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In this episode, we welcome Jennifer Shaer, a pediatrician, to discuss the issue of physician suicide rates and how the holidays can impact mental health. Despite being one of the happiest countries in the world, Scandinavian countries …
There’s a blog for everyone! Whether you cannot get enough awkward family pictures, epidemiologist input, cat humor, vegetarian cooking recipes, menopause tips, or love to geek out on pie charts – there’s a blogger out there creating content for you.
What this means – aside from endless entertainment possibilities – is that no matter how obscure your niche may be, opportunity abounds for you to start blogging, too.
Why blog?
Blogging allows you …
“Even a room with flammable gas will not explode unless someone strikes a match.”
– Dr. Bob Wachter
Case 1:
On March 27, 1977, two 747s collided on the runway at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people. On a foggy morning, the KLM 747 was waiting for clearance to take off. Captain Van Zanten was a well-known pilot with excellent safety records. The KLM crew spotted a Pan Am 747 taxiing …
Recently I tried to log onto my hospital system’s electronic health record to check on the status of a patient. This patient is elderly, severely mentally incapacitated, and being cared for by physicians on the neurology service. Her son, a practicing physician at the same facility, had not received a return phone call from any of the inpatient physicians and wanted to know why his mom needed a lumbar puncture …
An excerpt from Lean Out: A Professional Woman’s Guide to Finding Authentic Work-Life Balance.
In the third grade, my teacher identified me as a high achiever. Aside from recognition, he “rewarded” me with the opportunity to write an extra report on a topic of my choosing every month. Being young and …
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In this episode, I’m on the other side of the microphone. I’m interviewed by Adam Sewell at the Medical Entrepreneur podcast. I share insights on the non-linear paths physicians can take with their degrees and their …
As physicians, we all know what “badness” is in medicine. “Badness” is a word many physicians use to convey a painful, complicated, tragic, or adverse clinical experience. Badness is usually some bad, particularly emotional “bad.” Due to medical training most physicians struggle to describe their emotions or even allow themselves to acknowledge emotions, especially around distressing patient cases. The word “badness” frequently conveys to others how awful the event was, …
I have been overweight or obese since I hit puberty. I have gained and lost the same 60 pounds half a dozen times in my adult life. I’ve never been one to try a fad diet – I research the data and follow a scientifically sound plan. I understand that the only way to lose a pound is to have a 3,500-calorie deficit. Losing weight is actually quite simple. But …
Recently I had the unfortunate experience of changing my perspective from being a doctor to becoming a worried family member.
My father spent five weeks in a hospital with a severe infection. Visiting hours were restricted to one hour per day – the aftermath of COVID – and getting information about his therapy, prognosis, etc., was nearly impossible.
Thankfully, my father recovered and was discharged. He was more than happy to go …
“I own the world!” was my exact thought when my doctors entered my bone-marrow transplant unit and said I was cancer-free! That joyous moment lasted a few seconds because they immediately declared, “Be careful, you have a 30 percent chance of recurrence from the same cancer and X percent chance of XYZ …”
I don’t remember the entire conversation as I stopped listening. My body became numb, and I was pushed …
The growing role of private health care in Canada is a hot topic at the moment. Provincial governments are outsourcing elective surgeries to the private sector and are considering or debating the option.
Many Canadians are in favor because they recognize that the public health care system is failing. Many are against it because they fear it will increase inequalities in access to care for the most vulnerable populations, particularly …
Excerpted from Physician Leadership: More Valuable Than Ever — A White Paper from the American Association for Physician Leadership.
Physician leadership is an essential element required to provide optimal patient-centered care. To succeed, health care must be quality-centered, safe, streamlined, measured, evidence-based, value-driven, innovative, fair, equitable, and physician-led.
The American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL) is focused on the personal transformation of all physicians, and through them, the organizations they serve. …
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Retirement planning should start at the onset of your professional career. Like many things in finance, the earlier, the better. Many residents and fellows can save into a retirement plan and receive matching contributions even during their training. Over the next 30-plus years as a medical provider, your investment returns will play a role in your preparedness for retirement, but returns are not the only important variable. You’ll also have …
As nurses in behavioral health, we were not well-versed in the field. After 33 years in ICU nursing, I left the unit expecting behavioral health to be an easier transition. However, the comparison between the two was like comparing apples to oranges. There was no real comparison between the two.
One day, we admitted a 33-year-old female patient who was constantly angry and had outbursts, hitting patients and staff members without …
Physician non-compete clauses have been a controversial topic for many years. These clauses within contractual agreements prevent physicians from joining or operating a competing practice within a certain distance or timeframe. With the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) looking into non-compete clauses, many people have wondered whether the FTC will finally end physician non-compete clauses.
On January 5, 2023, the FTC proposed a new rule that would ban employers from imposing …
While we appreciate the importance of trust, not all patients have the same windows of opportunity to establish it with their physicians. The nature of each specialty and the severity of the patient’s condition influence how quickly and deeply trust can be created and maintained. The STEMI patient will quickly learn to trust the interventional cardiologist, and the trauma victim, and the surgeon.
Not surprisingly, it’s very challenging for physicians …
Medicine is both a business and a profession, with the business aspect being the provision of health care services for a fee and the professional aspect being the delivery of medical care for the patient’s benefit.
The business of medicine refers to the broader economic and political systems that shape the health care industry, such as government policies, insurance regulations, and the influence of pharmaceutical companies and other industry stakeholders.
The terms …
As the health care industry continues to evolve, many practices and hospitals have turned to electronic portals to communicate between patients and their providers. However, some practices have begun charging patients a fee for responding to messages sent through these portals. While this may seem like a viable solution for increasing revenue, it could ultimately have negative implications for the care of patients.
One major issue with charging patients for portal …
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