“As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds day by day at an exponential rate, we as doctors have been called to duty in unprecedented ways. Speak with any physician in the last few weeks, and you will be hard-pressed to find one who didn’t feel an intrinsic obligation- indeed, wish- to rise to the occasion with an all-hands-on-deck attitude, despite the taxing and …
Gender inequities and being a physician-mom [PODCAST]
As a physician and proponent of introspection, inner work, and self-awareness as integral components of health, wellness, and spiritual development. I watched with intrigue the dramatic increase in the number of COVID-19 related articles, social media posts, and videos purporting to offer solutions for these troubled times. They professed to teach people how to fight fear, manage anxiety, cope with grief, and/or overcome unpleasant emotions. This onslaught reflected a pervasive …
Personal development and growth during COVID times
The first day I started work as an attending physician in primary care medicine, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. This was not the heroic, selfless, service-oriented job or the romantic life “as seen on TV” I had imagined.
Riddled with heavy school debt, despite my best efforts to join debt relief programs, I had a frustrating job with nothing but red tape and hurdles to jump over. And …
Doctors are fleeing the medical field. Here’s why.
“Based on the evidence of the effects of trauma, we can predict that our health care teams, patients and families will exhibit signs of this assault through a variety of symptoms–sleeplessness, apathy, depression, and anxiety. The warning signs are already here. We read the desperate accounts and pleas of frontline workers describing the indescribable, holding the hands of patients dying alone, …
Flattening the curve of COVID’s emotional impact [PODCAST]
“Someday, I suspect I will recount this time of fear with mixed emotions. Sadly, there are people who have died and more to come, and this time will also lead us to reassess our way of life and make changes for the better. I work from home, juggling the management of patients by telemedicine with homeschooling my daughters, still working to …
A screenwriting dermatologist shares the importance of creativity in medicine [PODCAST]
When we think about holistic medicine, many assume that it requires human-to-human touch points and, therefore, doesn’t lend itself well to technology and innovations such as artificial intelligence. In fact, holistic medicine and whole-person care advocates often view technology as manufactured or impersonal and therefore dismiss its utility for health care. This is because there is a perception that health care tech values the human experience only for the purpose …
The future of whole-person care: high-tech holistic medicine
I have noticed several articles describing how antibiotic development has bankrupted some pharmaceutical companies because there isn’t enough potential profit in a ten-day course to treat multi-resistant superbug infections.
Chronic disease treatments, on the other hand, appear to be extremely profitable. A single month’s treatment with the newer diabetes drugs, COPD inhalers, or blood thinners costs over $500, which means well over $50,000 over an effective ten year patent for each …
There is endless profit potential to treat chronic diseases
“All of our patients, but especially our most vulnerable Spanish-speaking patients, need to hear concrete, meaningful, and practical instructions on how to care for each other when they live in large multi-generational families, and positive stories from people who have successfully managed infection with COVID-19. They need to hear that, as their physicians, we are here for them. I want them …
The impact of COVID on the Hispanic community [PODCAST]
Two of the biggest hitters in the physician finance online world are both anesthesiologists (Physician on Fire and Passive Income MD). Both of them are masters of side income by approaching money in completely different directions. Is it sheer randomness that out of dozens of possible medical fields, both of these successful …
Is there a connection between anesthesiologists and successful money management?
“Trainees like myself travel great distances from home in pursuit of higher edification. Yet the coronavirus makes us worry about the aged family we leave behind – parents and grandparents. A WhatsApp message ensuring they’ve stocked up on acetaminophen, toilet paper and canned soup (low sodium, of course) the only assuage to our anguish.
The rigors of medicine often demand sacrifice, sometimes …
A COVID-19 conversation with 2 cardiologists [PODCAST]
Today at work, a mother asked me what I would do if it was my son in the isolette and not hers.
It’s not the first time I have been asked this. I understand where the question comes from, and yet I’m at a loss of what to say every time. Not because I haven’t pondered it before. No. It’s because I have asked myself the question far too many times: …
Being a neonatologist and a mother
“We do not have to continue to blame external forces for the stresses upon us now. By organizing, mobilizing, and finding solutions to the problems facing us and our adopted community today, we can meet the current challenge to be of help, however we can. Perhaps, in this way, we can stop making pandemics a future generation’s problem to solve, and …
How medical students can contribute during the pandemic [PODCAST]
It’s something we are taught from when we are very young and is a core middle class belief: work hard, get a qualification, and then you’ll be able to find a good employer who will send you a nice paycheck every month.
On some levels, this seems like an attractive option. Yet on so many others, it falls apart. For physicians in the United States, the concept of “employment” is relatively …
The key to physician job security
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“It is OK to be scared, but it is not OK to let our own anxieties harm our patients. As we tackle the numerous crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s acknowledge our fear and draw on the logic and clinical reasoning that we have spent years cultivating. We can be scared and scientific, anxious, but courageous. Let’s not create two …
It is not OK for physicians’ anxieties to harm their patients [PODCAST]
“Although I personally hope to continue to be at or near the frontlines, I understand those that are in a compromised position, and they shouldn’t feel ashamed for wanting to protect themselves or their family. There is no portion of the Hippocratic Oath that implicitly or explicitly states that physicians have a duty to patients above their own safety. Even though …
Doctors shouldn’t feel ashamed for wanting to protect themselves or their family [PODCAST]
When I speak to medical students and residents, their number one question is, “Should I follow my passion or choose a specialty that pays well?” With so many students finishing their training deeply in debt, they are feeling a push to go into a specialty that pays better than average, thinking that it will solve their debt problem. But is that a good idea?
Since we can pick anything we can …
Don’t pick your specialty based on the potential income you might make
“I typed up a brief response to the no show memo, hit reply, and then deleted the original message. It’s not that I am a fan of wasting time and resources, but for now, I have a general personal policy to never dismiss pregnant patients. I’d have to try to address her barriers to care. Again. Our clinic tended to be …
Patient no-shows often have complicated reasons behind them [PODCAST]
Before the pandemic, we had an epidemic of physician burnout, with many physicians caught in a cycle of exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of purpose. All the change and uncertainty the virus has brought certainly doesn’t help! It’s now more imperative than ever that physicians build resilience to all the pressures and stress of our careers.
In the decade I’ve worked as a physician coach, I’ve seen seven habits, thought patterns, and …
7 habits of highly resilient physicians
It’s not every day you see hundreds of doctors flooding Twitter with pictures of themselves in swimwear. The trending hashtag #MedBikini arose when health care professionals began posting in solidarity to demonstrate how maintaining a life outside of the clinic, shockingly, does not detract from one’s merit as a physician. In fact, it makes them more human.
This past week, an article published in the Journal of Vascular …
The weaponization of professionalism
“It seems as though the looming reality for many of us is that we will have patients who need ventilators, and none will be available. It seems like we might benefit from remembering that we can still succeed in practicing medicine by being present with those suffering before us, even when we know we cannot cure them of disease.
In a more …
Practice empathy and compassion for the critically ill and dying [PODCAST]
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