“In addition to being a pediatrician, I am Jewish and the granddaughter of a sole Holocaust survivor. My grandfather’s family perished in Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland. My grandfather alone escaped, skiing through the night, to his safety and ultimate survival.
The request from my hospital, the presidential debate, and the …
Do politics have a place in medicine? [PODCAST]
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.
By any measure, the past year has been difficult for everyone.
The ongoing pandemic with its widespread personal, social, and economic disruptions, as well as civil and political unrest throughout the country has clearly stretched the fabric of our society and had remarkably negative …
Hope: One of the strongest “medicines” we have to treat both our patients and ourselves
From the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have observed remarkable, global cooperation as health care providers scramble to address new challenges. Leaping to one another’s aid, clinicians have deepened relationships and formed new connections, in the process solving thorny problems with extraordinary speed. From Belfast to New York, Madrid to Bergamo, Hong Kong to Cape Town, health care providers have …
Lessons on effective knowledge networks to support pandemic response
“There is a unique non-clinical consulting opportunity any physician can learn to do full-time, as part of your existing practice, or in lieu of retiring. I’m Dr. Armin Feldman, and I’m a full-time medical-legal consultant in legal cases. A little over 13 years ago, I started and now, through the years, have …
An introduction to medical-legal consulting [PODCAST]
Contained inside the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill is a political time bomb for Republicans.
Included in the bill’s long list of stimulus spending is a provision that delivers on President Biden’s promise to strengthen the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.
Obamacare’s big failure has been what it did not do to help––and actually hurt––middle-class buyers of individual health insurance. Since the health law’s inception, consumers, who are eligible for little …
Inside the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill is a political time bomb for Republicans
Ballet dancers and doctors are essentially the same people. Long before I entered medicine, ballet taught me the skills that made me successful in my clinical practice. I was a life-long learner. I improved my skills with daily practice. I was creative with limited resources. I strived for excellence and was rewarded for these efforts. The skills I learned as a professional ballet dancer prepared me well for medicine.
There was …
Perfectionism is your nemesis, not your superpower
Physicians have gone toe-to-toe with death since the earliest days of the profession, even knowing that our efforts would often be futile. Over the past century, dramatic technological advances have nearly doubled the average American lifespan, and modern practitioners have a level of control over mortality previous generations could scarcely have imagined. But medicine has by no means conquered death. This puts health care providers in …
Improving end of life care from the start of training
“We, as a profession, must accept some blame for many of the developing problems in health care delivery. No, I am not suggesting that we caused the problem. I am stating that we have had ample opportunities to manage the debacle and even to reverse some of the disturbing trends, yet …
Health care from the trenches: Change must come from us [PODCAST]
“Children cannot afford to wait, especially our youngest learners who have difficulty engaging on a screen. We need to all work together to help schools reopen, especially in low-income communities that are disproportionately suffering and may lack the resources. I stand with the AAP, CDC, European CDC, WHO, and UNICEF to support …
We need to work together to help schools reopen [PODCAST]
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 others.
1. Perfectionism doesn’t make you perfect
If perfectionism isn’t an unwritten rule in our profession, it’s, at minimum, a …
What I learned from stepping away from medicine for a year
“Why do they book your well-child checks for 15 minutes?” my medical student asked me yesterday. I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Gut reaction – like when you laugh instead of cry. I explained that all of our appointments are 15 minutes – well-checks (regardless of age), to colds, to suicidality or chest pain. I work for a large hospital system, and that is how patients are booked. I the …
We need to stop blaming the doctors
This past year has been one of overwhelming extremes: global pandemic, a national reckoning on racism, devastating wildfires and storms, and political disarray. To some it was perhaps just a difficult year. But to those who can identify the common thread of injustice, it is clear that this was the product of decades of systemic inequities. It is also clear that if these inequities are not addressed, what we have …
Why environmental justice is integral to the future of medicine
“With 2020 behind us and the pandemic still raging, it is incumbent upon us to take a close look in the rear-view mirror. While the vaccines’ approval gives us all hope, the vaccination initiative’s slow rollout should worry us. Physicians, health care providers, nurses, and essential workers, and patients and family …
How physicians can emerge stronger after 2020 [PODCAST]
“Many friends have asked for my perspective on the COVID vaccine. Answering this requires both an explanation of clinical trials and an understanding of what normally slows down pharmaceutical development.
Importantly, COVID vaccines are required to go through the same process as every other pharmaceutical.
Vaccination is a personal choice, but I 100 percent …
Why I trust the COVID vaccine [PODCAST]
Everyone loved Mrs. Maria. She was everyone’s mom, grandma, teacher.
Maria grew up in poverty. Though her family was poor, she knew her parents and siblings loved her and loved each other. But the one thing she knew her passion was at was school. Every morning she couldn’t wait to go to school and learn more. And she knew one day she would be a teacher.
Throughout the years, Maria excelled in …
A beloved COVID ICU patient turns to comfort care
A recent conversation with a nurse evoked a metaphor for the COVID-19 pandemic. The floor on which she worked had just had several patients die from COVID-19 in rapid succession. One particularly sad case involved a man saying his final goodbye to his mother, both infected with COVID-19, through a video call because they couldn’t be in the same room as the mother passed away. The nurse said that she …
Lessons from endurance racing for combatting pandemic fatigue
An excerpt from Raising Doctors: The Med School Admissions Success Guide for Parents of Future Physicians.
Let’s look at how you as a parent can help your child succeed at applying to medical school.
Legitimacy and verifiability matter
Applying to medical school, I learned what types of activities, accomplishments, and qualifications were valued and what weren’t.
For example, medical schools may restrict …
How to help your child succeed at applying to medical school
“There is a frenzy of trying to use technology to re-establish the healing human connection in the doctor-patient interaction. These efforts range from advanced transcription of voice-to-record, scribes who do the data recording during a patient encounter, and so on. The IT department at NYU Grossman Medical School, where I teach, …
Samuel Shem, MD on how can we put the connection back into medicine [PODCAST]
I was at my gym last night (yes, it’s finally open). Billy Joel’s ballad about trust was the metronome to my squats. Though vaccinated, I was wearing my mask. Knowing the latest evidence about vaccines, my mask was only for the optics of those mostly maskless around me. I overheard the couple next to me say, “OMG. Fauci says we should double-mask. What a BSer!”
Trust is fundamental to the delivery …
Why trust is the bedrock of public health policy
Brain science explains why visualization improves performance in the real world, helps make better decisions, and minimizes errors.
Before performing surgery, let’s say for a herniated disc, I stand in front of a white porcelain sink. Antiseptic bubbles cover my hands and drip from my forearms. The surgery takes place in my mind, playing like a movie on the inside of my eyelids: The setting of retractors, …
A neurosurgeon explains why visualization works
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