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Why telemedicine needs to be a permanent part of Medicare [PODCAST]

Podcast

August 19, 2020

“While preparing to assist our patients in the emergency rooms and dedicated COVID-19 wards, our clinic continues to triage patient concerns, creates new care plans, and provides a necessary layer of support, reassurance, and education in a chaotic and stressful time. Like all of you, my colleagues and I look forward to resuming our normal lives as once this pandemic is …

5 power tips to refine your critical thinking skills

Priti Golechha, MD

Physician

August 19, 2020

One thing, which is constant in health care, is that it is continuously evolving. The challenges health care leaders are facing are not simple. They are often multifaceted, which require strategic, creative, and inclusive solutions. There are competing priorities and goals. Critical thinking has become an essential skill for all healthcare leaders.

Here are five simple tips to help you practice your critical thinking skills.

1. Ponder on the challenge. Spend as …

Consider the natural ways to prevent or reverse atherosclerosis

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Conditions

August 19, 2020

Some people have high cholesterol but not much atherosclerosis. We think of their arteries as having nonstick surfaces. We know inflammation can predispose to plaque formation and plaque rupture, which is the trigger of most heart attacks.

We know statin drugs can prevent and reverse plaque buildup, and make existing plaque sturdier and less likely to rupture. These drugs lower blood levels of inflammatory substances. Most doctors focus on their cholesterol-lowering …

A medical student graduates with a lack of closure [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 18, 2020

“I initially fell into the dangerous grief and shame spiral. I shoved these feelings of loss deep down and let shame bubble up. How could I legitimize my feelings when people are dying?

However, I have been working through the idea that comparative pain and its conflicting feelings do not help. To a toddler, their worst grief is not being able to …

Why gardening is the best medicine

John La Puma, MD

Physician

August 18, 2020

My first glimpse into the power of urban gardening was not through bucolic farmer’s markets or verdant nurseries, whose beauty I only came to after medical school. My introduction was in our small suburban backyard of clay soil. My dad planted silvery, wild-armed globe artichokes, because they could produce flower buds and leaves we could eat, to improve our digestion. That glimpse was enough to ignite my curiosity about homegrown …

Read more…

Why gardening is the best medicine

How physicians can find jobs in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries

Nerissa Kreher, MD, MBA

Physician

August 18, 2020

Fifteen years ago, my career path took a detour. As a two-physician household, we were managing my husband’s match and my job interviews in the cities he was considering. Boston, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles – could you get any more diverse? Definitely, an awkward way to interview; hard to sell excitement when it was clear that it really depended upon “the match.”

Boston! As soon as we got the match results …

How psychiatry has changed over the years

Greg Smith, MD

Conditions

August 18, 2020

I grew up in a small mill village in northwest Georgia. When things did not go right, someone got sick, or we had an accident, or we needed a sports physical, we would head around the circle to the entrance to the mill complex, just across the grassy field from my house, and see Dr. Harry Dawson. Dr. Dawson was that old omnipresent breed of physician who had a small …

A psychiatrist’s telemedicine experience [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 17, 2020

“I propose Zooming while driving be added to the DSM criteria for ADHD. I have gotten a new glimpse into the world of some of my patients. One patient even mentioned it’s hard for them to come to appointments, even with transportation, and we were able for the first time to talk at length about those psychological factors that prevent them …

A physician’s work is hard. And it is sacred.

Andy Lamb, MD

Physician

August 17, 2020

In today’s increasingly technological, data-driven, depersonalized world of health care, I wonder if the concept of “a good death” is even possible. The COVID-19 pandemic, in particular, has caused me to reflect on this. What does it look like? How do you define it? As I did, a patient came to mind. He was a retired minister in his 80s. I had cared for his wife as well until she …

Why it’s so important for medical students and physicians to write and share their stories [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 16, 2020

“I wrote a 55-word story in solidarity with my medical students and colleagues I had invited to share their lived experiences during COVID-19 on our Stories in Medicine blog. I wrote out of a need to “unmask” the guilt and angst of some of my colleagues and myself who, though practicing physicians, do not find ourselves directly on the front lines …

