Free association on lessons learned as a new attending psychiatrist

Physician
November 18, 2021

There are several major transitions in a person’s medical career. The first occurs when you leave behind undergraduate life for medical school. The first term as a medical student will test your resiliency and confirm whether you are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to be a physician. The next transition occurs as you leave the academic portion of medical training and enter clinical rotations. This process culminates with the …

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A message from a physician treating COVID patients

Conditions
November 18, 2021

Most of the people who debate COVID-19 vaccination are not physicians. Of those who are, not all have treated COVID-19 patients. I have.

As soon as COVID-19 vaccines became available, my entire practice was vaccinated. One elderly patient was not because he was hospitalized in another state. He acquired COVID-19 there and died.

With the availability of testing and treatment, I have routinely tested patients who were symptomatic or exposed to the …

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A new approach to orthopedic post-operative pain [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 17, 2021
YouTube video

“My brain is still struggling to comprehend the battle for the status quo a physician faces each day; one who must, by default, be cognizant of the lurking dangers of an opioid prescription, while also helping the patient on their swiftest way to recovery, led by the very same guidelines. …

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A story of medicine’s stolen children

Conditions
November 17, 2021

It was a Monday two years ago. I was still fresh from coming back from having been out of school from a COVID break. I was no older than 22, and I was in my pediatrics clerkship. I was greener than a freshly watered lawn, and I felt every bit of it. It was one day into this rotation that I met Adam.

He was a 7-year-old boy the size of …

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Black female physicians and the bias against them [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 16, 2021
YouTube video

“I am a woman of history who stands up and tells the truth, irrespective of what other people say. I remember the words of the late Representative John Lewis, ‘Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a …

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Why you should vaccinate your kids

Conditions
November 16, 2021

I am definitely getting my daughter vaccinated, and I acknowledge a minimal risk. Here is my reasoning, and perhaps this can help your family decide to get the vaccine for the kids in your family, too.

Coronavirus is going to be with us for a long time — years, decades, probably for the rest of our lives like influenza. It is even widespread in deer now, another reservoir …

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Physicians have gone from being heroes to villains [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 15, 2021
YouTube video

“I am exhausted and sad and disappointed and discouraged.

I am losing faith in humanity. Where is the ‘love your neighbor as yourself’? Where is the willingness to help each other? Where is the solidarity of those first days? Physicians have gone from being heroes to being villains. We have dedicated …

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The exciting future of our physical exam with point-of-care ultrasound

Tech
November 15, 2021

In a 1968 episode of Star Trek, Captain Kirk is kidnapped by humanoid aliens, tortured unrelentingly, and shackled to the ceiling by his wrists. Science officer Spock and Dr. McCoy find him disheveled and minimally responsive. They release him from the chains and set him on a nearby table for examination. Dr. McCoy urgently takes out his medical tricorder, a device that can check organ function and …

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How did we let insurers run health care?

Meds
November 15, 2021

How did we Americans allow health insurers to dictate how physicians practice good medicine? The hypocritic oath says, “Do no harm.” We should not allow insurance company profits to prevent proper care for patients.

Our insurer is now telling our young adult son, a Crohn’s patient (Crohn’s is not yet a curable disease), who has been in remission since he began taking Remicade over 11 years ago to switch to a …

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Letting your resident break the bad news

Physician
November 15, 2021

How do you learn to deliver the worst news anyone will ever hear?

And equally important, how do you find the resilience to go on when difficult conversations don’t go well?

My profession for the past 15 years has been to train the next generation of physicians as an inpatient clinician-educator. A key piece of my work revolves around communication with patients and their families. On each new resident team, I coach, …

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Doctors are humans, not heroes [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 14, 2021
YouTube video

“The truth is, we were all drowning, alone, and hiding behind the image of perfection. Clearly, each of us secretly thought that the others had it all figured out. We were so afraid of admitting weakness or asking for help, so we kept it to ourselves and muddled through, burnt …

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How MRI-guided radiation therapy is changing the paradigm in pancreatic cancer 

Conditions
November 14, 2021

I truly believe we’re at the beginning of something great in terms of fundamentally changing how we approach pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. With a mortality rate of roughly 80 percent, it’s been referred to as a medical emergency, yet minimal progress has been made in its treatment over the past few decades.

In the world of radiation oncology, …

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The people vs. opioid pharma: Pharma wins again

Meds
November 14, 2021

On Monday, November 1, an Orange County California Superior Court Judge said, in a tentative decision, that the opioid pharmaceutical companies were not responsible for the opioid crisis.

This particular case, going by the name of “The People of the State of California v. Purdue Pharma,” started in 2014. The judge’s ruling noted that neither party requested a trial by jury. The trial took place before the judge between April 19, …

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Alternative cryptocurrencies: 5 tips for physicians [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 13, 2021
YouTube video

“What are altcoins, and should you be investing in them?

I cannot speak to whether investing in altcoins is appropriate for you. Altcoins are a highly volatile and risky asset class that offers the potential for high returns. Every investor must decide whether they are willing to bear the associated …

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Every patient is someone’s loved one

Physician
November 13, 2021

It felt like watching a train go by with no control over its destination and no way to stop it. We simply had to watch our loved one as he made his way towards death.

The doctor said he had a traumatic brain injury with herniation. His pupils were fixed and dilated on arrival to the emergency department, which meant that he was not a candidate for any neurosurgical intervention. And …

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Physicians aren’t all hanging in there. And that’s OK. [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 12, 2021
YouTube video

“Go ahead, give yourself permission, summon the compassion and grace you’d bestow on your best friend, and tell yourself, “This is the breadth of the human experience, and I’m only human.” There is immense beauty and strength in that vulnerability. I lied to myself for too long, couldn’t see the …

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The rise of targeted therapies: the era of the patient-focused approach  

Meds
November 12, 2021

There is an urgent need for innovation in cancer treatments. Although we’ve seen significant progress in indications for drugs treating particular diseases, cancer research data shows that 10-year survival statistics for cancers such as esophageal and lung cancer, for instance, have shown only a 10 percent increase, while pancreatic cancer has shown no significant improvement since the 1970s. The implementation of targeted therapies in cancer treatment is an …

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Pamela Wible, MD on physician suicide and medicine’s culture of betrayal [PODCAST]

Podcast
November 11, 2021
YouTube video

“When the medical profession—a career you have pursued for years, a career you love and trust to do no harm does something to shatter the foundations of your sense of trust and worldview, the resulting trauma can be severe resulting in loss of sense of self and life-altering betrayal …

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What you don’t know about pain will hurt you

Conditions
November 11, 2021

Chronic pain is an epidemic, currently affecting over 100 million American adults – more than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. This doesn’t include children, 1 in 3 of whom live with a chronic pain condition ranging from migraine to chronic stomachaches. Chronic pain disrupts life, impeding the ability to work, exercise, have sex, engage in hobbies, even go outside. It’s the number one cause of long-term disability in the …

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