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Why always being positive might be the worst thing for physicians to do

Physician

March 8, 2022

During the current COVID-19 pandemic and with staffing shortages, you’ve probably heard the phrase “stay positive.”

Perhaps this message comes from well-intended institutional leadership, mentors, colleagues, family members, friends or even yourself.

On the surface, the mantra of “staying positive” sounds appealing. Of course, I want to be positive for my family, patients, colleagues, learners, or people whom I lead, right? But what does “staying positive” really mean? And what might be …

What the Friday 5 p.m. consult says about your priorities

Dr. Pui-Ying Iroh Tam

Physician

March 8, 2022

Everyone dreads the Friday 5 p.m. consult.

As a physician-in-training, I had more than one of those. But having young kids waiting to be picked up from daycare made that decision tougher.

In one particularly memorable event, I left work, picked up my daughter from daycare, and headed to catch the commuter train when I received the consult. In those days, bringing your infant with you to work would have been deemed unprofessional. …

Stop the “I will” habit

Nabil Fanous, MD

Physician

March 8, 2022

An excerpt from The Universal Rules of Life: 27 Secrets for Managing Time, Stress, and People.

Every January, millions of people make New Year’s resolutions. It’s a joyous time full of high hopes.

Ask people what they wish to achieve or hope to accomplish in the following year, and the …

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Stop the “I will” habit

An epidemiologist talks about the “next” COVID-19 pandemic

Martha Rosenberg

Conditions

March 8, 2022

An interview with Rich DiPentima, MPH, former chief of communicable disease epidemiology at the New Hampshire Division of Public Health.

Rosenberg: As the former chief of communicable disease epidemiology at the New Hampshire Division of Public Health and deputy public health director in Manchester, NH, you wrote an op-ed a few months ago that compared COVID-19 with previous pandemics. Can you elaborate?

Dipentima: With smallpox, the only reservoir was …

Tax planning tips for physicians

Syed Nishat, BFA & The Podcast by KevinMD

The latest plague of the pandemic: a smartphone app

Jackson B. Salvant, Jr., MD

Physician

March 7, 2022

Just as we begin to exit the latest surge of the global COVID-19 pandemic another challenge to health care is appearing—the efforts to combat physician burnout.

One example of a proposed solution is the Clinician Experience Project, which is now marketed to improve health care organizations’ patient satisfaction scores. In the midst of the worst global pandemic in 100 years, it is widely recognized that physician burnout is a widespread problem. …

When it comes to diet culture, it’s time to end the abuse

Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD

Conditions

March 7, 2022

When you hear someone talk about a relationship that is oppressive, shameful, controlling, and detrimental to the person’s physical, mental, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing: How would you define the relationship? Would you want the person to stay?

If you heard someone say that their relationship made them isolated, depressed, disconnected: Would you encourage them to stay?

This is the type of relationship people are often pushed into when subject to weight biases …

3 ways interoperability will improve health care

Martin Lustick, MD

Tech

March 7, 2022

In health information technology circles, interoperability has become quite the buzzword. A Google search for “Interoperability in Healthcare” yielded 28 million results. Given its pervasiveness, it’s not surprising that the precise meaning of the term is often obscured. The 21st Century Cures Act defined three key components of interoperability: “(A)… the secure exchange of electronic health information with, and use of electronic health information from, other health …

Why health care delivery is an exceptionally different industry [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 6, 2022

“The business of health care delivery differs markedly from other consumer and service industries in many ways. First and foremost, the economics differ. Specifically, the payers of medical care are often different from the customers, the government and third-party insurers are the primary payers, demand is inelastic, quality metrics are …

Selectively sharing genetic information in the future

Michael R. McGuire

Conditions

March 6, 2022

Communicating with relatives that they may share a gene variant that could cause disease is problematic. Maybe you do not want to share that information with other relatives. Maybe other relatives do not want to know about such information.

Examples of such gene variants are BRCA1 and BRCA2 that predispose women to breast and ovarian cancer and men for some forms of cancer.

Medical practice may make more use …

Why we should celebrate the Great Resignation [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 5, 2022

“I see lamenting the Great Resignation. I celebrate it. It’s not so much about what people are leaving – but where are they going? What have they empowered themselves to become?

