Healthy patients and healthy physicians: Is it possible?

Physician
May 7, 2022

Doctors who do not practice healthy behaviors and do not exercise are less likely to counsel their patients about improving health practices. Such omissions are a missed opportunity for more effective, safer, and less expensive care, in which patients become empowered to improve their own health.

Physician well-being is also central to the successful functioning of the entire health care system because to do well, you need to be well.

Yet, Read more…

What does living with COVID really mean?

Conditions
May 7, 2022

It’s a standard instruction during safety demonstrations on airplanes: “In the event of a sudden loss in cabin pressure, an oxygen mask will drop down in front of you. Put your mask on before helping others.”

But why is that? Wouldn’t it make more sense to help those who are most vulnerable?

The answer has to do with the way our bodies react to a lack of oxygen.

When cabin pressure drops, the …

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Finding meaning with medical missions [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 6, 2022
YouTube video

“One initiative that more administrators should support is global medical outreach. The ability to practice pure medicine, like the neighborhood doctor from long ago, renews a love for the vocation that physicians sought when they first entered medical school. Humanitarian outreach will help reinvigorate physician workforces immediately, allowing physicians to have …

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Burnout follows from physician to wellness director

Physician
May 6, 2022

Tuesday, at the podium in a small auditorium, I realized that my time was finally up. Even as an educator/administrator (non-clinical) physician, I was done. Preparing to give a canned talk — a requirement of my current career strategy — facing a group of anonymous medical students, the only thought going through my head was, “Why don’t we blow through these slides and get out of here?”

Normally, I relish public …

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A physician’s infertility story

Physician
May 6, 2022

How ironic the way a young woman’s thoughts and attitudes change.

We spend so many years — decades, perhaps — preoccupied by controlling our cycles. For some, it is about cycle control.

For others, it is to avoid pregnancy because we are not yet ready or do not want to have a family. In those cases, most start some form of birth control, and for years we wait anxiously to bleed each …

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The Great Resignation is a great opportunity to renegotiate physician employment agreements

Physician
May 6, 2022

The Great Resignation is producing tremendous challenges for physicians. In particular, many “senior” physicians (some as young as 50 years old) are simply throwing in the towel and resigning rather than continue with the brutal schedules imposed by many employers. As physicians leave, it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new talent, so in many cases the remaining physicians are forced to take up the “slack.” That “slack,” of course, …

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What patients need vs. what patients want [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 5, 2022
YouTube video

“Patients want more than simply learning about a problem and how to treat it. Patients want reassurance. While I summarized the proposed surgical treatment, I watched for signs of anxiety or lack of understanding. Ultimately, my patient wanted to have confidence that I was the right person for the job and …

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5 reasons why women in medicine are burned out (and what to do about it)

Physician
May 5, 2022

There has been a lot of increased focus on burnout in health workers over the past two years—with good reason.  The added stress of a global health crisis to an inefficient system created a compounding effect on a pre-existing issue.  This has led to soaring rates of burnout and increased the overwhelm, moral injury, trauma, and stress that clinicians were already facing.

The great resignation is at our doorstep as well.  …

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A matter of trust: Bill Maher loses trust in medical professionals

Conditions
May 5, 2022

I was at my gym last night. Billy Joel’s ballad about trust was the metronome to my squats. Though vaccinated and boosted, I was wearing my mask. I know the latest evidence about vaccines and natural immunity, the dramatic transmissibility but mild virulence of the latest Omicron variant.

So my mask was only for optics. Someone might recognize me as a doctor in the local hospital where masking is still mandated. …

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The inevitable reboot of the primary care experience

Physician
May 5, 2022

Visiting the doctor’s office can be a source of anxiety for millions of patients, who often fear unknown costs, an unexpected diagnosis, or exposure risk to diseases, like COVID-19.

On the other side of the equation, business stakeholders of a community-based primary care setting are struggling to exist within the confines of 20th-century technology and strategies. The Physicians Foundation estimates that 16,000 physician practices closed during the pandemic …

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Understanding your medical malpractice insurance policy [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 4, 2022
YouTube video

“Arguably one of the most overlooked yet incredibly important aspects of your malpractice insurance policy is the Consent to Settle Provision. You’re paying thousands of dollars a year for your malpractice insurance; you should have a say in how your claims are handled, don’t you think? Today we’re going to talk …

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Doctors are trained to lie

Physician
May 4, 2022

Here are the top 10 ways how and why doctors lie. See if you recognize any.

1. Doctors lie about work hours. When logging actual work hours exceeding the weekly “80-hour cap,” new docs are cited for duty-hour violations. Labeled as inefficient, overworked residents may be sent for a psych eval and prescribed stimulants to force compliance. “We were all taken into a room by the program director and told to …

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Dislocations: an exception to the rule

Conditions
May 4, 2022

There are not many situations in general medicine where a doctor can affect an instant cure, and the patient will call them a “miracle worker.” Most patient visits end with a prescription or two or some instructions along with the admonition, “You’ll feel better in a few days.”

One exception to this rule: dislocations.

A simple dislocation happens when the end of a bone is pulled out of its socket (or niche) …

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Roe v. Wade: questions that need to be addressed in the near future

Policy
May 4, 2022

On May 2, 2022, news broke that Roe v. Wade would be overturned according to an initial draft majority opinion released by Politico. In the political economy that we find ourselves in, this news has had the immediate consequence of furthering divisions between Americans — those in favor of the ruling and those against. While much rhetoric about the morality of the underlying subject matter already …

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Protecting Black women’s maternal health is urgent

Policy
May 4, 2022

In a world of extremes where we are operating in black and white, living in the gray is where the real work happens of confronting truths of left and right, conservative and liberal, and opening up to varying perspectives that reflect diversity.

This is the space where I’ve witnessed the possibilities of navigating the divided worlds of pro-life activism and reproductive justice.

Vice President Kamala Harris recently acknowledged the …

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Mental illness and suicide: a physician’s story [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 3, 2022
YouTube video

“Sufferers of mental illness often believe that others feel they have control of their symptoms, only having to decide to not be, for example, depressed. While they themselves suffer the symptoms of mental illness, they often have the feeling that they should be able to control them. Depending upon their experience, the …

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What to do when your child suffers a concussion

Conditions
May 3, 2022

This spring, kids will be returning to extra-curricular activities and organized sports in the community, much of which was canceled over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As these activities resume, now is a good time to learn what to do in the event of a concussion.

Concussions are one of the most common sports injuries in children and youth. Canadian data show there are nearly …

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Why can’t we say the word, “suicide?”

Physician
May 3, 2022

Iconic singer Naomi Judd died at age 76, one day before she was to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Her daughters, Wynonna and Ashley Judd, shared a statement confirming her death: “Today [April 30, 2022] we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness.” An exact cause of death was not disclosed, and no additional information was forthcoming. …

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Robotics, automation, and the future of remote health care

Tech
May 3, 2022

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care innovation has been occurring at an unprecedented rate. A growing focus on technology – and the ways that it can help improve patient care and the provider experience – is now at the forefront, and many organizations are reexamining how they can implement new tools and processes in their practices.

In my field of interventional cardiology, one of the …

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Permission to burn the manual [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 2, 2022
YouTube video

“I started planning my escape in late 2020. I would find a way to quit health care, to cease being a practicing physician altogether. Living the life of a doctor-mom, I felt consumed with daily obligations and duties.

Guilt plagued me for feeling burdened by this life, for feeling it was a …

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