I imagine you’re excited to receive this letter, but please listen to me for a moment. I’ll need you to suspend your disbelief here. I am writing to you from the future, and you are me from the past. I needed to reach out to you about the choice you’ve made.
I realize — again, because I am you — that you are super excited about the hare-brained idea to go …
The original Build Back Better Act proposed various provisions to improve Americans’ lives, including two years of free community college, child care assistance, and investments in clean energy. The steep price tag has led many to question whether or not we can afford to spend so much.
But as a pulmonary and critical care physician at a major metropolitan hospital, I have a different question: can we afford not to?
Every day in …
Why the Build Back Better Act is an investment, not a cost
Welcome to this special episode of The Podcast by KevinMD, where I interview two infectious disease physicians on the COVID Omicron variant. They share their unique perspective on this threat answer the following questions: How do these early days of the Omicron variant contrast with past variants? What do …
Omicron: 2 infectious disease physicians on the new COVID variant [PODCAST]
“While individual doctors have obligations to both the individual and public health, their first concern is their patients. And these decisions have to acknowledge fears and respect the stance. Providers must balance reassurance with acknowledgment, care, data, and the intent to ‘do no harm.’
It is undeniable that the COVID vaccination …
Fear of vaccines grows with the need for medical ethics [PODCAST]
“I don’t think I am the right doctor for you.”
In over 20 years of practice, I had never uttered those words before this year. Now, as my medical assistant of 20 years remarks, almost two years into the pandemic, I say it almost daily.
I like to think I am a good physician and listener, spending most of the outpatient visit time trying to understand what it is that the patient …
Think TikTok is smarter than me? Then I’m not the right doctor for you.
It was dark as we entered a crumbling stone building, a one-room 15’ x 15’ structure. No electricity, no running water, no amenities, we assume “we all have.” I was leading a medical team to the poorest country in Europe, Moldova, a country I had come to know and love well. The team had finished a busy day in the clinic. Before going to dinner, I wanted to make a …
Loneliness and hopelessness are all around us, yet we are missing it
“The variant keeps me up at night a little bit because it has 32 mutations in the spike protein, in contrast to the Delta mutation.
But it’s not just the mutations. In terms of biological plausibility, it’s plausible that it could be more evasive against immunity. Not just vaccines, but …
Will the COVID Omicron variant change the world again? [PODCAST]
“Cultivating compassion for ourselves and others is a practice in which we release judgment, anger and heal our emotional wounds. We can then move forward to a version of a better world where we have evolved to a new beginning. Change is always happening, and that is our constant. What …
Grieving our collective loss with compassion [PODCAST]
A record number of Americans are choosing to quit their jobs. This phenomenon has been termed The Great Resignation by economists. The reasons for the Great Resignation are multifactorial and a subject of great debate, but some insight can be gleaned from the rise of a movement that has been called ‘antiwork’. This movement is probably best embodied by the immensely popular /antiwork Reddit forum, where aggrieved employees share stories …
What medicine can learn from the antiwork movement
“Mr. Rodgers, I’m glad you’re feeling well. This isn’t altogether unsurprising given your younger age and elite physical fitness (though cases in young unvaccinated people can and have become severe) and I hope you continue to feel well as you quarantine. The medical and scientific community works on data, lots and lots of …
To Aaron Rodgers, from a physician and Packers fan [PODCAST]
I understand that the biggest fear you have about going through chemotherapy is losing your hair. I just want to tell you. You will be fine. Trust me.
I know it’s barbaric. Why don’t we have medicines to treat cancer that will not make you lose your hair in this day and age? Strange, right? But science has its limits. Work is being done on finding such …
To my patient who is going to lose her hair from chemotherapy
When I first met her, I perceived she was nervous. I could sense the doctor skepticism. She simply had a negative aura about her. An Eeyore, if you will. A “no” person. A drag.
To my absolute non-surprise, she declined all screenings that a woman of her age is recommended to get. No labs. No pap. No mammogram. No flu shot.
I wondered why she had even come to the doctor.
I think …
Cancer provided an unexpected silver lining
“The COVID-19 pandemic challenged health care systems and patients’ personal economic capacity, leading to approximately six million adults losing their dental insurance. Additionally, the World Health Organization and the American Dental Association recommended dentists to limit their practices to emergency and urgent dental care.
In the list of these diagnoses requiring …
Ignoring jaw pain comes at too high a price [PODCAST]
I’m writing this case report to raise awareness about a condition plaguing the health care system. The condition is Prior Authorization Fatigue Syndrome (PAFS). This condition is the direct result of the circuitous process of prior authorization (PA).
I am the physician owner of a medium-sized allergy practice in Southern Colorado. In our clinic, we spend many hours navigating the PA system to obtain approval for a range of health conditions. …
How Prior Authorization Fatigue Syndrome impedes asthma care
Even though COVID infection rates are decreasing, health care providers are still struggling with how to handle unvaccinated patients. Last month, a Colorado hospital system, UCHealth, stated it won’t provide transplants to patients who choose to remain unvaccinated. In August, a family doctor in Alabama posted a sign refusing to see patients who are unvaccinated against COVID.
It’s not just an issue of ethics — …
Anger toward the unvaccinated will only cause more harm
Like any stressor, COVID-19 has revealed great strengths in science and medicine. But it exposed weaknesses that could have been tolerated before but now are untenable.
Perhaps the best example of both is COVID vaccines — the success they have had against the COVID pandemic and the fuel they have provided for an equally dangerous pandemic: the misinformation pandemic.
There was no guarantee that a COVID vaccine would even be possible, and …
How to end the misinformation pandemic
“Thanks for gathering today in this anonymous detached space. Since it’s unlikely that we’ll ever publicly convene in a circle on metal folding chairs, I’m reaching out through this letter. You can peruse this in private and perhaps see a piece of yourself here.
As a non-practicing physician who speaks …
A doctor turned Hollywood actor on physicians who struggle with suicidal ideation [PODCAST]
Recently I have been more quiet than usual. Less writing. Less fire and brimstone. Quiet, at least for me. But anyone who is paying attention knows that when the most passionate and the most invested get quiet, something is truly amiss. Whether it be a looming threat or a very real and present crisis is unknown, but the fact remains that in that silence lives the very real possibility of …
Health care has crossed into a realm of moral injury and systemic collapse
An excerpt from Physician Underdog.
When investors make the decision to invest, there is something deeper that occurs outside of the capital. A foundation of empowerment is built, and the founders have an edge now over others that didn’t get investment. This comes back to how powerful venture capitalists can be, because they have the ability, through their endeavors, …
Bringing the Hippocratic Oath into the field of venture capital and entrepreneurship
“Take it or leave it” is not negotiation but coercion.
Physicians have been subject to this tactic for much too long. As an ophthalmologist in clinical practice for nearly four decades, I experienced too often what a recent author on KevinMD described as a one-sided arrangement with a health insurance company. “Here is the fee schedule. Here is the document to sign.” End of story.
If you object to the terms of …
“Take it or leave it” is not negotiation but coercion
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