The thought, ‘There has to be something more,’ has been pondered and fleshed out. We are stretching our wings, …

Why air pollution is making us infertile

Maria Gabriela Ruiz

Conditions

March 5, 2022

The fertility rate in the United States, and globally, has been on a steady decline. This is the sixth consecutive year that there has been a reduction in the fertility rate, which has decreased by an average of 2 percent. Numerous factors contribute to the global decline in fertility, such as economic instability, increased educational attainment among women, delaying marriage, and the decrease in …

How to cope with pandemic fatigue

Masood R. Mohammed, DO

Physician

March 5, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has been raging in the United States for over two years. Health care workers across the country have been chronically pushed to their limits as we navigate difficult situations on a daily basis. The advent of the COVID-19 vaccine, although a powerful tool in our crusade against the pandemic, has created a new branch of emotions for health care workers towards unvaccinated patients or those with vaccine …

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How to cope with pandemic fatigue

Listening to the doctor’s heart

Maryam Chloé Pervaiz

Conditions

March 5, 2022

I’ve had doctors listen to my heart many times in my life. Recent work I did in Pakistan as an anthropologist let me listen to theirs.

A few months ago, I embarked on an ethnographic study to understand what health care professionals saw as the psychosocial needs of pediatric patients. This involved conversations with several doctors in Pakistan, who had volunteered to share their views about pediatric patient care. As I …

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Listening to the doctor’s heart

Digital apps and sustaining mental health [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

March 4, 2022

“Digital mental health apps have increased access to mental health care for people around the world. You can find services that fit your specific needs, often on a 24/7/365 basis, so if you need support in the middle of the night, it’s there. Digital apps can include resource libraries, …

Human nature will help patients better than any algorithm or AI

Jack Freeman, MD

Tech

March 4, 2022

Tapping into the mindset of one of the most villainous cinematic computers, the HAL 9000 of 2001 A Space Odyssey, may provide introspection to save us from the same paranoid meltdown that led HAL (spoiler alert) to embark on a murderous rampage. Homicidal activity should not be a lurking risk in any of us, but burnout is.

Briefly, in case you are unfamiliar with Stanly Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi …

Am I a doctor or a contingency plan?

Margaret B. Nolan, MD

Physician

March 4, 2022

Before COVID-19, meal planning and grocery shopping were the most time-consuming tasks of my life as a physician and mother of three young children. Now, meal planning is an indulgence compared to “COVID contingency planning” — the taxing brainwork of imagining multiple possible scenarios and following them through to the end with every iteration and its possible consequence accounted for. Add to this the need to insert updated but easy-to-misinterpret …

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Am I a doctor or a contingency plan?

The artistic side of a broken pot: a story about Oracle and Cerner

Afua Aning, MD

Tech

March 4, 2022

I recently had an opportunity to assist a hospital organization with its electronic health records implementation in Las Vegas. I’m usually working non-stop during implementations, but I was ecstatic when I could get a break from work to sightseeing. I arranged with a tour bus to explore the Grand Canyon (I’m not much into gambling).

I reported to the tour bus at 6 a.m. and was ushered inside the remarkably comfortable …

Want to improve telehealth? Ask people with disabilities.

Christina Khou, PhD and Colleen Stiles-Shields, PhD

Policy

March 4, 2022

Telehealth is the best option for millions of Americans, but more Americans need to be included.

Three-hundred-and-thirty U.S. health organizations have called on Congress to act swiftly in renewing waivers that allow for the provision of telehealth services and to consider permanently allowing virtual health services.

The COVID-19 pandemic has established that telehealth and technology-delivered services — like apps — are here to stay and benefit …

Leprosy: a disease that turns hands into paws, feet into stumps, and eyes into darkness

Glenn Mark Losack, MD

Conditions

March 4, 2022

I have been a staunch advocate for the fight against leprosy since 1991, when I first witnessed afflicted human beings in their advanced stages of the illness traipsing the streets of India and Bangladesh, most if not all begging to survive.

In medical school, I learned the basics of this “biblical” disease, but now as a physician and a world-traveled photojournalist, I took …