarded, well-paid professionals. Reading the recent paper in JAMA and 30-plus years in the field have caused me to think again. That, and recently having provided support to a young physician couple with a newborn.

There is nothing quite as messy, all-consuming, and awe-inspiring as …

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Talk about death in plain, simple, easy-to-understand terms

Conditions
September 3, 2022

“You’re dying.”

I can often visualize the impact of my words as soon as they leave my mouth, the heavy weight sinking into the mind and body of my patient as they sit in the stark white hospital bed.

It usually isn’t the first time they’ve heard the sentiment. After all, we tell them countless times in different phrases we use as physicians, expecting them to understand, but none quite as precise …

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Coping mechanisms for medical professionals

Physician
September 3, 2022

I am a pulmonary-critical care medicine physician. I had a medical issue in 2020 and was on limited call responsibilities. When I came back, it was in the throes of the first wave of COVID.

It goes without saying that the last three years or so have been very difficult for everyone in the medical profession. We lost a truly horrific number of patients to COVID — in the early days, …

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If it’s not clinically pertinent, then stay out of my uterus [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 2, 2022
YouTube video

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“No matter how far we’ve come, women are still judged by fertility status but shouldn’t be.

If it’s clinically pertinent to ask about reproductive health, then yes, absolutely ask … in a respectful way. That doesn’t mean judging …

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