I had wanted to take a long motorcycle trip for years, and I finally carved out two weeks to do so. My pal Doug and I packed our gear onto our Harleys and headed out without an itinerary. We would select the day’s route each morning. Initially, we enjoyed spectacular scenery and good times.
After a few days, however, we encountered pouring rain while winding through remote mountains. There was no …
“There are numerous ways your contract (and your life) can be made better. If you do not want to do it for yourself, do it for your patients. A burned-out physician will not give those patients the same quality of care as a reasonably rested physician would give. For the sake …
The Great Resignation is a great opportunity to renegotiate physician employment contracts [PODCAST]
“The email on your account was changed. If you didn’t change your email address, you can secure your account here.”
I saw this email from Instagram and immediately had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
I clicked the link, but it was too late.
My Instagram account was hacked, and I lost access to everything.
I have heard stories about people getting hacked and never paused to think that it could happen to me.
Until …
What I learned after being hacked on social media
You can get a better deal paying out-of-pocket for routine medical care even if you already have coverage. Another key advantage of going self-pay for medical care is freedom of choice—since every provider takes cash, you don’t have to rely on the whims of an insurance network. You’re then free to pursue whatever doctor or facility you trust the most. That being said, keep your health plan and instead let …
Keep your medical insurance, but pay the doctor with cash
After being a coach for a couple of years now, there is an immediate danger I see right now.
Many of you are doing too much. Unsustainable, dangerous amounts of work. Dangerous to yourself and dangerous to others, which makes it dangerous for you, too.
I’m not trying to be overdramatic, but I am shocked by how much overworking we are accepting.
Everyone’s definition of “overwork” will vary. And the hustle culture and …
“How does it work? We teach people to speak to one another’s values. Have you heard of listening to answer vs. listening to understand? Well, we take that one step further. We teach first to use personality science to find the values of everyone around you, then listen to, and speak …
How to solve burnout with communication [PODCAST]
A patient undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer was diagnosed on April 20th with profound secondary adrenal insufficiency (hypophysitis: ACTH undetectable, cortisol 0.2) caused by immunotherapy (pembrolizumab). She was started on corticosteroids and sent home from the hospital on April 24th with a prescription for only five days of prednisone. After completing the five days of prednisone, she predictably began to feel profoundly weak and nauseous. She continued losing weight …
How patient education can save lives
Recently, several European countries have reported outbreaks of monkeypox following the first case (index case) reported in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2022, linked to a traveler from Nigeria. Monkeypox belongs to a family of other pox-like viruses and is a rare viral disease characterized by flu-like symptoms and a blistering rash that typically begins on the face and spreads to other areas of the body. …
What you need to know about monkeypox
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts that at least 139,000 doctors will be needed by 2033, particularly in rural and low-income areas. In an attempt to address this need, states have been replacing physicians with non-physician health care providers and reducing physician oversight.
I’ve seen it firsthand.
One day in the ER, a patient came in fatigued and dehydrated. He had been to his …
How to tackle the physician shortage
An excerpt from No More Neckties: A Memoir in Essays.
The sign that welcomed visitors to Wakefield, Nebraska, said: “Pop. 1030.” The town’s size didn’t vary in all the years I lived there. It was a close-knit community linked by culture, economy, religion, and blood. The people knew each …
“To reduce eating disorder risks and to support those who may be suffering in silence, we need to keep talking and promote awareness of the issues while clarifying long-held misconceptions about eating disorders. We can’t help those who do not feel able to speak up. We can’t help people that speak …
Military and medicine: shared risk factors for eating disorder development [PODCAST]
There is currently a pandemic-related shortage of iodinated contrast used for CT scans, predicted to last for several months. While the industry is addressing its own lessons on the supply side of production and distribution, those of us in clinical medicine may use this shortage as an educational opportunity to address contrast demand.
There are multiple ways to perform a CT scan of the same body part, depending on the patient’s …
The CT contrast shortage is a learning opportunity
Despite a popular embrace of self-care and the growing awareness of trauma-like symptoms stemming from COVID, one facet of mental health remains widely overlooked: the way our emotional state affects our skin.
Although most of us don’t think about it regularly, our mental state impacts our bodies from head to toe, and the skin—the largest, most visible organ of the human body—is not an exception.
Over the last …
Want your skin to look better? Then consider your mental health.
“I’m sad you are leaving! But I’m sure you had your loans forgiven by coming here! So I am happy for you!”
A colleague said this upon learning I was leaving to pursue a fellowship. Her comment stung. As a non-citizen with private student loans, I don’t qualify for federal loan repayment programs. I came to work in a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) because I wanted to.
Each year, a very …
Stop financially handicapping non-citizen physicians
“These changes on the horizon for our country are unlike anything we have ever experienced. We have only experienced an expansion of rights for those who have been denied fair treatment. Going backwards only infringes our ability to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Future laws that could be …
How reversing Roe v. Wade will affect physicians and patients [PODCAST]
Yet again, while reading an article about fibromyalgia, I was hit with another pejorative term in the first few lines. The authors describe the usual characteristics of fibromyalgia and then say, “and a high level of catastrophizing related to pain.”
If you do a Google search for “catastrophizing,” it tells you that it is “a way of thinking that assumes things are worse than they are or will have a far …
Fibromyalgia is not a trash can diagnosis
An excerpt from The Pain Solution: 5 Steps to Relieve and Prevent Back Pain, Muscle Pain, and Joint Pain without Medication.
The U.S. health care system is designed to handle emergencies. It manages life-threatening heart attacks and acute fractures well. Thankfully, it saves lives. But most ongoing medical conditions …
Current pain treatments and their deficiencies
“The visit with my patient helped to change my perspective. I should not have made assumptions about her based on my implicit bias. I highly recommend the Harvard Implicit Bias tests as an exercise in introspection. We also need to share and reflect on our experiences — especially when we were …
A call to dismantle structural heteronormative care [PODCAST]
This article is sponsored by the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning, an independently owned and operated full-service medical education company that has been developing certified health care education for nearly twenty years.
Visit the CME activity and Clinical Inertia Assessment Tool. This activity is …
20 years and counting. How long will it take to address clinical inertia in T2DM?
At the same time that gun violence becomes the leading cause of death for children in the U.S., lawmakers and political pundits caution the public against turning gun violence into a political issue. Yet as Jelani Cobb writes in the New Yorker, the mass killing of children is always already a political issue.
Furthermore, as so many have articulated against the backdrop of decades of …
Politics is health care on a grand scale
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