It was only my first week in the hospital as a third-year medical student when we met. I entered your room early Tuesday morning. Only knowing your chief concern, I knocked on your door and entered the room. You didn’t complain when I awakened you. You didn’t complain when I asked many questions about a story you had already relayed multiple times to others. You didn’t complain when …
“Is it possible to have it all? Can you have a job that you love, helping people and using your brain and hands all at the same time; plus, a family, with a spouse and children, that you are always there for? Is it possible to have a balance between your work and your family live while working as a medical …
Making a career change for better work-life balance [PODCAST]
The long debate about rationality and conformity in both medicine and religion has been intense on many levels. Some people claim science requires certainty, validity, and reliability; others believe faith and optimism are essential for scientific advancement. Some reasons for this argument might include the enormous prosecution of scientists Read more…
Where is the line between faith and medicine?
“With COVID-19 raging through the nation, and limited supply of PPE at hospitals, doctors and other critical care personnel are at high risk due to their increased and daily exposure to the virus. For health care workers, the need to plan for a possible worst-case outcome for themselves and their families has become an immediate concern. Doctors are spending limited weekend …
Estate planning and personal finance tips for physicians [PODCAST]
I have been nourished by cafeteria food since elementary school. I remember the public school pizza squares with its melted artificial cheese, the fruit cocktail drenched in sickeningly sweet syrup, and 2 percent chocolate milk pints—costing $1.65 per meal. In college, I enjoyed access to a wider selection, including $6.50 custom omelets and midnight mozzarella sticks to fuel late-night study sessions. However, nothing came close to the quality and …
An excerpt from This Is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensable Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, ADHD, and More.
Suzy was a bright and hardworking student. However, even though she was conscientious and generally cheery, her grades began to fall during …
Can what you eat worsen your ADHD?
I love being an emergency doctor. I loved my residency, my co-residents, and my attendings.
I love my training: watching, learning, treating.
I love the emergency department, the vastness, and the variability of emergency medicine.
But I am tired.
I am tired of feeling like a workhorse, a production line made to just churn patients in and out.
I am tired of being told that my worth as a doctor is based on my time …
I am tired. But I still love emergency medicine.
“We are blessed to work in a clinic that has a very large immigrant population. Over the years, we have cared for those who speak over 80+ languages with an even higher number of unique countries and regions represented. Arabic and Spanish are our two most commonly spoken non-English languages. We also have patients who speak unique languages such as Kurdish, …
How to help families struggling to find their way in a foreign culture [PODCAST]
President Trump recently signed two executive orders directly related to prescription drug prices in the U.S.
One order would allow the “reimportation” of prescription drugs from Canada. This longstanding idea would allow U.S. pharmacies and drug wholesalers the ability to pay generally much lower prices for their prescription drugs by getting them from Canadian suppliers who benefit from government management of the system. Many consumers have been buying direct from Canadian …
Why is the government so scared of directly negotiating drug prices?
Human kindness is a trait that, though inherent within our genetic make-up, can also be a learned behavior.
The absence of human kindness is blatantly visible to others when a lack of compassion and/or empathy permeates within an interaction with another human being.
As our daily life responsibilities continue at a steady state: mundane things such as paying bills, holding down a job and successfully interacting with co-workers, our ability to respond …
The impact of COVID-19 on human kindness
“Building great tech for doctors is no different from ventilator technology. In some scenarios, you will want to talk to the EMR like you talk to Siri, rather than poring over a screen littered with boxes and lists. In other cases, you will want elegant graphs intuitively laid out to show how your ICU patient is progressing. Other solutions will go …
AI-powered, digital voice assistants in the exam room [PODCAST]
The behavior of managers and supervisors in organizations affects the mental health of their employees. This is especially true during times of uncertainty, such as a global pandemic.
Does a leader’s health and well-being change how they lead?
Early evidence shows that when leaders are experiencing challenging conditions, they are more likely to become resource depleted and exhibit negative behaviors, such as passive leadership or abusive …
How to be a transformational, supportive leader during COVID-19
“We all knew this pandemic was going to change how we practiced medicine, but I, personally, was not prepared for how much it would challenge the ‘work-life balance’ that I have spent years carefully maneuvering. Female physicians are often hesitant to express individual needs for fear of being viewed as “weak.” I’m finding freedom in removing the stigma of weakness and …
How COVID-19 impacts rural America [PODCAST]
“COVID-19 has given all of us the opportunity to live in extremely challenging times. We can choose to run away from this challenge or decide to acknowledge it as part of our journey to grow and transform. So, will you face your habitual reactions, biases, and unpleasant emotions and turn these COVID-19 related challenges into opportunities for personal development and growth?
It’s …
Physician personal development and growth [PODCAST]
What does a primary care visit look like from the patient’s point of view? I often wonder this myself, as a resident physician currently seeing patients at an FQHC in Austin, Texas. A brief look at the process reveals an often tumultuous ordeal for patients and providers alike. Consider the following steps: Finding an available appointment day and time in an overbooked schedule, requesting time off from work in order …
An alternative to the current model of primary care
When I was a full-time partner in a large radiology practice, I worked days, nights, evenings, and weekends without control over my schedule. Doing the laundry, I washed days’ worth of my children’s outfits that I never saw them wear. I saw them in PJs in the morning before I left for work, kissed their warm cheeks goodbye, and saw them again at night when I got home after dinnertime …
How a physician can learn to be an expert witness
An excerpt from Scope Forward: The Future of Gastroenterology Is Now in Your Hands.
Over a decade ago, many of us still used landline phones, watched cable TV, rented DVDs, called for taxis, took photos using cameras, and drove over to Borders to browse and buy books. …
What does colon cancer screening have to do with self-driving cars?
“I know I am not alone in my thoughts; I am just echoing sentiments of other female physicians. We are mothers, wives, patient advocates, and educators. And we’re all suddenly finding ourselves in unchartered waters. In weathering this pandemic, I’ve taken time to reflect. I wish I could say I emerged from this introspection having conquered all my fears. Instead, I …
Challenges female physicians face in medicine and the strength of vulnerability [PODCAST]
Today I wanted to talk about a concept that is very near and dear to my heart: Holding space.
Have you ever heard of it? Do you know how to describe it?
I will first start with the definition and then give you an example.
Holding space means being physically, mentally, and emotionally present for someone. It means putting your focus on someone to support them as they feel their feelings. An important …
The importance of holding space
“Through my coaching of girl’s basketball in California’s Central Valley, my daughter and I were fortunate enough to know Kobe as a mentor and coach, and a person who inspired my daughter to be the best through hard work, dedication, and passion. While Kobe will live on as one of the game’s greatest athletes, he wanted to be remembered for much …
Remembering Kobe Bryant and what basketball can teach us in medicine [PODCAST]
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