“The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.”
– Osler, “Aequanimitas”
Recently, my family and I were leaving a restaurant, and in so doing, we crossed a large parking lot filled with a seemingly endless number of pebbles. My youngest daughter, whose hand I was holding, suddenly pulled away from me. I stopped short, about to reinforce with her the importance of holding hands in the parking …
About once or twice a day, everyone on our hospital’s computer network gets an emergency message that scrolls across the bottom of our screens, highlighted in the colors of danger and warning.
They include things like a notification that a particular data system is down and that a backup on paper will have to be used for documentation, or the hospital …
In his article, “Medical education needs to stop burning out students — now,” Augustine Choi suggests the culture of medical education is responsible for increasing numbers of depression and burnout among medical students, and suggests that more programs are needed to address self-care and wellness in order to build resilience.
While I agree that mental health treatment should be readily available and easily accessible to those in …
Despite more than a dozen years in medical school admissions consulting, I still clearly recall a bright advisee who had improved her grades considerably throughout her college career. But I, unfortunately, had a less than stellar freshman transcript. After calculating her AMCAS GPA with me, she lamented, “I feel like my grades are a criminal record.” In a twisted way, she was right — she couldn’t erase the grades.
But she …
Health care delivery in the United States is being led by practitioners who have ascended to leadership roles primarily through years of loyalty to their organizations. But as burnout worsens and affects the youngest clinicians to the detriment of the system, is this the appropriate cadre to shepherd us towards necessary system transformation?
We share two stories that …
It all started with John F. Kennedy’s campaign for the presidency. After eight years with President Eisenhower’s baldness and Vice President Nixon’s receding hairline, the American public was ready for a change. Kennedy had great hair, which he flaunted by appearing bareheaded at his inauguration. A new political maxim was established that day; to win in American politics, it’s not what’s in your head, but what’s on your head that …
The storage capacity of the human mind is amazing. One estimate of the size of the brain’s “RAM” is as high as 2.5 petabytes (a million gigabytes). The number is based on the total number of neurons in the brain and the total number of possible connections per neuron. I suspect it is an overestimate, given the vagaries and innate inefficiency of biological systems. Nevertheless, the true figure …
An excerpt from Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome.
When I migrated from the banks of the East River to the Tiber shores the path was strewn with bureaucratic boulders, land-mines, and pitfalls. I offer the tale of my odyssey as an object lesson to would-be fellow cosmopolites in that …
A recent uproar in Twitterverse regarding the publication of certain images has sparked further debate after the response from publishers. The images represent scantily clad women with socially “ideal” body-types, seductively eyeing the camera and would, unfortunately, be commonplace in glossy magazines meant to sell products using these women’s sexual appeal. Body positive activists in society, for some time now, have been campaigning industry to stop this damaging and exploitative …
I am an experienced OB/GYN, well-versed in obstetrics, infertility, gynecology, surgery and — yes — menopause, or so I thought. So why was I so blindsided by my own menopause transition?
I thought I was going through burnout, with anxiety, anger, mood swings, irritability, and depression. I was at a point in my career as an OB/GYN of 20-plus years that patients flocked to me because of my reputation and expected …
The Democratic debates this summer demonstrated massive confusion around Medicare for all. Does it mean Medicare for all who want it? Medicare Advantage? A “public option” on an Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange?
Democrats need to get their story straight.
The confusion is understandable. Medicare for all has been an aspiration since at least the New Deal, but since 1965, when Congress …
After practicing psychiatry and behavioral health for nearly 25 years, I’m done. I feel sick, and especially sicker from my occupation. Not merely burned out, but ill. Primarily mentally.
I’ve always had complex post-traumatic stress disorder. And depression and generalized anxiety, and many other diagnoses from the DSM. But, I’ve covered my illnesses so I could go to work and help so many people. Least of all myself.
My mother had chronic …
When it comes to locum tenens, doctors have a lot of questions. Maybe you even have some of your own. But first, let me ask you a few:
Did you know that there are more than 50,000 doctors working locum tenens in the U.S.? Or that 90% of health care facilities use locum tenens each year? Or that 21% of residents choose to work locum tenens right out of college?
Despite its …
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As proposals to ban surprise medical bills move through Congress and state legislatures with rare bipartisan support, physician groups have emerged as the loudest opponents.
Often led by doctors with the veneer of noble concern for patients, physician-staffing firms — third-party companies that employ doctors and assign them out to health care facilities — have opposed efforts to limit the practice known as balance billing. They claim such bans would rob …
If you’ve needed emergency care in the last few years, you probably encountered this situation: Soon after entering the emergency department, you were asked to go to a triage area in the waiting room where a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant asked you a few questions and ordered some diagnostic tests while you waited.
That’s a …
Today was like no other day. It was our first day together.
Me and my “virtual” scribe — an actual person who seems to “virtually” to exist inside of a Jabra speaker on my desk and so subtlety that I forgot to mute a few times when not seeing patients. The “man” in the Jabra speaker now knows just how long of an appointment I need for my hair, and that …
Successful and happy physician. But why stop there? What about successful businessman as well?
This is my story. And I’d love to share it. Maybe it’ll inspire someone else who works in health care.
I am very blessed. I am actually living out my childhood dream. When I was 15, and starting high school, I wrote down something for our class time capsule that was to be opened at our 10-year high …
Four years ago, there was legitimate concern over Hillary Clinton’s health. Between her coughing spells, facial tics, stumbles and falls, not to mention her prism glasses and inability to hold more than a few campaign events per week, it wasn’t at all clear that she was up to the rigors of being president.
Now it’s Joe Biden and his red eye-raising red flags over his health. His so-called gaffes are well …
An excerpt from Playing God: The Evolution of a Modern Surgeon.
A woman, call her Betsy, comes to see me. Betsy is in her early sixties and horribly unhealthy. She walks with a cane, each step she takes slow and painful. It hurts to watch her walk. Betsy has undergone …
Several weeks ago, I began my studies for a master’s degree in journalism. I’m continuing to work as a physician, but for the next two years, I’ll also be gaining knowledge in an important field: health communication.
I recall being a medical student and observing the different ways in which my supervising doctors spoke with their patients. Some doctors communicated clearly and were easily understood. Others used words that I had …
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