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The pandemic drives a decline in teen substance abuse

Conditions

January 26, 2022

The percentage of teens using illicit substances dropped significantly in 2021 as the pandemic forced them into isolation from friends, classrooms, and extracurricular activities. Alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine vaping – the most commonly used substances by teens all showed declines from 2020.

These findings were reported by a Monitoring the Future survey conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.

The survey is given annually to students …

Don’t look in. What you will see is uncomfortable.

Owais Durrani, MD

Physician

January 26, 2022

Don’t look in: No, this isn’t a typo, it’s the sentiment many of my colleagues and I feel right about now. After a long stretch of shifts over New Year’s, I needed a mental break, so I logged into my trusty Netflix account and front and center was Don’t Look Up, the Leonardo DiCaprio dark satire about a comet hurtling towards earth (spoiler alert) and humanities failed efforts to take …

Patient surveys: the quest for positive reviews [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 25, 2022

“Studies show that those physicians with negative online reviews were more often scored poorly due to non-physician specific causes. In my career, I’ve read comments from patients that said they were not satisfied with their provider because they didn’t like the color of the walls in the exam room. …

5 science-backed strategies an allergist-mom is using to protect her family’s health

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

January 25, 2022

Like most parents, my children are my world. I would do anything to protect them and keep them healthy. It is Darwinian. Instinctual.

Most of us get by with a combination of sage advice from generations past interspersed with a “know better do better” approach. Personally and professionally, I encountered this duality pretty quickly. In March 2016, my husband and I hopped on a plane to Los Angeles with our 4-month-old …

The social imperative of health

Steven Merahn, MD

Policy

January 25, 2022

As a nation, we have committed to a social imperative for education — an aspirational vision, based on its broad social benefit, for universal literacy and numeracy of our citizens — as manifested in our systems of mandatory K-12 education.

While this vision remains a work-in-progress — there are significant inequities and differences of opinion as to the process and content of education — the shared value of, and responsibility for, …

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The social imperative of health

Are hospitals evil? A physician contract lawyer explains.

Dennis Hursh, Esq

Finance

January 25, 2022

As an attorney who negotiates physician employment agreements with hospitals on a daily basis, I have developed a healthy skepticism about mindset of hospital executives. It is painfully obvious that most executives in our hospital systems have a business school mindset, that views physicians as necessary (albeit expendable) cogs in the magnificent machine that is the hospital.

Executives can hardly be blamed for this attitude. Physicians will always …

“Doctor, you have been duped”

Anonymous

Physician

January 25, 2022

“Doctor, you’ve been duped,” she said as she took slow, careful breaths of oxygen from the heated high-flow nasal cannula.

These were definitely not the words I was expecting to hear. Responding to the perplexed look on my face, she added, “I mean I can tell that you are well-intentioned and a good person. But Bill Gates and the Minnesota Department of Health have altered the databases. Bill Gates wants half …

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“Doctor, you have been duped”

Debunking the myths around asynchronous care

Christina Chen, MD

Tech

January 25, 2022

It is no secret that telehealth adoption has skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic, and because of that, many health systems are in the process of shifting to a virtual-first hybrid care model. Unfortunately, video visits, which most will equate with telehealth, have done little to help with the age-old issues of patient access and convenience, provider efficiency, and rising health care costs.

Patients often encounter the same frustrations during …

Lessons in caring too much from a fictional physician [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 24, 2022

“All the faceless young men who are brought to his operating table, prepped and draped, broken and bleeding, are finding their experience of war bears little resemblance to their reveries of war. They should have known better. At corner taverns in Chicago, Albuquerque, and Murphysboro, there were tired veterans with …

Publicity and sharing our experiences are our best tools against legal injustice

Mark Lopatin, MD

Physician

January 24, 2022

An excerpt from Rheum for Improvement: The Evolution of a Health-Care Advocate.

Their expert witness, “Dr. Z,” was simply a hired gun willing to do their bidding for a price. He had completed only one year of a rotating internship in family practice in the 1960s. He had not done a residency and had no rheumatology training. He had not seen …

What it’s like to work with International SOS

Bamidele Olatunbosun, MD, MBA

Physician

January 24, 2022

At the beginning of August 2021, during the early stages of opening my practice, I decided to take an opportunity that I would be forever grateful for. The organization International SOS was looking for physicians and other health care providers to join a massive once-in-a-lifetime operation at Fort Lee military base.