The next time you’re on call, please rethink what white and black clouds mean

Dante A. Mesa, MD

Physician

August 16, 2020

I distinctly remember one of many times I was reminded of “my place” in medicine. It was during the third year on a call day shift that had been lighter than most for our bustling hospital. As the residents were discussing who it was that had brought the good energy, I slipped in to mention that I often felt I had a white cloud energy myself. And the senior on …

How to recruit more students into family medicine

Kenneth Lin, MD

Physician

August 16, 2020

In 2019, a Policy One-Pager produced by the Robert Graham Center reported that the percentage of the active U.S. physician workforce in primary care practice declined from 32 percent in 2010 to 30 percent in 2018. Although family physicians represent 4 in 10 primary care physicians, in several states, a large percentage of family physicians are older than 55 years and anticipated to …

With COVID-19, a need to deregulate buprenorphine prescriptions [PODCAST]

Megana Dwarakanath, MD

Podcast

August 15, 2020

“With COVID-19, we have both the unique opportunity and need to deregulate buprenorphine prescriptions. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAHMSA) recently updated guidelines for buprenorphine prescriptions. There are new provisions for telephonic initiation of buprenorphine and scripts up to 28 days for stable patients. Unfortunately, this does not circumvent the major issue: redeployed providers will not be able …

4 ways to decrease your dread of being on-call

Katie Townes, DO

Physician

August 15, 2020

Have you ever been faced with an upcoming shift at work and felt an impending sense of doom? This type of anticipation can be a real killjoy. However, taking calls, working nights, weekends, and holidays is all part of the job, right?

Worst. Call. Ever.

I was just drifting off, entering the first phase of sleep when the whole body is relaxed, and you’ve entered that sweet twilight zone. …

What happens if you are both too rich and too poor for health insurance?

Vincent Fussell, MD

Policy

August 15, 2020

After being kept up all night responding to pages, I was still half-asleep walking into Mr. Jenkins’ room for what I thought would be a routine early morning admission for new-onset seizures. From scanning through the electronic medical record, I was not expecting to encounter the unfortunate and complex array of social factors underlying his condition.

Mr. Jenkins was in his late 20s and had three children to take care of. …

Medical education and engaging children in wearing masks [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 14, 2020

“Children are being encouraged to take on the superhero persona and help protect others. They do this in true average-person-as-the-superhero style by wearing a facemask alone, without any superhero powers or words. Just as wearing a facemask in public has been the norm for years in many Asian countries, it may become the norm worldwide. For this to happen, we need …

Imposter syndrome and COVID: a medical student perspective

Kimia Zarabian and Mai Hasan

Education

August 14, 2020

Shifting nervously in our seats amongst 180 of our fellow medical school classmates, we focused in on the front of the lecture hall as our deans began their annual orientation address. “Each of you has worked so hard to get here. No one has gotten to this point by mistake. But also be wary that each and every one of you will experience imposter syndrome during your time here. Everyone …

Palliative care during the pandemic [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

August 13, 2020

“We are health care workers. We are doctors, advanced care practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and so much more. We are on the frontlines. We are our parents’ children, and we are parents to our young children. For the first time, we are at an extremely high risk of being quarantined by the same beast we are trying to conquer. We …

Without cadavers in school, will doctors be the same?

Christopher Watson, MD

Education

August 13, 2020

The Kaiser Permanente’s Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine opened this summer, and its students will not learn anatomy by dissecting a cadaver. Instead, they will don virtual reality headsets and dissect virtual bodies. The school does have a collection of pre-dissected, “plastinated” cadavers, but according to the chair of biomedical sciences students will spend the majority of their time studying electronic …

The benefits of taking more time away from work far outweigh the consequences

James Turner, MD

Finance

August 13, 2020

Around 50 percent of physicians are burned out, and many feel trapped in their job. Yet, I have heard it countless times from doctors who were able to cut back to part-time work that when they had more time away from work, they fell back in love with medicine. Moderation in all things seems to be key here, and I’ve experienced some of that lately myself after a really hard …

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