“What is SEO? In short, it is the process of optimizing content found online in order to help it be seen by those searching for the information found in that content. It used to be that people would just stuff their poorly written, short, and low-quality blog posts with their keyword, and they would rank for that keyword. Long gone are …
Search engine optimization for physicians [PODCAST]
I read on social media that sea moss gel is supposed to cure coronavirus. Do I still need to wear a mask?
It’s hard to imagine physicians being deceptive to patients about matters of life and death. Yet, the politicization of health care coverage, COVID-19, disparities in health outcomes, and women’s health rights has severely fractured the relationship between health officials and the American public. Prior to the pandemic, …
Doctors for truth: Fighting for trust in an era of misinformation
For many years and in disturbing frequency over the past few years, police brutality has been a big-ticket issue. The excessive use of force has led to innumerable acts of civil rights violation and, most tragically, the disproportionate death and destruction of innocent Black lives. There have been many debates on what to do to change law enforcement culture. But what has been weighing on my mind is …
Do police officers get jaded over time, just like a lot of physicians do?
“Physicians are advocates of health. This must include our own. Physicians identify threats to health. This must include those that threaten our own – burnout is proven a grave threat. Physicians seek, prescribe, and perform curative treatments. We have the treatment for burnout available – we must prescribe it for each other and seek it for ourselves. Physicians advocate for vaccination …
How coaching prevents and treats physician burnout [PODCAST]
“We can’t un-bungle our nation’s COVID-19 response. Political leaders acted too slowly; health agencies committed unforced errors with testing kits and, amid the confusion, an information fog settled over the land.
Americans remain afraid, perplexed, and chronically misinformed (despite wall-to-wall coronavirus coverage across the leading cable news programs and print publications).
To counter the uncertainty, any plan to get us out of the coronavirus crisis …
3 coronavirus facts Americans must know before returning to work and school [PODCAST]
A practicing anesthesiologist for the past 14 years, when COVID hit, and the ORs came to an abrupt halt, I needed to occupy my mind. An opportunity to learn about the business behind running a practice came to me via a good friend who is a founding member of an award-winning Fintech on a mission to make a change in the credit card processing industry. I was stunned to learn …
How doctors are losing money every time a patient pays a bill
Our obstetric anesthesia team sat down to debrief after a particularly harrowing case. We had just replaced our patient’s blood volume twice over after she went into labor with a placenta previa accompanied by a placenta accreta. The operating room had been the usual controlled chaotic scene of multiple teams intensely focused on their responsibilities. It was noisy. Too noisy. I had to remind everyone to restrict themselves to essential …
Unconscious bias in the operating room
“Eventually, this thankfully passed. Now, almost three years later, I know that this loss will always be with us. Miriam was beautiful, she was our only girl, she was perfect for our family, and she’s always missing.
Still, my memories of being in the hospital are incredibly sad but also peaceful. In part, this is due to the incredible support and love …
A terminal diagnosis for my baby [PODCAST]
In an increasingly technology-oriented world, genuine human connection is becoming rarer. Physicians are taught to emotionally disassociate from their patients for mental self-protection. This detachment can result in a loss of human connection between a doctor and patient, which may interfere with patient health outcomes. Studying great literature, such as Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, allows health care professionals to adopt the patient perspective and gain insight into how …
Will reading Tolstoy make you a better doctor?
Most health care providers are aware of the FIGS scrubs advertisement that depicted a female physician with a DO badge holding a Medical Terminology for Dummies book upside down. In one fell swoop, FIGS enraged the entire medical community causing backlash towards their company. This ad mocking female osteopathic physicians sparked outrage. Many in health care have vowed not to purchase FIGS, prompting the #boycottFIGS response posted as a result …
A DO’s take on the FIGS faux pas
“Setting: An impersonal, windowless conference room within a hospital
Characters: A nurse in charge (NIC), a department chair (DC) and me (ME)
NIC: Thank you for joining us to discuss the report you made of unprofessional behavior in the operating room. We’d like to start by letting you know that in this institution, we have a culture of informality. When I first got here, …
A physician experiences unprofessional behavior. What happened next? [PODCAST]
“Will the unfavorable regulatory environment permit telehealth to flourish? Perforce we’re beginning to see a relaxation of restrictions that have hitherto obstructed progress. Recently, federal officials approved interstate licensing, thereby prompting greater telehealth conversion, utilization, and expansion. Medicare’s 1135 Waiver is also encouraging, and, in as much as it serves the same ends, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s leave to prescribe via …
Telehealth is the future but it is obscured by a dismal present [PODCAST]
For a bunch of folks striving to stomp out malignant processes in our patients, we sure tolerate a fair amount of destructive behavior among training programs.
I’ll be the first to say I’m not the most delicate flower in the garden. Before pursuing medicine, I was a college athlete. I’m no stranger to long hours, harsh coaches, or repeated failures.
Medical students get their first bitter taste of malignant …
Why we’ll never eradicate malignancy in medical training
During a typically busy Saturday evening shift in the emergency department (ED), I am summoned to the trauma room for a “tie-down,” an agitated patient needing restraints. I find the entrance choked with police officers and push my way through to see the patient. Once there, I see a large, young appearing Black man lying on his back, his hands cuffed tightly together on his stomach, a netted hood over …
The issue of tie-downs in the emergency department
“Suzy was a bright and hardworking student. However, even though she was conscientious and generally cheery, her grades began to fall during her senior year, and she started to feel depressed. She also constantly had an upset stomach, which she had just accepted as a way of life. She’d had an ADHD diagnosis since she was younger, but while Ritalin had …
Can what you eat worsen your ADHD? [PODCAST]
It took me 47 years to hear those two devastating words, “You’re fired.”
It’s not like I didn’t have a slew of jobs before becoming a physician. I cut lawns and raked leaves as an early teen; I worked in a fast-food restaurant when I was 14 using my older brother’s ID, I worked in a carwash one summer, I even worked for a national department store. I was always polite, …
“You’re fired”: 2 words this doctor never expected to hear
“Let’s not suffer more hardship then already incurred by COVID-19. Recognizing that both the psychosocial stressors arising from COVID-19 and the withdrawal of effective sexual offender treatment increase the risk of sexual violence, public safety demands that offenders have access to treatment. Without sexual offender treatment during COVID-19, we exchange one public health crisis for another.”
Renée Sorrentino is …
Sexual offender treatment during COVID-19 [PODCAST]
Recently, FIGS – a design-driven medical apparel company – published its latest video advertisement: a young woman in bubblegum pink scrubs struts into view, shaking her FIGS-clad hips for the camera while holding a Medical Terminology for Dummies textbook upside-down. Forget practicing medicine; this woman isn’t fit to drive. The camera pans, emphatically, towards her badge, which reads DO – short for doctor of osteopathic medicine. Ahhh, the viewer is …
The burden of the badge: an MD student’s response to the FIGS controversy
“The incident bothered me all day and the following many days. I couldn’t quite put a finger on what it was and brushed it aside and stopped thinking about it. In the wake of recent events, it dawned upon me that it wasn’t the patient’s comments that bothered me. It was the fact that no one standing in the room witnessing …
Be an upstander and not a bystander [PODCAST]
In the KevinMD article, “Assisted suicide: a change of heart,” the author contends that there is salvation in suffering, but not everyone believes that is true. While I support the author’s ability to decide how she wants to die, I do not believe that her personal beliefs should dictate how I die.
I retired as an internist a few years ago because of declining health. I …
Medical aid in dying is not assisted suicide
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