During my 30 years in medicine, and especially as I began leading medical missions in 2005 to the poorest countries in the world, I have seen much need, tragedy, and heartbreak. It is overwhelming. Despite our best efforts medically to help, we fail. What do you do when all else fails? What do you do when someone has lost all hope and feels you have nothing else to offer?
In his …
Physicians prioritize patient needs above all other considerations. To advance that mission, the AMA works tirelessly to improve access to quality, affordable health coverage for everyone, which includes protecting patients from the financial harm posed by unanticipated medical bills that can be generated through out-of-network care.
That is why the AMA has joined the American Hospital Association in asking the courts to …
Over the last several years, there has been an increasing recognition that burnout is rising exponentially among health care workers – and there has been a positive shift in the public understanding of burnout and other mental health issues in general. Unfortunately, the policy response from governments, health care institutions, and policy-makers has been woefully inadequate.
Instead of addressing the root causes of burnout and mental distress among our health care …
“Medicine is not a business
You fools.
Healing is your blueprint, activated
to complete itself.
A doctor does not broker it,
The best anyone can do is align you
With what you should be,
And stay out of the way.
(Like a teenager setting off an illegal firecracker.)
Mostly, you pay the doctor for the alignment,
And the nurse
To …
The white coat ceremony marks the beginning of a new chapter in the lives of medical students. An academic ritual steeped in symbolism, the ceremony calls on new medical students to reflect upon and adhere to the values that guide the profession. The honor of graduating medical school returns these soon-to-be-doctors to the ideals of medicine. They must take an oath to avoid harm, build trust, and …
Attention-grabbing headlines suggest that our crucial COVID-19 pandemic tools—monoclonal antibodies and vaccines—are incompatible. Beyond the controversy rests an evidence-based reality: monoclonal antibodies and vaccines are complementary aspects of patient care. Both are powerful interventions that can prevent hospitalizations and deaths from this virus. After weeks of declining cases and hospitalizations, the United States is experiencing another surge of new infections likely due to multiple factors, including relaxed mask use in …
Diabetes is a complex yet common disease that impacts over 34 million Americans. Blood glucose is just the tip of the iceberg; related complications include neuropathy, eye disease, ketoacidosis, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and more. In fact, it could be said that diabetes is a “whole body” disease, in the sense that it spirals out to cause devastating problems that impact many regions of the body, including …
“The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and it is not uncommon for us to gain up to 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day. But what if we do not want to put on some insulation? What can we do? I specialize in medical weight loss, and my first recommendation …
Welcome to an expedited episode of The Podcast by KevinMD. Trevor Bedford is a computational biologist and infectious disease scientist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He was selected as a recipient of the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship and can be reached on Twitter @trvrb.
Transcript
Kevin …
When the COVID pandemic first reared its ugly head in 2020, I was mentally prepared (as much as any of us could be) for the patient care wave that was coming our way. What I was not prepared for was the mass of anti-science and anti-intellectual pushback that we have seen over the past one and a half, almost two years, in regard to the virus itself and the vaccine.
To …
I remember receiving the email, “Eating Disorder Panel Q & A.” My physician colleague had become very experienced at caring for eating disorder patients. She understood the importance of this work and how misinformed much of the health care community was on the topic.
She took it upon herself to set up a medical didactic session for the health care providers in our practice to provide us with additional education. The …
First in a series.
The business of health care delivery differs markedly from other consumer and service industries in many ways. First and foremost, the economics differ. Specifically, the payers of medical care are often different from the customers, the government and third-party insurers are the primary payers, demand is inelastic, quality metrics are typically unavailable, and the industry consists largely of nonprofits that avoid taxes. And that’s just the start …
“The victims of this now distorted concept of liberty are ones that we physicians encounter every day. The one that inspired this essay for me is an 11-year-old boy that I saw three weeks ago. He is a patient of mine in my pediatric practice who came to see me …
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It has been exactly one year since Pfizer’s first trucks rolled out to much fanfare. Billions followed every twist and turn on the path to getting a vaccine that would save countless lives and give us a return to normalcy. We all hoped for a brisk global vaccination campaign that, in addition to securing our health, would restore our social lives. We yearned for going to large events without the …
Please also read the contrasting opinion article, “Doctoring during Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal.”
The Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal. We need to know the truth: There has been much misinformation and some downright lies on social media and mainstream media regarding this. Some social media outlets have blocked any positive comments regarding Rittenhouse. A man who contributed $25 to a GoFundMe site to support Rittenhouse, (before the social media platform canceled …
In June 2021, the Biden administration announced bipartisan support for federal legislation to rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act seeks to revive highway, transit, rail, and public work systems, as well as improve broadband internet access, mitigate the supply chain crisis and combat climate change.
Like most Americans, I am grateful that we are …
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“The U.S. Department of Education recently announced some major changes to the rules and qualifications around the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. Now, for a limited period of time, borrowers may receive credit for past payments made on loans that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF.
The good news is …
Make no mistake, the newest variant in the COVID-19 family is far more contagious than any of the others. Will it cause a drastic surge in the pandemic? Or could it have a mitigating influence?
First identified in South Africa on November 11, Omicron quickly became the dominant variant in that country. In October, Delta variants were found in 80 percent of all samples sequenced, while in November, 75 percent were …
“You do not have to be good.”
I’ve long considered having these classic, profound opening words of Mary Oliver’s most famous poem tattooed on my body somewhere. Since I quit clinical medicine a month ago, I’m at that stage where I’m researching tattoo parlors.
It was just this morning, a late October Saturday morning, that I took my kids and the dog hiking in the woods in the rain. …
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Did anyone else’s heart sink when you heard about the new COVID variant? Mine sure did. I wasn’t surprised when I heard the news. I felt numb as I know we are in for a challenging period, partially because the colder months are quickly approaching and Omicron has already been identified in numerous countries globally. Echoing the words of a science-fiction movie, “the alien(variant) in amongst us” resonated with many …
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