“Ever the teacher, the Dr. Lown we knew modeled ‘The Lost Art of Healing’ (the title of one of his books) in the clinic, the laboratory, and the halls of power. As health professionals, we watched him listen carefully to his patients; as citizens, we saw him listen deeply to our …
In memory of Bernard Lown [PODCAST]
Back in medical school, during a first-year retreat, our whole class did the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) psychometric test, supposedly to help us learn what field of medicine might be the best fit for our unique combination of characteristics. It was the first time I’d done a formalized personality assessment, and it felt like something closer to a Cosmo quiz than a valid tool for career guidance. Since then, I’ve …
Can personality tests make you a better doctor?
My role as a care coordinator for a local mobile health clinic — the mobile outreach clinic (MOC) — comes with responsibilities seldomly awarded to an undergraduate, 20-year old, volunteer student. MOC is unique in that it not only provides free, low-barrier, patient-centered primary care, but it also assigns patients to volunteer care coordinators. Care coordinators have a daunting task: to identify our assigned patients’ socioeconomic barriers to health and …
Language is a barrier for many patients. Let’s change that.
“Legislative advocacy has become difficult for the severe autism population since the DSM-5 lumped Asperger’s syndrome with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Further complicating the matter, a new population recently emerged who identify as “autistic” without having a diagnosis from a qualified health care professional.
Without a clear distinction for various parts of the spectrum, …
Why it’s time to split the autism spectrum [PODCAST]
The COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on institutions that we did not think were pausable, allowing us to ask critical questions regarding their relevance and necessity. One such institution is the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). During COVID-19, Prometric sites closed, delaying exams for many. In response to public outcry, Step 2 CS has become defunct. Before COVID-19, there had been calls to reform the expensive licensing exams, …
It’s time to end the USMLE Step 3 exam
“My thoughts immediately went to the tragic loss of one of my best clients, a physician who recently passed away after battling COVID-19. I remember him not only as an excellent physician but even more so as a great person.
Unlike many physicians I speak to in the course of my work, this …
Estate planning mistakes for physicians to avoid [PODCAST]
Value-based care has become a buzzword over the past decade with early experiments in Massachusetts, followed by creating Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) as part of the Affordable Care Act. As commercial insurers jumped onto this bandwagon, most providers became familiar with the concepts of gainsharing, upside and downside risk, and bundled payments.
Much of the activity in this space has focused on primary care, particularly for ACOs and ACO lookalikes. …
The expanding role of specialists in value-based care
“Even though there has been a lot of progress, LGBTQ youth are still struggling with discrimination. I am disheartened that 40 percent of LGBTQ youth surveyed by the Trevor project in 2020 seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months, and the amount of LGBTQ youth reaching out to the Trevor project …
Teaching young children about the existence and acceptance of LGBTQ people [PODCAST]
Feedback is an integral part of growing as a clinician. We all have room for improvement, and each and every one of us is a work in progress. We all grow by having others observe us and discuss how we are doing with each of us. Giving feedback also becomes an integral part of our medical education and formal training, and it must be something we strive to become good …
6 ways to give quality feedback to medical students
Due to COVID-19, hospitals were forced to reevaluate and rework systems and processes that had been around for decades. From managing the increasing demands for testing and treating patients with the coronavirus to acquiring necessary medical equipment to keeping beds available, hospital administrators, providers, and staff showed true heroism. At the same time, the constant ebb and flow of COVID-19 surges caused hospitals to experience significant financial challenges, and …
Surgical volumes are still down. A data-first strategy is the key to recovery.
“Taking control of distress is done by embracing the concept of ‘mental fitness.’ Being mentally fit enables one to overcome the negative emotions that have traditionally sabotaged our lives, both personally and professionally. Similar to physical fitness optimizing our bodily strength, mental fitness promotes achievement in our performance, relationships, and sense …
It’s time to reframe second victim syndrome [PODCAST]
Any social media platform can boast an abundance of practical health and weight loss recommendations, whether scientifically accurate or not. Many professional athletes and companies are eager to sell their plans for a premium price and advertise them to the public heavily. Unfortunately, U.S. medical education cannot boast the same dedication towards confronting the obesity epidemic. By the end of my first year of medical school, I had only two …
The need for a standardized approach to weight loss in medicine
June is Men’s Health Month, and this year, as we emerge from the COVID-19 epidemic, more than ever, there is a compelling need to focus on male patients’ overall health, emphasizing their mental health as a key to their wellbeing.
Mental health is a significant problem among men
There are approximately 151 million males in the U.S.; six million of them are affected by depression each year, with over …
Men’s mental health: We treat just the tip of the iceberg
With the COVID-19 pandemic inflicting havoc on everyone, there is no doubt that physicians and other health care workers are most affected. The looming fear for yourself and your family adds to the current burden of responsibilities you encounter and conquer every day.
When the pandemic started in 2020, the struggle was about finding a cure and controlling the spread of the virus. With the advent of vaccines in 2021, the …
Surviving a thousand cuts: How to address physician burnout
“Before COVID-19, I left the practice of medicine for what would turn out to become an entire year. While away, I found a new way of seeing our hearts and bodies as humans in the medical profession, allowing me to return.
Here are five lessons I learned in the hope they might help …
What I learned from stepping away from medicine for a year [PODCAST]
“Don’t be the patient that says: ‘Doc, just tell me what to do …’ Instead, you should ask for information to empower yourself to make decisions about your healing process. Framing questions around the clinician’s experience is always a good starting point; pretend to be the doctor for just a moment and …
Don’t be the patient that says these words [PODCAST]
In the “Show-Me State” of Missouri, physicians receive their licenses from the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts. Seriously! This quaint term harkens back to a time when newly minted doctors had a relatively easy time realizing their desire to meld compassion, knowledge, and skill in order to relieve human suffering.
Armed with credentials suggesting that we have the right stuff to avoid doing harm, many of us are drawn …
Medtech companies realize that it’s not a trivial task to get a surgeon to just start using a new device. Surgeons have a great deal of responsibility, and their job involves learning a lot of techniques. Therefore, when surgeons learn a technique and master it over the course of years and decades, it will take a lot of convincing to get them to switch to a new one.
But technological progress …
Here’s how doctors can support medtech innovation
“Continuing to do this work the way I was doing it was not sustainable. I needed to get off the merry-go-round. I just didn’t know how. I didn’t think I could stop myself—transplant was my duty, my responsibility, and what I was trained and programmed to do. It was hard to imagine …
A transplant physician faces facts about his career [PODCAST]
The foundation of modern medicine has been built on a well-established, iterative process of empirical research and the pragmatic implementation of new discoveries. A relevant example of this paradigm can be seen in the development of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines.
Researchers developed a hypothesis to use an mRNA vaccine, demonstrated its promise in animal research and substantiated its safety and effectiveness in human subjects through clinical trials, leading to the …
We already know how to save physicians from burnout
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