It sounds like a long time, but it really wasn’t. It was actually a very short period of time. My perspective of time changed with this number. I was close to my 9th birthday when my dad passed. He was only 48, and he had been diagnosed with lymphoma only a few years earlier. He passed after losing his battle to cancer. I remember saying my goodbyes in the hospital …
When Elvis Presley rolled up his sleeve and received the polio vaccine backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, most Americans knew about it. At the time, the only stars hotter than rock ‘n’ roll itself were Presley, the genre’s de facto king, and Sullivan, the host who brought its biggest headliners to the American people.
By 1957, polio incidence dropped by 85 to 90 percent because …
Our niche world demands a new approach to health
“These are extraordinary times. Leaders have the opportunity to seize the day, to lean into this turning point in health care delivery, to drive organizational transformation, and to emerge from the devastation of the pandemic with an organization in which patients and clinicians thrive.
You simply have to ask yourself, are you willing …
Health care leaders’ roles in pandemic recovery: Caring for caregivers [PODCAST]
High pitched alarms, low pitched beeps, the rhythmic inhale and exhale of the ventilator – those were the sounds in my emergency department one year ago. There were no kids running down the hall, no friends making light of their 50-something-year-old friend whose LeBron James delusions resulted in an ER visit and sutures, and no, not even worried family members.
Texas, like much of the country, was headed for …
America’s path to reopening: an emergency physician’s perspective
“We can move from being a reactor to creator. Creators think of the future and make it start happening today. Reactors are just dealing with the crisis at hand, not progressing, feeling stuck, feeling like life is unfair. Reactors are people-pleasing, reacting to everything said, constantly worrying about how to win …
Physicians need growth days [PODCAST]
Like most, our family decided that we had outgrown our current home a few years ago and wanted to move into a larger house that offered more square footage and land. It had been nearly twenty years since living in the house we have owned since the end of the residency, and the house-hunting effort seemed more bewildering and confusing than two decades ago. At the time, I was too …
Why physician-owned businesses need our attention and support
An excerpt from Act of Negligence. Copyright © 2021 by John Bishop. All rights reserved. Published by Mantid Press.
Beatrice Adams
Monday, May 15, 2000
“Morning, Mrs. Adams. I’m Dr. Brady.”
There was no response from the patient in Room 823 of University Hospital. She was crouched on the bed, in position to leap toward the end of the bed in the direction of …
It’s not every day the head nurse on a medical floor accompanies a physician on a consultation
“With the obvious accounted for, we turned to the obscure, the area of medicine where judgment and experience come into play. Fortunately, we received sound advice and guidance from the infectious disease physicians. Stick to the basics, they stressed, only do them better. We continued our patient on the first-line anti-TB drugs …
Our extraordinary lungs’ power and fragility [PODCAST]
In the last year, amidst COVID-19 news, animals have gained their place: cats harboring the virus, pet abandonment and, paradoxically, rising adoptions. Cats and dogs are now in the spotlight. I’m a physician, and my personal animal-related COVID-19 story changed the way I practice medicine.
During lockdown in 2020, we decided to adopt a kitten. As both animal abandonment and adoption were on the rise, we brought home a three-month-old orange …
My pet taught me how to be a better physician
Available in 155 countries, found in 75 different languages, and having at least 689 million monthly active users worldwide, the social media platform, TikTok, has taken the online world by force since its arrival in 2016. Its ability for users to create brief, 5 to 60 second long videos, while tagging their video content using “hashtags” (#) and establishing “followers” has made TikTok …
Chlorophyll, acne, and TikTok: Should these mix?
“We need you to join the ranks of this time-honored profession with new eyes and determined minds and eyes that see medicine’s problematic foundations and minds that are willing to act on it. Because it is you, future medical students, who will soon take up the mantle of pushing medicine to change …
Advice from graduating medical students to new ones [PODCAST]
President Joe Biden recently signaled that a multi-trillion-dollar spending plan for our country should be paid for by the rich corporations and wealthy individual Americans who make over $400,000. Doctors fit the latter category and should tune in.
Beyond the government, the unique qualities of doctors make us a target for many who want to access our high income and our business revenue. Our passivity to these poachers places us at …
Doctors beware: There’s a $400,000 target on your back
“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]
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