To avoid unwanted medical treatment: Choose a bulldog surrogate to fight for you

Conditions
October 25, 2024

“Health is a matter of choice, not a mystery of chance.”
—Aristotle

As an end-of-life (EOL) consultant, one aspect of my job is advance care planning, which involves helping people create an advance directive. An advance directive (AD) has two components. The living will portion lists the treatment options and choices you want or don’t want if you become incapacitated due to an accident or a medical crisis. In the second portion, …

Read more…

The maternal and child health crisis in Sudan: a call to action

Physician
October 25, 2024

The war in Sudan, which began in April 2023, has created one of the world’s largest displacement crises, forcing more than 10 million people to flee their homes. The warring sides, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, are inflicting horrendous violence on people across the country. Hospitals have been attacked, markets bombed, and houses razed to the ground, leading to a catastrophic toll on the health of …

Read more…

How flawed legal reasoning can tilt medical malpractice cases

Physician
October 24, 2024

A quote by Sir Winston Churchill: “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Actually, Churchill never said this. It may have been Ian Gilmour, a member of Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet, years after Churchill’s death. Nevertheless, this quote is often cited in the context of risk management. It is as relevant in a medical malpractice lawsuit as it is a warning to malpractice attorneys. No matter how elegant …

Read more…

As a doctor, what I learned from knocking on doors for the presidential election

Physician
October 24, 2024

When I’m not knocking on exam-room doors as a pediatrician in New York City, I’m knocking on voters’ doors in Northampton, Pennsylvania—a small county that could determine the outcome of this year’s nail-biting presidential election.

Each time I walk up to a voter’s front door, my heartbeat quickens. You would think a doctor who talks to total strangers every day would be immune to such jitters. But even with a door-knocking …

Read more…

From darkness to empathy: How one ICU patient transformed my perspective

Physician
October 24, 2024

My first ICU rotation of intern year was filled with great darkness. It was dark outside as I walked from my car into the hospital each morning before sunrise, and it was again dark when I walked to my car at the end of the day. Less than one hour into my first day in the ICU, a patient’s weak and ineffectual heart stopped beating, and CPR was swiftly initiated. …

Read more…

How technology can support nurses and improve patient safety [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 23, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

We welcome Ann-Louise Puopolo, a nurse executive, to discuss the critical issue of the nursing shortage crisis and the impact of burnout and technology fatigue on health care workers. Ann-Louise shares insights from …

Read more…

Voting as a physician: How my parents’ story inspired me to advocate

Policy
October 23, 2024

My parents, both physicians, embody the American story. After completing medical school in Iran, they were recruited to the U.S. in 1968 to fill the gap left by doctors sent to Vietnam. Building a life from the ground up, they became pillars of their patients and communities — and our family, too. In 1992, they became citizens, finally gaining the right to vote, and they’ve never missed an election since, …

Read more…

It’s not a normal job, folks: How 3 elemental forces of reality shape the profession of medicine

Education
October 23, 2024

Introduction

In the book Ender’s Game, humans face a time-dilation war in which they must travel light-years into the future to face an enemy of unknown strength and scale. The weapons and technology they possess for the journey may be outdated by their arrival, because relativity minimizes the passage of time. The same dilemma is true for medical and premedical students who can spend decades in training, only to emerge without …

Read more…

How financial incentives transform health care [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 22, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

We sit down with Taylor J. Christensen, an internal medicine physician and health policy researcher, to discuss his health care incentives framework. Taylor explains how restructuring financial incentives can encourage providers and insurers …

Read more…

Nurses sue over trans colleague’s actions

Physician
October 22, 2024

Eight female nurses at a United Kingdom hospital are suing their employer for not assuring their psychological and physical safety. The nurses work in specialized areas that require their changing uniforms once daily. There is a trans-female nurse, similarly specialized, who changes with them. He wanders about the locker room in briefs or nude, the women report, ogling them as they exchange clothing. It has also been related that he …

Read more…

A prescription from the next generation of doctors: Vote early

Policy
October 22, 2024

As future medical professionals, we see the real-life consequences of political decisions in emergency rooms, hospitals, and clinics. Despite a growing recognition that voting is directly linked to better health outcomes, however, health professionals are voting at lower rates than the national average. It’s time that we make a change this election.

We see patients denied essential services due to bureaucratic hurdles, such as insurance coverage gaps for life-saving medications …

Read more…

Physician gaslighting looks like this

Physician
October 22, 2024

As physicians, we are often collectively gaslit—made to believe that somehow, we are responsible for system failures. Many physicians are brainwashed to “drink the Kool-Aid” and accept phrases like, “This is the way things have always been done.” We are made to feel inhuman when we advocate for ourselves as if we are somehow to blame. The system uses terms like “unprofessional,” “unable to cope with the rigors of being …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Embracing the advantages of digitization in health care

Tech
October 22, 2024

Due to rising rates of burnout and depression among health care providers, the U.S. is looking at a projected shortfall of over 3.2 million health care workers by 2026. In parallel, the health care industry is grappling with a 13 percent decline in provider productivity that is directly correlated with the increased adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs). This raises a critical question on …

Read more…

How pharmacy benefit companies are making fertility treatments even harder for patients [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 21, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

We sit down with Oluyemisi (Yemi) Famuyiwa, a fertility specialist and founder of Montgomery Fertility Center, to explore the hidden barriers patients face when accessing fertility medications. We delve into the complex role …

Read more…

Is the surge in adult ADHD diagnoses helping or harming patients?

Conditions
October 21, 2024

As an outpatient adult psychiatrist, I have witnessed an increasing trend of patients seeking a diagnosis of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Often, these patients have had friends or family members diagnosed with the condition and wonder whether they have it as well. They have read about ADHD online and felt that the described symptoms matched perfectly with their lived experience.  They were never diagnosed as children but remember …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Insights gained by attending vascular surgery conferences as a medical student: tips and lessons learned

Education
October 21, 2024

Attending academic conferences as a medical student offers a wealth of opportunities. Whether it’s networking, finding potential mentors, deepening your knowledge of specialties, or simply exploring new cities, conferences provide unique experiences that can significantly shape your career. As a medical student, I had the chance to attend both regional and national vascular surgery conferences through travel scholarships, and I want to share the lessons I learned in the hope …

Read more…

Inside the courtroom: a doctor’s battle against a fraud investigation [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 20, 2024
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes!

We sit down with Muhamad Aly Rifai, a practicing internist and psychiatrist, to explore the complexities of health care fraud investigations and the profound impact these cases have on physicians’ lives and careers. …

Read more…

Medical crisis or government overreach: How misguided policies are destroying lives

Physician
October 20, 2024

A million vulnerable patients have died in the last decade, and while I have no doubt the rate of overdose and poisoning will drop nationwide—killing a million vulnerable patients has that effect eventually—I choose not to contribute to that death rate. This decision is in accordance with my deeply held beliefs. In 2014, Governor Asa Hutchinson signed the Arkansas Conscience Protection Act into law, supposedly protecting health care professionals who …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

How AI is transforming breast cancer detection: a game-changing tool for early diagnosis and personalized care

Conditions
October 20, 2024

If you had an assistant who helped you do your work faster, more efficiently, and more precisely, would you fear it?

With artificial intelligence (AI) at the forefront of virtually everything today, two of the most common questions I hear in my daily practice are, “Do you use AI?” and “What does AI do for you?” For some, these questions stem from a desire to access cutting-edge tools, while others express …

Read more…

541
pages