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If we better manage diabetes, can we better manage COVID?

Conditions

April 1, 2022

Over their lifetimes, adults in the United States have a 40% chance of developing type 2 diabetes. And the likelihood for Latino adults is 25% higher. Even worse, Latinos develop type 2 diabetes when younger, and experience more severe complications and higher hospitalizations.

The stark disparities of type 2 diabetes reveal how cultural and social factors affect disadvantaged populations. As a case in point, managing diabetes is more difficult for patients …

I left medicine. Then I found meaning.

Danielle Sweeney, MD

Physician

April 1, 2022

Many years ago, doctors were relied upon to care for the health needs of their local communities. They were trusted fixtures relied upon to diagnose and treat whatever the ailment. They spent time interacting with patients, not paperwork or screens. There was no bureaucratic red tape or a long list of administrative procedures. It was pure medicine.

I think it would be safe to assume that burnout barely existed. These doctors …

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I left medicine. Then I found meaning.

I risked my career to save my life [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 31, 2022

“I have spent years in silence about my career decisions, nervous that my inability to take call and inability to thrive while sleep-deprived could be seen as weaknesses. Being afraid to admit I was advocating for my mental health and my life. That’s a problem. I am experiencing fear …

I gained weight and, with it, I gained life

Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD

Physician

March 31, 2022

First, this article is not to discredit or compare to anyone. This article is not to take away the celebrations of those whose behavioral changes have made them feel more healthy and fulfilled in their lives — though I will challenge the emphasis on the number on the scale as an outcome measurement to use for such celebrations. This article is to shine a light on a less commonly discussed, …

Going mobile: an antidote for career regret

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

March 31, 2022

This year, the National Resident Matching Program provided matching services to more than 42,000 applicants. A medical student’s choice of specialty is one of the most important decisions they will ever make. But deciding which medical specialty to enter can be difficult. The majority of medical students are indecisive about their intended area of practice. Over the course of medical school, only a quarter (26.1 percent) of …

What does Will Smith’s facial expression at the Oscars tell us about our patients?

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Physician

March 31, 2022

Will Smith’s Oscar smackdown of comedian Chris Rock proves one thing: violence should never be a response to insults – or any other inciting factors – in the heat of the moment. Will Smith knows it, and so do the millions of television viewers who witnessed the assault. Yet, despite Smith’s written apology to Rock, Smith may likely believe his actions were justified. Why do I say this? Because if …

How doctors can ensure their Latinx patients receive the best medical care

Andrea Mendiola-Iparraguirre, MD

Physician

March 31, 2022

“Any questions?” I asked one of my patients, Dona Maria, for the third time.

After her prolonged silence, I asked again, almost in despair, “anything else? Anything that you don’t like about what I have said? Or anything you don’t like about the medications I am recommending?” Dona Maria sees my disappointment and tries to smile at me. Then she shares some stories about her great-grandson, who just turned three.

It is …

Inside the race to conquer the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 30, 2022

“That year, 2020, Uğur told the crowd, would be the year BioNTech proved the doubters wrong.

There was no time to lose. Soon after he’d finished his talk, Uğur hopped on a plane to Seattle, where he met with a team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which had …

Mental health issues and the African American community

Lashawnda Thornton, MSW

Policy

March 30, 2022

Death is a topic that most people try to avoid. Death by suicide is also something that that remains rarely discussed. This is probably because suicide is scary, particularly if we have thoughts of being the loved one left behind. People considering suicide don’t take the time to let people know that they are considering suicide; they tend to keep all these things bottled up to themselves.

As one writer Read more…

Mental health issues and the African American community

Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response

Melissa Hankins, MD

Conditions

March 30, 2022

This is what the result of unresolved trauma looks like.

What we witnessed Will Smith do in assaulting Chris Rock during the Academy Award ceremony was a trauma response.

While I am in no way condoning violence, this is a very public and important opportunity for us to understand what a trauma response can look like.

