Why the RVU system makes attaining the quadruple aim laughable: a deep dive into a broken health care model

Physician
October 31, 2024

The quadruple aim represents an ambitious, holistic vision for the future of health care: improving population health, enhancing the patient experience, reducing per capita costs, and improving the work-life balance of health care providers. While many health care systems have adopted this framework, the widespread use of the relative value unit (RVU) system fundamentally undermines these goals. Far from facilitating the quadruple aim, the RVU system creates a chasm between …

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Why parents today are more stressed than ever—and how we can help [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 30, 2024
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We sit down with Marissa Caudill, a psychiatrist specializing in child, adolescent, and adult mental health, to explore the findings from the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory “Parents Under Pressure.” We discuss the skyrocketing …

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How Betty Ford’s breast cancer battle revolutionized health care in the 1970s

Physician
October 30, 2024

It is rare that an ABC movie of the week endures. Buzz Kulick’s 1971 Brian’s Song is the notable exception. IMDB describes the movie as a “beloved tearjerker,” which portrays the friendship between Chicago Bears teammates Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo in the mid-1960s. Central to the plot is not only the race-based prejudice that existed in professional football at the time but also the public depiction of cancer in …

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How one medical student’s life-changing conversation reshaped her career

Education
October 30, 2024

American College of Physicians  

The fourth-year medical student “Megan” urgently wanted to meet with me. She just returned from an away rotation in pathology in mid-August and wanted to talk. She was not her usual confident self, appearing distracted and pale. She shared that she had thoroughly enjoyed her rotation and had found it stimulating and the faculty inspiring. One of her …

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What would we do if we weren’t doctors?

Physician
October 30, 2024

I have often wondered where I would be if I had never been accepted to medical school. After all, I got in by the slimmest of margins. I even failed at one application round, finally matriculating at Boston University after an icy post-college winter delivering UPS packages through the snow-covered streets of Cambridge and a depressingly lazy summer punching receipts at the exit to BJ’s Wholesale Club. Now, thirty years …

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Toward a work-life compass: Work-life balance doesn’t exist

Physician
October 30, 2024

A four-day workweek is being touted as better, especially for jobs that are cognitively oriented. The brain needs more time for rest and relaxation than a five-day workweek allows, so four days of work and three days for everything else will provide a work-life balance.

For more than two decades, particularly after I had my first child 17 years ago, I’ve been trying to achieve that elusive work-life balance. I …

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A surgeon’s insight into the future of health care staffing [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 29, 2024
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We sit down with Maria Iliakova, a bariatric and general surgeon, to explore the exciting ways AI tools like ChatGPT are reshaping clinical practice. Maria shares her experiences using AI to enhance hospital …

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A terminal disease intercepted by modern medicine

Conditions
October 29, 2024

I have been a physician for over forty years, with an office practice and providing geriatric house calls in our community. Now, I am also a caregiver.

My partner, Robin, was diagnosed with a rare malignancy in November 2022, known as anaplastic thyroid cancer. She was given six months to live.

Surgery to remove what they could took 9 1/2 hours, and seven weeks of subsequent radiation and chemotherapy helped slow it …

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AI medical scribes: Boosting efficiency or risking over-reliance?

Tech
October 29, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming health care at extremely rapid rates. In this ever-evolving world of health care technology, clinicians should be searching for ways to optimize their workflow, improve patient care, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. One of the most talked-about innovations lately is the AI medical scribe.

But many nurse practitioners, physicians, physician associates, and other health care providers are wondering: should clinicians actually use an AI medical …

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How automation helps nurses return to the bedside

Tech
October 29, 2024

I have been in health care and worked as a bedside nurse for more than 30 years now. Early in my career a surgeon said to me, “I could have made changes if I had that information sooner. I’ve had 200 people on my operating room table during this time.”

The surgeon was referring to critical data within medical registries, which are used by clinicians to improve care delivery. Registries have …

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From career to motherhood: Navigating gender inequity [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 28, 2024
YouTube video

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We sit down with Alopi Patel, an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician, to explore the gender-based inequities women face in their careers. Inspired by the metaphor of flamingos losing their pink during times …

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How a single act of kindness can transform the world

Physician
October 28, 2024

Since I was a child, I have despised the words “May you live long.”

I felt like it was a curse.

My younger brother, who knows my thoughts, used to joke, “Allah kre tumhari itni lambi umar ho, tum marne ko tarso!” (May Allah bless you with such a long life that you will pray for your death.)

He still wishes the same for me. (He wants me to suffer.)

I used to say …

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How the DEA’s use of predictive algorithms is worsening crises in urban communities and raising suicide rates among African Americans

Physician
October 28, 2024

The true definition of criminal behavior has always been problematic. Are we criminals because we break the law or because we have been convicted? Famous and revered people throughout history have clearly broken the law but are almost never defined as criminals. All the founding fathers of the United States self-admittedly committed treason against the crown, a capital offense. In contrast, others, like Stalin and Hitler, had every legal right …

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Living with type 1 diabetes: my journey through misconceptions, stigma and resilience

Conditions
October 28, 2024

I was only a child when my life took a sharp turn. At around five or six years old, I started noticing odd changes in my body that I didn’t understand. The day I landed in the hospital was the day the word “diabetes” entered my life, even though I didn’t know what it meant.

I overheard my father telling my mother about my diagnosis, but all I could follow was …

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How health care workers cope with budget constraints [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 27, 2024
YouTube video

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We sit down with Amol Shrikhande, a nephrologist, to explore the challenges faced by frontline health care workers in an overburdened system. We delve into the real-world impact of budget constraints, staffing shortages, …

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Why good doctors are being jailed—and what it means for you

Physician
October 27, 2024

Today, in America, if you are suffering from certain medical conditions, physicians are being taught that you cannot be trusted or even treated. This results from a decade of law enforcement targeting physicians, pharmacists, and nurse practitioners for making medical judgment calls the police don’t agree with when it comes to the treatment of certain conditions. I use the term “police” here to include federal agencies, knowing that, while policing …

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Most medical school students are being seriously compromised in their future medical careers

Physician
October 27, 2024

The mythical belief that almost 100 percent of medical school students have accepted over the last century—that one can practice medicine without the need for a business education—has contributed not only to the crisis in health care and the physician attrition crises we see today, but also to the rapid disintegration of private medical practice in our nation.

The confusion covertly introduced into medical students’ minds stems from the missing segment …

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Work-life balance in health care: Is it a need or a necessity?

Conditions
October 27, 2024

As health care professionals, have you ever stopped and asked yourself, “How am I doing?”

A humble doctor once asked my team, “How are you doing on a personal level?” That question stopped me in my tracks. None of us knew how to answer. Were we okay? Were we coping? Maybe we were, but maybe we weren’t. The truth was, we didn’t know. His question echoed in my mind for days, …

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Why kindness is the missing link in medical education [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 26, 2024
YouTube video

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We welcome back internal medicine physician Vijay Rajput. Two years ago, he shared his insights on the KevinMD article, “Top 10 things new interns should do.” Today, he returns to discuss updates on …

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5 questions in mental health counseling – and life

Conditions
October 26, 2024

Dedicated to my friend and colleague Pat Irving to whom I first told the story.

I’m 80 years old and I’ve been writing for over 60 years—first in systems engineering, later in advanced technology, and more recently in public health policy for the regulation of pain medicine. At this stage of my life, some of my writing is introspective, in an attempt to extract and share “lessons learned” with others. Thus, …

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