The middleman mentality is killing American medicine

Physician
October 18, 2022

Between producers and consumers, you’ll find a cadre of professionals who broker deals, facilitate transactions, and move goods and services along.

They’re called “middlemen,” and they thrive in virtually every industry — from real estate and retail to finance and travel services. If not for middlemen, houses and blouses wouldn’t sell. Banks and online booking sites wouldn’t exist. Middlemen are the reason a tomato grown in South America makes it aboard …

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The perioperative surgical home: a model to tackle today’s pressing health care issues

Physician
October 18, 2022

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

The health care landscape has never been more complex. A deadly and enduring pandemic; health care delivery challenges that leave some communities at higher risk for adverse outcomes; an opioid crisis that takes nearly 200 American lives per day; and an ever-evolving regulatory …

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We are lost and forgotten in the immensity, waiting in the shadows

Conditions
October 17, 2022

We traverse parallel paths, you and I. Paths that intersect during times of stress, loss, and illness. Each of us searching for truth, understanding, and resolution.

Our stories need to be heard, but in these trying times, we are but mere specks in the immensity of the corporate orb of health care which rolls and overpowers all in its path. Its hunger seems not to be satiated, its grasp ever stretching.

The …

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Physician burnout: a lack of resilience or a lack of control?

Physician
October 17, 2022

When I quit my clinic job after four waves of the COVID-19 pandemic as an intensivist, I decided not to work in direct patient care for a while. I expected harsh criticism from my colleagues. Surprisingly, that never happened. The feedback was unexpected, at least for me. Most of my colleagues admired my decision. They called me brave for taking the leap, and many admitted thinking about the same for …

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I wanted to care for people, so I became a direct primary care doctor [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 16, 2022
YouTube video

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“I’ve started to understand many aspects of business, and although we’ve done some pretty amazing things in the past two years, we’ve also made people frustrated and mad while trying to care for them. And so, I …

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Telemedicine is not medicine

Physician
October 16, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in many insidious handmaidens among its foul equipage. From Zoom meetings and school closures to masks and lockdowns, our world was torn asunder and, eventually, rendered anew into a place where almost everything has been changed, by large degrees and small, perceptibly and imperceptibly. It will come as no surprise that medicine is foremost among the more obviously perceptible areas of life that have been irrevocably …

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A story that changed this pediatrician forever

Physician
October 16, 2022

I’m a pediatrician and have been practicing for 29 years. I currently own a solo practice.

Here is a story I wrote years after a patient encounter during my residency in 1993. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was an experience that would shape my career in general pediatrics.

Marcus is the worst case of child abuse I’ve seen to date. He’s two years old. His mom’s boyfriend dips …

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Emotional eating: Why you always want food [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 15, 2022
YouTube video

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“I’ve consistently found that most of the doctors who want coaching help feel like I did when I struggled with my weight: They weren’t feeling like their lives were completely out of control or their problems were …

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Practicing great medicine got a lot simpler. It’s health care that’s getting in the way.

Policy
October 15, 2022

We pay more than any other nation for health care, yet we have suffered the single biggest decline in life expectancy since WWII. Something went wrong. At a time of record inflation and rising taxes, isn’t it time we stopped to ask where the money is going, what exactly we are paying for, and why?

Astonishingly, nearly half the federal budget goes to health care in one way or another. Either …

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Invest in your child. Invest in their future: ESG funds and 529 plans

Finance
October 15, 2022

For parents looking to fund their child’s education, a 529 plan is an optimal way to grow savings through investments and gain significant tax breaks in the process. But as we have previously explored, investments that grow your own portfolio may be causing harm to others by supporting companies that don’t take their social or environmental impact into as much consideration as their bottom line.

In recent years, “environmental, social, …

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Tips to be a more productive, less stressed physician

Physician
October 15, 2022

Why should you be more productive? Because time is money? Not only that. I prefer time is family or time is go-home-sooner.

Being more productive in medicine isn’t working more hours or faster; it means working better.

Take breaks. Doctors rarely take breaks during their workday. Yet most employees do take two 15 minutes breaks each day. Do you feel like 15 minutes is too long? Take at least five minutes per …

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Batman catching babies

Physician
October 15, 2022

Whenever asked, I hesitate to tell people what I do because when a young man says: “I’m a gynecologist,” he never seems to be taken quite so seriously. “No, really, I am” – “Oh.” Instead, I opt for the more charming “I deliver babies” line. Works every time.

And why is that? What about birth and babies triggers a sense of astonishment in people? Whatever it is, it seems to magically …

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How discovering trauma changed this doctor’s life [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 14, 2022
YouTube video

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“In some ways, my diagnosis was the beginning of the rest of my life. I’m now a health coach, helping women struggling with chronic stress and anxiety. And I love what I do. I am able to …

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The White House should help students swap out dairy milk in school lunches

Policy
October 14, 2022

I have an urgent request for the White House as it is garnering support for its national nutrition strategy that was unveiled at the September 28 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health: Tell the U.S. Department of Agriculture to stop putting students’ health at risk, and cut the red tape for them to get nondairy replacements for dairy milk in school lunches.

In the United States, …

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Next of kin in the medical decision making process

Physician
October 14, 2022

Four years ago, as chairman of the hospital ethics committee, I was asked to convene an emergency meeting brought by a distraught family as medical decisions had to be made for their ill loved one. The hospital, HMO lawyers, the family, three adult children, and their mother were at the meeting.

The father had arrived at the hospital unconscious and was admitted to the intensive care unit, where medical care was …

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End printed medical journals [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 13, 2022
YouTube video

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“For the better part of two decades in medicine, I considered printed journals an old friend. Getting my latest medical journal in the mail, opening it, enjoying the feel, look, and even the smell of the journal …

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Why do smart doctors sink money into silly investments?

Finance
October 13, 2022

People who’ve done what it takes to earn a medical degree are typically pretty special. Most doctors spend reasonably, invest wisely and incubate a healthy nest egg: a recipe for a comfortable retirement. But some doctors are profligate and foolishly fall prey to hare-brained financial schemes. On the outside, they seem just like their financially savvy brethren.

But, neuroscientifically speaking, something is lurking under the surface of the silly-money cohort. Let’s …

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