At the time, the country was attempting to end the war in Afghanistan quietly. We were told that there would …

Playing the hand you are dealt

Paul Pender, MD

Physician

January 24, 2022

Anyone can win at poker when dealt a royal flush. But what can you do when the cards you are dealt don’t appear winning at all? My answer: Make the best of what you have.

Recently I learned of a colleague who sustained a broken back in an accident. He continues to work, wearing a brace and not taking pain medication. I know from watching his videos that he routinely handles …

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Playing the hand you are dealt

Why I’m furious over observation status

Thuy D. Bui, MD

Conditions

January 24, 2022

A 37-year-old man was diagnosed with Lyme carditis after presenting to the emergency department (ED) with fever, weakness, history of tick bite, and prolonged PR interval of 394 ms (a type of heart block) and positive Lyme testing. In the ED, second-degree AV block was noted intermittently on the monitor but not documented. Both infectious disease and cardiology were consulted, and the recommendation was to continue IV ceftriaxone for 28 …

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Why I’m furious over observation status

San Pedro de Macoris: a physician’s photojournal

Glenn Mark Losack, MD

Physician

January 24, 2022

Once hailed as “The Paris of the Caribbean” the city of San Pedro de Macoris (SPM) was established in 1822 and became one of the major producers of sugar, molasses, bovine cattle, rum, and Major League Baseball players.

In the mid-1800s Cuban immigrants threatened by a slave revolt and their own war of independence, settled in SPM and established the country’s first “ingenious” or sugar mills or bateyes. They brought their …

A physician’s self-care song [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

January 23, 2022

“No matter what, your healing work matters. No one should tell you otherwise, and nothing can change that, not even a shortcoming. You provide healing in a way no one else can. Care for yourself, and you can be the healer you truly wish to be.”

J. C. Sue is a …

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A physician’s self-care song [PODCAST]

The status quo is failing people with opioid use disorder

Arthur Robin Williams, MD

Conditions

January 23, 2022

As we anticipated the release of new CDC data on overdose deaths, those of us who specialize in substance use disorders braced for grim statistics, but this milestone was still shocking: over 100,000 lives lost to overdoses in one year, the great majority from opioids. Overdose deaths began outpacing traffic fatalities in the United States in 2013, but 2.5 times as many people died from an …

From the prison of my job to freedom

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

January 23, 2022

It became a prison to me — impending doom.

I knew I had only three months left before I could retire. Three months isn’t long, but it is a lifetime away.

That long drive to work in that heavy highway traffic where there was always a collision. The anxiety of the drive knowing all along there was even more anxiety to come.

The patients that were involuntarily committed — forever schizophrenics and bipolar, …

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From the prison of my job to freedom

Why travel bans in response to Omicron are harmful

Michelle Verghese

Policy

January 23, 2022

In late November, the state of the COVID-19 pandemic shifted once more when South African scientists reported the discovery of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant named Omicron. When panic surrounding Omicron’s emergence set in, numerous countries instituted travel bans on South Africa and neighboring nations.

As a medical student, I have begun to examine COVID-19 epidemiology and policy decisions more closely. Given that Omicron is already circulating globally and …

Coming back from the brink of burnout

Anthony Avellino, MD, MBA

Physician

January 23, 2022

I understand what it feels like to be in the depths of depression and hopelessness. I have had a lifelong battle with stuttering, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, depression, and suicide.

I continually fight these battles and have learned to heal and recover through family, friends, and ultra-running. Since attempting to take my life on September 12, 2009, I have developed wellness tactics to help me journey through life to achieve optimum performance and …

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Coming back from the brink of burnout

Eating disorders thrive in secrecy, so let’s talk about it. Starting with BMI.

Jillian Rigert, MD, DMD

Conditions

January 23, 2022

Thank you, Dr. Kara Pepper, for your recent article “Why you should not use BMI for your New Year’s resolution.”

Our weight-obsessed, BMI-focused culture has been a thorn in my side for much of my life. And since eating disorders thrive in secrecy, let’s get talking. In sharing my story, I hope to encourage revision of the way we speak to patients and utilize (or do not utilize) …

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