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
“I left my primary care practice earlier this year to focus on life coaching. Why did I leave? Because I wanted to do more and make a bigger impact. I remember how eager I was to complete medical training as I approached the light at the end of the tunnel. …
Should you stay or leave medicine? [PODCAST]
An existential crisis
On August 9, the 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report made public what many had feared. Global temperature warming to 1.5 C is all but inevitable by 2040 — even by the most optimistic scenarios — unless radically drastic steps are taken to end the use of fossil fuels.
Severe weather events such as California wildfires and Atlantic hurricanes of the past …
How to address the mental health fallout of climate change
My 13-year-old daughter inspired this article. If you parent a middle school volleyball player, you know that overhand serving is the holy grail of the game at that level. My daughter has a solid underhand serve that works well for her, but a consistent overhand serve would give her a big boost. To my consternation, she prefers to practice passing, i.e., bumping the ball back and forth. Why would she …
What change are you resisting? What should you deliberately practice?
“Economics taught me that I didn’t have to culture cells in a dish to do interesting and life-changing work. I built a habit of being inquisitive and intellectually curious about the world around me because I learned in undergrad that our human, flawed world contains elegant experiments, puzzling oddities, and …
Why economics is the best pre-med major [PODCAST]
Emily Watters is a physician and created a children’s guide to getting vaccinated, in comic form. (Click to enlarge.)
A children’s guide to getting vaccinated, in comic form
One patient down. Nine more to go.
My attending politely closed the door behind him and walked back to his computer to chart his patient. His pen crossed off a line from the list that he pulled from his pocket. His schedule was listed in 15-minute intervals.
As we got to the workroom, he sat down, and under his breath, I heard him sigh. It was barely ten o’clock in the morning. …
We must help physicians at the brink of burnout, depression, and high stress
For the last couple of decades, I was trained to save lives. I sat shoulder to shoulder with others who drilled this in me when I was green, sometimes even through humiliation. I learned to perceptively read patient cues, develop quick reflexes, and think on the spot in critical moments, wherever and whenever life was compromised. I always threw lifebuoys into the ocean when I was called into action. This …
It’s not an easy thing to unlearn how to save a life
“Disrupting weight stigma and bias in health care starts with calling it out. The power of stories and shared experiences highlights the collective voice. I’m coaching TikTok Followers to own their health power and start speaking up during clinic visits to make sure they get their questions answered. Future …
Medical gaslighting due to weight stigma and bias: a viral TikTok study [PODCAST]
Research shows inadequate health insurance accounts for nearly 67 percent of all bankruptcies. This statistic is staggering, and illustrates a difficult reality for the many American families navigating today’s insurance market.
Not only can medical debt become a heavy burden – it can impact every facet of an individual’s life; compromising financial stability and potentially even exacerbating underlying medical conditions, creating complications due to the stress it causes. …
Open enrollment: It’s time to leave your insurance plan behind
Once again, at 1 a.m., I was knee-deep in patient charts and the cacophony of messages that our “user-friendly” EHR employs to allow various staff members to reach us. One of these was about a simple, inexpensive radiologic test I had ordered which the insurance company denied for my patient. Not surprisingly, I was exhausted, and I lost it.
With some minor edits, I wrote the following in response to this …
A physician’s rant. Written but not sent.
This article is satire.
As an orthopedic surgeon, it has always been clear that our specialties benefit from a somewhat symbiotic relationship. We feed you patients, and you often return the favor by providing us with the needed confirmation to operate. However, I feel as though there is a deepening rift between our two specialties. It has been developing gradually, almost imperceptibly, over time. Perhaps it is perpetuated by the belief …
An open letter to radiologists from a jilted orthopedic surgeon
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