A trauma response can take many forms and look like:

Slapping someone for saying “the wrong” thing.

…

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Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response

Why this medical school is doing it right

Joe Mandato and Ryan Van Wert, MD

Education

March 30, 2022

It’s been shown that patients can benefit from a satisfying medical experience and the actual clinical treatment. The satisfying medical experience in and of itself leads to trust, follow-through, and health improvements.

Medical school is the optimal time to learn how to deliver a great patient experience. In med school, one develops formative views on the culture of medical practice. Knowing this, we looked at an institution that …

Support desperate health care workers now, before your life counts on them [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 29, 2022

“America’s health care workers are on the brink of collapse. If we want them to hold on and be there for us when we are too sick to walk, stand or breathe, we must act now.

Cast aside political opinions. Follow CDC guidelines. Wear masks when you are in a group …

Death of a nurse: a soliloquy

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

March 29, 2022

It’s not what you think. It’s not my actual mortality.

It’s that emotional death.

Of being a nurse.

If you’ve never been a nurse. Then you will never know.

It’s that’s giving of yourself: heart and soul.

Constantly and forever.

It’s not being with your family for Easter or Thanksgiving or Christmas.

It’s not being able to go to the bathroom or even take a 30-minute break in 12 to 13 hours.

It’s being surrounded by bully nurses …

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Death of a nurse: a soliloquy

The key to loving our lives and our careers starts with us

Tammie Chang, MD

Physician

March 29, 2022

An excerpt from Boundaries For Women Physicians: Love Your Life And Career In Medicine.

When I openly share my experiences with friends and colleagues, I am amazed by how many other women physicians tell me they have had similar ones. They admit to feeling so low that suicide or …

2 insight-provoking questions when starting over

Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD

Physician

March 29, 2022

“Peace is your home, integrity is the way to it, and everything you long for will meet you there.”
– Martha Beck

In 2017, the blueprint I had crafted for my life evaporated before my eyes.

Up until that point, I had systematically checked off the steps to becoming an Air Force oral and maxillofacial surgeon. I was in the Air Force, and I was in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) residency. I …

How to close gaps in social determinants of health [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 28, 2022

“As a doctor, it is pretty humbling to reflect on the fairly minimal impact our health care system has on individuals’ overall health. One study I find particularly intriguing shows that socioeconomic factors (e.g., education and income), and physical environment (e.g., security and safety at home and reliable access …

A physician was bullied and fired by the bully

Kellie Lease Stecher, MD

Physician

March 28, 2022

I don’t think I became a whole person until my mid-30s. When you spend the majority of your life in school, training, and building a practice, everything else goes on hold, or autopilot. There are very few things that I made conscious decisions about. Becoming a doctor was something I decided in childhood, and then it was a mission that I felt I needed to achieve. Every action in my …

Those with the power to reform our system have little incentive to act

Alexander Raines, MD, PhD

Physician

March 28, 2022

It is no surprise that burnout is surging along with this latest pandemic wave. Exhaustion—both physical and moral—is the ashen heart of burnout. Even as the flood of patients recedes in some areas, health care operations are hardly back to normal as many systems struggle with staffing shortages. In the hospital where I work, nurses have carried up to double their normal patient load, while the remaining phlebotomists on staff …

The center of gravity in health care and the role of primary care

Sara Pastoor, MD

Physician

March 28, 2022

I’ve been as guilty as anyone of leaving my patient out on a limb. As a practicing primary care physician, I’ve had patients with diabetes who observe Ramadan, but I had no idea how to support them during their fast. I’ve had transgender patients yet didn’t have the right language to talk about their health, and nothing in the electronic health record (EHR) seemed designed to support them. I’ve sent …

A physician’s new rules of time management [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 27, 2022

“Pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist, woman, mother, wife, friend, mentor. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t trying to “work smarter, not harder” to get it all done and feel good about myself, only to begin climbing the mountain with a fresh list the next day. My goals were simple: peace …

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