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Don’t pay off your student loans early

Finance

September 23, 2021

In 2010, a landmark study from Princeton was published “proving” that money just doesn’t buy happiness. Study participants were asked to compare their emotional well-being from yesterday to today, and it appeared that making more than $75,000 a year didn’t lead to concurrent increases in well-being. Since then, Americans have been flooded with the psychological opium of mindfulness, yoga, and leaning out, urging contentment instead with the …

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Don’t pay off your student loans early

The role of empathy in improving patient care and decreasing medical liability

Helen Riess, MD

Physician

September 23, 2021

Studies reveal that more than half of all practicing physicians demonstrate signs of burnout. Contemporary physicians face tremendous pressures due to a confluence of factors, including balancing heavy patient loads within constrained schedules, the increasing complexity of patient health problems, and increasingly burdensome COVID-related documentation requirements.

These circumstances—and more—challenge physician empathy, and even to some extent dampen it even further. Multiple research studies document a decline in empathy that appears to …

Try this new technique when talking to vaccine skeptics [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

September 22, 2021

“When we hear skepticism, our first instinct may be to end the conversation. After all, why spend our time trying to convince someone who has made up their mind? Our second instinct may be to counter the person’s position without pausing to hear more about their perspective. Unfortunately, trying to …

Is passive income a lie?

Smart Money, MD

Finance

September 22, 2021

As a child, I remember watching superstar athletes like Wayne Gretzky glide so effortlessly on the ice and dreaming about how easy life would be to be blessed with innate talent. “Talent would make my life so easy,” so I thought. I had no clue how much work had to be invested to make talent look seamless. A little later in life, I remember hearing the quip coined by Thomas …

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Is passive income a lie?

A Christian physician’s message to Christian vaccine skeptics

Earl Stewart, Jr., MD

Physician

September 22, 2021

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a balm and refuse to use it.

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a salve and refuse to apply it.

I think it is remarkably irresponsible to have a cure and refuse to accept it.

And you’d think that at some point, reasonably intelligent people would get it. You’ve been somewhere in the sanctuary all your life. You grew up in the church. …

Digital health equity is an emerging gap in health [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

September 21, 2021

“The pandemic has demonstrated the value of online platforms, especially in health care – but equitable access has not matched this growth. Sadly, many Americans cannot reap the benefits of connectivity. State and federal funding sources are required to enable digital health equity. Moreover, there should be a focus on …

If businesses can mandate vaccines, they should mandate affordable health care, too

Robert Pearl, MD

Policy

September 21, 2021

Earlier this year, Houston Methodist gave its 26,000 hospital employees an ultimatum: Get vaccinated or get a new job. It was one of the nation’s first vaccine mandates. And it was a big, multilayered risk: with legal, financial and ethical consequences all hanging in the balance.

In the end, …

The unvaccinated and a history of cynicism

David Galinsky, MD

Physician

September 21, 2021

The vitriol that characterizes discussions about vaccines, masking, and school policies has been deeply disturbing. I am a physician who is concerned about COVID. At first, I thought that everyone would want to be vaccinated. I thought that the pandemic would cause everyone to isolate and socially distance to protect themselves, their families, and their communities. Now we know it did not turn out that way. As I reflect on …

Self-harm and eating disorders in teens

Richard Capriola, MBA

Conditions

September 20, 2021

An excerpt from The Addicted Child: A Parent’s Guide to Adolescent Substance Abuse.

How do you know if your teen has a substance problem? The inability to control substance use despite negative consequences is a classic definition of a severe substance use disorder. But substances aren’t the only thing afflicting adolescents. Another dangerous behavior is invading the adolescent population: process disorders. …

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Self-harm and eating disorders in teens

Treating formula as medicine may increase breastfeeding rates

Sonal Patel, MD

Conditions

September 20, 2021

Currently, there is an outcry against the pressures of breastfeeding, with an underlying backlash against the stigma of bottle feeding. Commercials from formula companies, such as Bobbie, are playing at the hearts of struggling breastfeeding mothers. Touted as an organic European formula comparable with breastmilk, Bobbie is the solution. Famous stars, like Queer Eye’s Tan France, emphatically narrates his decision on choosing formula over donor milk for their family. Over …

5 myths about compassion and patient rapport building in health care

Rush University Series at The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

September 20, 2021

This episode is sponsored by the Rush University Series at The Podcast by KevinMD.

As we enter a year and a half into a worldwide pandemic, many of us working in health care are fatigued, over-worked, and burned …

Racial disparities in surgical care [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

September 19, 2021

“As a practicing surgeon for 30 years in the super-specialized field of otology, neurotology and skull base surgery, I have been privy to some of the most disturbing realities of surgical care. Often, these realities are bleaker than most people expect. One thing physicians, and the general population, need to …

The degradation and devaluation of nurses

Debbie Moore-Black, RN

Conditions

September 19, 2021

Where do I begin? Maybe at the beginning.

Let’s start with the degradation and devaluation of nurses across this country.

For decades, I lived the devaluing of nurses. Daily huddles from our nurse managers, ER nurses, ICU nurses, and behavioral health nurses. Emails and huddles about downsizing. Nurse-patient ratios. Decreasing nursing staff and increasing patients. ICU nurses typically had a 2:1 ratio and, depending on the patient’s acuity, a 1:1 ratio. But …

The fundamental question that encircles the whole practice of psychiatry

Edward Kai Yan Tie

Conditions

September 19, 2021

Mary (identifying information changed) was extremely pleasant, to say the least.

By the time I met her on the senior unit, she had seemingly befriended even the orneriest of our geriatric patients. She wandered and danced about the unit, speaking with each fellow patient she encountered in a style one nurse called “cheerfully mad.”

Her strategy, maximalist and crude but stunningly effective, was to talk your ear off in a joyful stream …

Where does the joy and meaning in medicine dwell? [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

September 18, 2021

“The same question could be asked about the joy and meaning in medicine. Where does it dwell? And the answer may be the same. It dwells wherever we choose to let joy and meaning in medicine into our physician-healer lives.

As I look back upon my career, it saddens me to …

The unvaccinated are not difficult patients

Joan Naidorf, DO

Physician

September 18, 2021

We’re getting into trouble. With headlines like “Why I am angry” and “Burnout rates at an all-time high,” physicians need to take a moment and breath. Unvaccinated people are presenting as very difficult patients that physicians dread.

In his landmark article, “Taking Care of the Hateful Patient,” Dr. James Groves highlighted four distinct patient types that doctors shrink from. Hateful patients are noted to cause negative feelings in …

Who needs scientists? It’s not like we listen to them anyway. [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

September 17, 2021

“I am a proud science-trained medical doctor and concerned mother. I am not going to remain silent when the biggest tragedies are yet to hit earth yet. Like seriously, I do not want to become like the dinosaurs. History wasn’t too kind to them. Just saying. Scientists say the worst …

There is nothing soft about “soft skills”

Sherine Salib, MD

Physician

September 17, 2021

“Soft skills get little respect, but they will make or break your career.”
– Peggy Klaus

In the late 1960s, the U.S. Army created the term “soft skills” to refer to any skill that does not employ the use of machinery. “The military realized that many important activities were included within this category, and in fact, the social skills necessary to lead groups, motivate soldiers, and win wars were encompassed by skills …

Dying after leaving against medical advice [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

September 16, 2021

“This is where we are: Hospitalizations rising, new variants that are more infectious, and many people believing that this is all a hoax, or that millions of people have conspired together to make injections that harm people rather than helping them. Patients leaving AMA and dying because there’s no trust …

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