Personal development and growth during COVID times

Physician
August 10, 2020

As a physician and proponent of introspection, inner work, and self-awareness as integral components of health, wellness, and spiritual development. I watched with intrigue the dramatic increase in the number of COVID-19 related articles, social media posts, and videos purporting to offer solutions for these troubled times. They professed to teach people how to fight fear, manage anxiety, cope with grief, and/or overcome unpleasant emotions. This onslaught reflected a pervasive …

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Doctors are fleeing the medical field. Here’s why.

Physician
August 10, 2020

The first day I started work as an attending physician in primary care medicine, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. This was not the heroic, selfless, service-oriented job or the romantic life “as seen on TV” I had imagined.

Riddled with heavy school debt, despite my best efforts to join debt relief programs, I had a frustrating job with nothing but red tape and hurdles to jump over. And …

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Flattening the curve of COVID’s emotional impact [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 9, 2020
YouTube video

“Based on the evidence of the effects of trauma, we can predict that our health care teams, patients and families will exhibit signs of this assault through a variety of symptoms–sleeplessness, apathy, depression, and anxiety. The warning signs are already here. We read the desperate accounts and pleas of frontline workers describing the indescribable, holding the hands of patients dying alone, …

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A screenwriting dermatologist shares the importance of creativity in medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 8, 2020
YouTube video

“Someday, I suspect I will recount this time of fear with mixed emotions.  Sadly, there are people who have died and more to come, and this time will also lead us to reassess our way of life and make changes for the better.  I work from home, juggling the management of patients by telemedicine with homeschooling my daughters, still working to …

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The future of whole-person care: high-tech holistic medicine

Tech
August 8, 2020

When we think about holistic medicine, many assume that it requires human-to-human touch points and, therefore, doesn’t lend itself well to technology and innovations such as artificial intelligence. In fact, holistic medicine and whole-person care advocates often view technology as manufactured or impersonal and therefore dismiss its utility for health care. This is because there is a perception that health care tech values the human experience only for the purpose …

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There is endless profit potential to treat chronic diseases

Conditions
August 8, 2020

I have noticed several articles describing how antibiotic development has bankrupted some pharmaceutical companies because there isn’t enough potential profit in a ten-day course to treat multi-resistant superbug infections.

Chronic disease treatments, on the other hand, appear to be extremely profitable. A single month’s treatment with the newer diabetes drugs, COPD inhalers, or blood thinners costs over $500, which means well over $50,000 over an effective ten year patent for each …

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The impact of COVID on the Hispanic community [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 7, 2020
YouTube video

“All of our patients, but especially our most vulnerable Spanish-speaking patients, need to hear concrete, meaningful, and practical instructions on how to care for each other when they live in large multi-generational families, and positive stories from people who have successfully managed infection with COVID-19. They need to hear that, as their physicians, we are here for them. I want them …

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A COVID-19 conversation with 2 cardiologists [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 6, 2020
YouTube video

“Trainees like myself travel great distances from home in pursuit of higher edification. Yet the coronavirus makes us worry about the aged family we leave behind – parents and grandparents. A WhatsApp message ensuring they’ve stocked up on acetaminophen, toilet paper and canned soup (low sodium, of course) the only assuage to our anguish.

The rigors of medicine often demand sacrifice, sometimes …

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Being a neonatologist and a mother

Physician
August 6, 2020

Today at work, a mother asked me what I would do if it was my son in the isolette and not hers.

It’s not the first time I have been asked this. I understand where the question comes from, and yet I’m at a loss of what to say every time. Not because I haven’t pondered it before. No. It’s because I have asked myself the question far too many times: …

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How medical students can contribute during the pandemic [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 5, 2020
YouTube video

“We do not have to continue to blame external forces for the stresses upon us now. By organizing, mobilizing, and finding solutions to the problems facing us and our adopted community today, we can meet the current challenge to be of help, however we can. Perhaps, in this way, we can stop making pandemics a future generation’s problem to solve, and …

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The key to physician job security

Physician
August 5, 2020

It’s something we are taught from when we are very young and is a core middle class belief: work hard, get a qualification, and then you’ll be able to find a good employer who will send you a nice paycheck every month.

On some levels, this seems like an attractive option. Yet on so many others, it falls apart. For physicians in the United States, the concept of “employment” is relatively …

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It is not OK for physicians’ anxieties to harm their patients [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 4, 2020
YouTube video

“It is OK to be scared, but it is not OK to let our own anxieties harm our patients. As we tackle the numerous crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s acknowledge our fear and draw on the logic and clinical reasoning that we have spent years cultivating. We can be scared and scientific, anxious, but courageous. Let’s not create two …

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Doctors shouldn’t feel ashamed for wanting to protect themselves or their family [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 3, 2020
YouTube video

“Although I personally hope to continue to be at or near the frontlines, I understand those that are in a compromised position, and they shouldn’t feel ashamed for wanting to protect themselves or their family. There is no portion of the Hippocratic Oath that implicitly or explicitly states that physicians have a duty to patients above their own safety. Even though …

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Don’t pick your specialty based on the potential income you might make

Finance
August 3, 2020

When I speak to medical students and residents, their number one question is, “Should I follow my passion or choose a specialty that pays well?” With so many students finishing their training deeply in debt, they are feeling a push to go into a specialty that pays better than average, thinking that it will solve their debt problem. But is that a good idea?

Since we can pick anything we can …

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Patient no-shows often have complicated reasons behind them [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 2, 2020
YouTube video

“I typed up a brief response to the no show memo, hit reply, and then deleted the original message. It’s not that I am a fan of wasting time and resources, but for now, I have a general personal policy to never dismiss pregnant patients. I’d have to try to address her barriers to care.  Again.  Our clinic tended to be …

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7 habits of highly resilient physicians

Physician
August 2, 2020

Before the pandemic, we had an epidemic of physician burnout, with many physicians caught in a cycle of exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of purpose. All the change and uncertainty the virus has brought certainly doesn’t help! It’s now more imperative than ever that physicians build resilience to all the pressures and stress of our careers.

In the decade I’ve worked as a physician coach, I’ve seen seven habits, thought patterns, and …

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The weaponization of professionalism

Physician
August 2, 2020

It’s not every day you see hundreds of doctors flooding Twitter with pictures of themselves in swimwear. The trending hashtag #MedBikini arose when health care professionals began posting in solidarity to demonstrate how maintaining a life outside of the clinic, shockingly, does not detract from one’s merit as a physician. In fact, it makes them more human.

This past week, an article published in the Journal of Vascular …

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Practice empathy and compassion for the critically ill and dying [PODCAST]

Podcast
August 1, 2020
YouTube video

“It seems as though the looming reality for many of us is that we will have patients who need ventilators, and none will be available. It seems like we might benefit from remembering that we can still succeed in practicing medicine by being present with those suffering before us, even when we know we cannot cure them of disease.

In a more …

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If you want to be a physician-inventor, here’s what you should know [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 31, 2020
YouTube video

“If you have an employment agreement with a provision on intellectual property, have it reviewed by an attorney before you begin applying for patents. A good attorney should be able to give you some clarity. Suppose, however, that your employment agreement has muddied the waters a bit. In that case, you have a few different options, and all of them will …

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