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Medical gaslighting due to weight stigma and bias is harmful: a viral TikTok study

Conditions

June 28, 2021

“We need to stop weight shaming people & not make them fearful of seeing a Dr., but we also need to find a supportive way to talk about obesity.”
– TikTok commenter

“You’ve got to get on TikTok,” everyone kept saying. Launching a web-based life and weight coaching platform for teens, I begrudgingly decided it was time to jump in. I felt like I was putting on an ill-fitting scuba mask and snorkel …

Weight gain during the pandemic: An obesity medicine specialist explains [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 27, 2021

“The impact of the pandemic on the lives of Americans will be felt for years, if not generations, to come. This includes its alarming effect on health behaviors that contribute to the already formidable challenge of obesity in this country. Now, more than ever, we must look for creative solutions within …

Digital health equity is an emerging gap in health

Joshua W. Elder, MD, MPH and Tamara Scott

Policy

June 27, 2021

Digital health equity is a new crisis that connects urban and rural health and impacts unique and diverse populations. Based on the World Health Organization, “health equity is defined as the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in health among population groups defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically.” As health systems begin to expand and refine their digital health systems, digital health equity should be a fundamental aspect …

5 ways to have an outstanding mentorship relationship

Micaela Stevenson

Education

June 27, 2021

Mentorship. We all do it; we all benefit from it. But we rarely talk about how the mentor-mentee relationship looks. We rarely talk about ways to improve a mentorship relationship or even have decent mentor-mentee relationships. In fact, many of us likely get into medicine because we want to help patients, but forget how important mentorship often is on our way to learning to achieve such a goal.

Here are 5 …

Surviving medical school with depression

Anonymous

Education

June 27, 2021

I was first diagnosed with major depressive disorder as a preteen after my teenage sister died. I attempted suicide three years later. This would be the first of several attempts and the first of countless times I felt my life was not worth living. But I am not unique.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 1 person dies by suicide every 11 minutes.

My depression is like …

How to keep your optimism in medicine [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 26, 2021

“Interviewing for medical schools was intense, excruciating, and terrifying. Despite the difficult questions, there are three that stand out to me. The first was to differentiate sympathy from empathy, where I spent 30 minutes defending my answer to be met with complete silence. He could have asked me anything, yet he sat …

Questions of a canceled whistle-blower

Abby R. Rosenberg, MD

Physician

June 26, 2021

This is not a story about the before. It is about the after.

When I blew the whistle on the gender harassment I experienced and witnessed within my workplace, I naively thought doing so would help. I thought opportunities and experiences for women would get better. I thought it would be worth the risk.

And yet, two years into the after, I am still struggling. My experience taught me that I am …

Read more…

Questions of a canceled whistle-blower

Attention mid-career physicians: Let’s find our ikigai [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 25, 2021

“Mid-career colleagues: it’s time to go back to the future.

Time to learn again. Time to build professional and social networks at work. Take a lunch break. Bring home a few fewer RVUs.

I recently started a monthly journal club for our small section of gastroenterologists as a way to recreate some of what …

Unmasking the faces of COVID: pages from a neurologist’s diary [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 24, 2021

“COVID was ominously not only drowning people in their own spit but struck in different shades to alter human personality that kept helplessly getting lost in the maze of their own minds. It made the young maniacal, hearing voices and talking to walls in a schizophrenic frenzy. It made the elderly become …

Being the angel of death during a pandemic

Emily D’Amelio, RN

Conditions

June 24, 2021

I was looking forward to March 2020. My boyfriend and I had a long-awaited vacation to Aruba we were looking forward to. Everything is packed, plans are finalized, and the world shuts down three days before our trip. Frustrated, we refuse to believe that a “virus” is worthy of shutting the world down. “What’s the difference between this and anything else?” “Who cares? It’s just a virus?!” “I am still …

Why I became a doctor: reflections on a calling

Gerald P. Corcoran, MD

Physician

June 24, 2021

The landscape of medical practice has changed dramatically over the many decades I have been in practice. Most of these changes are intensely discouraging and depressing and are negatively affecting the physicians of today. The government, hospitals, networks, even our own professional organizations are working to establish and enforce new regulations — new hoops for doctors to jump through, mainly in the furtherance of their profit and their power over …

The emotional impact of menopause on women

Tomi Mitchell, MD

Conditions

June 24, 2021

You’ve heard of the emotional impact of menopause on women, but did you know that it can also cause anxiety and depression? Mental health is a topic that many people don’t want to discuss due to concerns of stigma, fear, and perceived repercussions of the diagnosis. However, if this topic is raised with compassion and understanding, the patient will likely become more comfortable and open to the conversation. I found …

Physicians and the midlife dip [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 23, 2021

“We all go through our early lives in the S-curve of our medical education–college, medical school, residency, early practice. As you reach the mastery phase, I would posit that there is a downward dip as we realize that we are no longer in that exciting hypergrowth phase. The search for a new …

Mansplaining in medicine and how to solve it

Steve Adelman, MD

Physician

June 23, 2021

My friend (I’ll call him Dr. Mensch) reached out to me because he fears that a gender war is unfolding in his division. He is worried that current cultural concerns about gender equity are degrading the previously harmonious relations between male and female professionals on his team and that the mounting tension could have a negative impact on patient care.

Mensch told me that several female physicians, including residents and fellows, …

Bracing for change: the escalating importance of USMLE Step 2

Karolina Woroniecka, MD, PhD

Education

June 23, 2021

It’s a well-known fact that medical school has grown increasingly competitive over the past decade. While this is true that getting into medical school has become somewhat harder, what is more concerning is that for many students, admission to, and paying for, medical school does not guarantee a career as a physician. A critical part of becoming a physician is graduate medical education, or residency. It is well-known that there …

Malpractice claims from the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 22, 2021

“We won’t know until 2022 or later whether there will be an increase in claims related to the pandemic. When a medical error occurs, it’s not like an automobile accident. Everybody nearby knows when there’s been an automobile accident because they hear screeching tires, a loud crash, and then sirens. But when …

Please don’t ask about my test scores, Mom

Casey P. Schukow, DO

Education

June 22, 2021

Being a medical student in a family that does not have any doctors, honestly, has many perks. Although I may not have all the experience a tenured physician has in diagnostics and clinical management, I recognize the importance my current exposures in medicine give me in addressing the concerns of my family members. While answers may not always come to me immediately when I’m asked things like, …

Surgeons: Check your ego

Diana Londoño, MD

Physician

June 22, 2021

How is your ego serving you?

Medicine is a hierarchical entity. More so in surgery.

There is a linear line of command from the chief to the junior to the intern to the med student to the aspiring med student.

“Shit rolls downhill,” we said as interns while we powered through the 29th-hour on-call or the seven pending discharge summaries we had to finish, while a nurse was yelling or paging us 12 …

Read more…

Surgeons: Check your ego

Love is the strongest medicine [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 21, 2021

“We know this is true in our hearts and minds, but we also know it to be true in documentable terms. Studies have proven that strong, empathic engagement between doctors and their patients increases patients’ willingness to report symptoms and concerns. That in turn improves diagnostic accuracy. Empathy increases patient engagement …

Why doctors are such bad investors and how real estate can help [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 20, 2021

“How do we combat all these beliefs that can make doctors into bad investors? I have a few thoughts.

First of all, don’t panic. Most of us are indeed starting behind the eight-ball when it comes to wealth accumulation. But even with a shorter runway, physicians make enough money to make up for …

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