I retired early from the profession I loved because the devolution of the health care system had made it impossible for me to care for my patients in a manner that met my standards. It also left me with a wound of “moral injury” which makes me leery of re-engaging with our health care system.
My early career
My first post-training job (1989) as a physician was in a BCBS clinic. After …
A retired physician’s battle with moral injury
Whether one is resuscitating or being resuscitated, the call for help is a cry for help. However, constructive help may be hard to come by and thus harder to let go.
When one is resuscitating or being resuscitated, the scenario may often be that they are or have been driving under the influence of tunnel vision, thus being blindsided by situational incompetence induced by it. Just like the best-case scenario for …
Unveiling the secrets to effective resuscitation and overcoming obstacles
Landmark legislation was signed into law by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on May 2, 2023. Senate Bill 197, the Health Care Practitioners Truth and Transparency Act, is likely the most comprehensive state law promoting exactly what its name promises: truth and transparency, in this case regarding health care credentials.
Informed consent for a patient means, in part, that the patient understands exactly who is treating them. This new Georgia …
Georgia’s new law promoting truth and transparency in health care credentials
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Join us on this insightful podcast episode as we delve into the pressing issue of physician burnout and the challenges physicians face in their careers. Our guest, Dennis Hursh, a veteran attorney with over 40 years of …
You may not have heard about the young girl from my neck of the woods who just graduated from high school and is heading to college in Arizona to study ichthyology. It’s been causing quite a stir because her father, a family medicine doc who runs a busy practice in town, is less than thrilled about her daughter’s chosen career path. The tension between father and daughter is palpable, and …
A tense family drama unfolds as a young daughter pursues unconventional career path
The interplay between the brain’s fast and deliberative decision-making systems is complex yet fascinating, shedding light on the cognitive underpinnings of different medical professions, such as emergency room (ER) doctors and radiologists.
Let’s illustrate this with an example. Consider an ER doctor faced with a patient exhibiting symptoms of a heart attack—chest pain, shortness of breath, and cold sweat. The physician must rapidly recognize these symptoms, immediately initiate protocols, administer clot-dissolving …
Decoding the brain’s decision-making: insights for medical professions and strategies for success
An excerpt from Burden of Pain: A Physician’s Journey through the Opioid Epidemic.
Glide your hand over a piece of velvet and you notice the smoothness. You feel its aggregated smoothness, not the individualized roughness of each fiber. Each fleeting fiber, a prick of truth, is nullified, synthesized, and then magnified into the silky fluency of general perception—propaganda containing within it a concoction of ambiguities and assumptions, cooked with a …
Unmasking the truth: the shocking reality of the opioid epidemic and who’s really to blame
At age 18, my buddy David and I scaled the outside stucco of a hotel in Cancun, Mexico, and soon found ourselves ten stories up, lying on our backs on the hotel roof, looking at the night sky. It was a terribly stupid idea—one of many we had back in those days. But once we were up there, David taught me the major stars and constellations of the summer sky: …
Discover your true north: Navigating life’s confusions and embracing your path to success
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Join Ann M. Hester, board-certified internal medicine physician, in a thought-provoking podcast episode. Explore the challenges of the health care system, including the shortage of doctors and the nursing crisis. Ann shares valuable insights on the importance …
A revolution in patient empowerment: Working together to save our medical system [PODCAST]
It is nearly universally agreed that the United States of America is a “great nation” with the world’s strongest economy, an expansive international presence, and being physically one of the largest countries in the world. The groundwork for this expansion, both in size and economically, was grounded in our concept of “manifest destiny” – the belief that as a nation, we were intended to span from ocean to ocean. For …
Revealing America’s expansion: the dark truth of Native American suffering and unjustified abuses
In the realm of real estate investing, multifamily syndication has garnered significant attention as a lucrative and rewarding investment strategy, particularly among physicians and other high-income earners. Primarily, its appeal lies in its ability to offer attractive returns while simultaneously generating passive income and long-term wealth-building opportunities.
Given the unique characteristics and benefits of multifamily syndications, it has rapidly become a popular investment vehicle among investors looking to diversify their income …
The Moscow mule, a mix of ginger beer, an ounce of vodka, and a squeeze of lemon, has become one of the favorites among cocktail aficionados across the United States. It delivers on all that it promises, namely, an easy-to-make tasty drink, except it has nothing to do with the Russian capital whose name it bears. The birthplace was New York’s Chatham Hotel in Lower Manhattan, and the year was …
From Moscow Mule to the opioid crisis: Unveiling the tragic legacy and urgent solutions
Doctors come from different backgrounds, and we all start medical school with various life experiences. Few people know that I actually started off life as a journalism major. I wanted to write about other people and their life stories. I wanted to travel and photograph what the world had to offer. Then, having lost my journalism job and getting hired at a nursing home as a receptionist, I ended up …
From journalism to medicine: Unveiling the untold stories of patients’ medical conditions
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Join us for an inspiring podcast episode as we delve into the world of trauma, resilience, and personal transformation. Our guest, Rebecca Fogg, consultant and author of Beautiful Trauma: An Explosion, an Obsession, and a New Lease …
Unlocking resilience: a powerful journey from trauma to transformation [PODCAST]
In February, just a few months after being elected to the United States Senate, Pennsylvania politician John Fetterman entered into a treatment program for depression. In an interview with CBS News show Sunday Morning last month, he recounted suffering a stroke in May 2022, then fighting through a grueling Senate race that severely impacted his mental health. “You may have won,” he recalled thinking, “but depression can absolutely convince you …
Overcoming the lies of depression: Senator John Fetterman’s struggle with mental health
The ABIM (American Board of Internal Medicine) Certification exam is not always about the assessment of your knowledge but also about knowing the right strategies, which are keys to success. I passed the ABIM Board Certification Exam without any review course. I had to sign up to work as an attending physician on July 1st due to my financial and visa limitations.
In this article, I will discuss effective preparation methods …
Master the ABIM Certification exam with effective strategies: insider tips for success
As a graduate of Temple University’s medical school and psychiatric residency program, and as a current faculty member, I had the good fortune of studying under highly respected physicians who served not only as chairpersons, but also as presidents, CEOs, and chief medical officers. Anthony (Tony) F. Panzetta, MD, was one of them. Panzetta passed away in 2021 at age 87. As with all great mentors, he had multifaceted talents …
A mentor’s legacy in medicine, leadership, and embracing evidence-based care
Hospitals have the duty to ensure that their physicians are professionally content, both physically and mentally to provide the highest quality of care. But they also have a responsibility to prevent physicians from leaving work for competing institutions. The paradox between the use of restrictive covenants in physicians’ contracts and hospitals’ concerns about physician wellness arises from a tension between two important objectives.
Restrictive covenants, which are clauses in contracts that …
Breaking free from restrictive covenants to combat burnout
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Join us for a thought-provoking episode as we sit down with Cindy Rubin, a pediatrician and breastfeeding medicine specialist. Cindy opens up about the challenges faced by physicians in the current health care system, particularly the constraints …
Fixing the system and prioritizing patient care [PODCAST]
As a medical student with a limited knowledge base and limited exposure to taking care of a high volume of patients, my idea of being the physician I hoped to be involved in spending time at the bedside and really getting to know my patients as people and hearing their stories. As I was learning my way around how the medical world worked as clerkship student, this was perhaps the …
From medical student to intern: Discovering a deeper connection with patients
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