Why more physicians should enter industry

Tech
June 30, 2018

Attend any biotech or health informatics conference and one thing becomes clear: the scarcity of physicians. Entrepreneurs, businessmen, angel investors, and software engineers swarm these conferences — and their encompassing companies — all the while the imperative persona in this realm remains tied up behind a dysfunctional EHR or in an overbooked operating room. Why?

Certainly, inculcating these dynamic players in the health care space is integral to the successful evolvement …

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10 tips every young physician should read

Physician
June 29, 2018

How do I balance my home life with physician life?

I really want to do a research study. How do I start?

How do I get involved in my specialties society?

I am overwhelmed with clinical duties. How do I negotiate for nonclinical time?

My manuscript was rejected. What should I do next?

I had a bad clinical outcome, and I can’t seem to recover. How do I move forward?

Joining this committee will be a …

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A physician on timeshares: Who are they right for?

Finance
June 29, 2018

Timeshares, for those who might not know, are a way to own the right to use a vacation resort. It comes in two forms, owning points or owning a specific room in a complex for a specific week. It’s like a partial ownership of a condo at a resort. These units can be traded for other timeshares all over the world. If you own a week, it can be traded …

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5 reasons to get involved in organized medicine

Policy
June 24, 2018

The following are intended to inspire to medical students and residents to learn more about organized medicine. Whether it be at the national, state, county, or specialty level, there are numerous societies with opportunities for contribution.

1. To pull back the curtain. Many physicians are innately curious and like to “see how the sausage is made,” so to speak. There is a great deal of policy behind the scenes of our …

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How to create an app as a physician

Tech
June 24, 2018

“There’s an app for that.”

The phrase became so popular with the advent of smartphones that Apple even trademarked it. There are currently 3.8 million apps available on Android devices and over 2 million available to Apple iPhone users.

Does that mean that we’ve reached a limit on new and useful apps that can be created? Absolutely not. Especially in the medical world, it seems as if there’s so much room to …

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How to fix bullying in health care

Policy
June 23, 2018

When we think of bullying, we’re usually worrying about our school-age kids or remembering bad experiences from high school.

We learn quickly in the health care field that bullies don’t change once they enter the clinical world. Health care, with its incredible differential in knowledge, authority and pay creates large power differentials and easily generates subordinate/superior relationship dynamics.

Bullying occurs within professions between trainees and trainers and faculty, and across clinical areas …

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Welcome to your intern year breakdown

Physician
June 21, 2018

Summer is upon us, and with it comes the end of the academic year, graduations and the arrival of the newest crop of interns. Soon these fresh-faced physicians will enter into one of the most remarkable educational experiences of their medical careers: residency. Many of these soon-to-be-interns are looking to attendings now for advice on how to excel during (or survive through) the arduous first year of training. Suggestions like …

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Life as a doctor is selfless and selfish at the same time

Physician
June 20, 2018

It was 5:45 in the morning on a Monday after a full weekend of call. Thoroughly exhausted, I shuffled into the elevator and was met by the stench of stale clothing mixed with cigarette smoke. A painfully thin teenager exited, looking lost. I allowed him to wander out, grateful to be spared his odor. I was apathetic, overtaken by a weariness I vowed as a medical student never to have.

Morning …

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Becoming a doctor is the epitome of delayed gratification

Education
June 19, 2018

Recently, I had the honor of standing by one of my childhood best friends as she promised the love of her life that she’d stand by him forever. The wedding was beautiful, and at the reception, I played with another close friend’s 3-year-old daughter and talked with other friends about their work promotions and apartment searches. All I have to contribute to these conversations are anecdotes about medical school and …

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Why do physicians publish in predatory journals?

Physician
June 19, 2018

A new study found several senior academic surgeons had published papers in what used to be termed “predatory journals.” The newer, gentler term is “solicited publishing,” but it defines the same pay-to-play, low-quality publications.

Surgeons from the University of California, San Diego examined 110 emails sent to the senior author from 29 publishers during a six-week period and early 2017. Nearly all were requesting manuscript submissions. The 29 publishers represented 113 …

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5 ways assembly line medicine harms patients

Physician
June 18, 2018

When we go to the deli, we expect to take a number and wait in line. Accomplishing any task at the department of motor vehicles can be an ordeal of waiting and then being herded out the door. This is part of life in American society. However, it should not be part of your health care.

Patients need personalized attention and they need a health care team that listens to them, …

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A physician was fired for standing up for his beliefs

Policy
June 17, 2018

Dr. Eugene Gu. He is — was — a surgical resident at Vanderbilt University. His resume exemplifies academic perfection: valedictorian in high school, undergraduate degree from Stanford, medical degree from Duke, surgical residency at Vanderbilt. He also founded his own research company. Not once throughout the span of his academic or professional career would one have any reason question his capability or competency. But several weeks ago Vanderbilt fired him, citing “performance” issues.

Why?

Because …

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The Handmaid’s Tale and the state of medicine

Physician
June 15, 2018

Spoiler alert!  I recently started watching Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale after continuing to hear rave reviews about the show.  It is based on the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood.  I just started watching this weekend and am now caught up to season 2; it’s that good.  It portrays a world in which fertility and birth rates have declined so drastically, that fertile women have been forced to serve as handmaids …

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5 mistakes hospitalists should avoid when starting a locum tenens position

Physician
June 15, 2018

For the last 8 years, I have worked as a locum tenens hospitalist. I began on this path when it was the least popular option upon graduation from residency.

I did countless hours of research trying to find accurate information about locum tenens companies, but never found anything written by physicians, only by the companies themselves. So, I stepped into this field blindfolded and learned the hard way. Since then, I have …

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Medical students: You are more than your grades

Education
June 15, 2018

Recently, I entered an essay contest on advice you would give to future medical students. I sincerely believe that the best person to write an article offering advice to younger medical students should come from a person who didn’t match. Also known as me. Why, you say? Well, for everyone else, Match Day is a culmination of four years of mentally, physically, and emotionally taxing work. They might even forget …

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The worst enemy of a doctor should never be another doctor

Physician
June 14, 2018

“The worst enemy of a doctor is another doctor,” said one of my professors during rounds when I was doing my internal medicine clerkship as a third-year medical student.

I remained skeptical. That did not match the idea of becoming a doctor nor did it support what Dr. Pellegrini said: “Medicine is the most humane of the sciences.”

Nonetheless, my old professor explained that when it comes to patient care planning and …

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Am I the cold and detached physician?

Physician
June 13, 2018

It’s 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday, I get on the elevator, and I hear a man in his 40s, having a conversation on his cell. He says: “He had a brain bleed yesterday, and they had to put a breathing tube in, they don’t know how much damage his brain has suffered at this point.” He gets off on the adult ICU floor. I quickly think “that sucks” and carry …

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The U.S. is failing at mental health care

Conditions
June 13, 2018

Where I practice, the process of referring a patient suffering a mental illness is quite infuriating. The wait to get in to see a psychiatrist or psychologist can be months all the while patients are suffering. Worse yet, with certain insurances, there are just no mental health providers available for any of their covered patients. The failure of treating mental health disease in the U.S. is glaring.

In the U.S., approximately …

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7 habits of being on call

Physician
June 11, 2018

1. You sleep when you can. Despite what medical television dramas portray, call room beds are for sleeping. Period. As you curl up into the bed you have no idea whether you are about to get a couple hours of sleep or a couple of minutes, but in that moment of sheer exhaustion, the drab hospital cot or bunk suddenly transforms into a luxurious sleeping pad. Bonus if you can …

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Identifying social determinants of health is critical to the patient interview

Policy
June 11, 2018

After a semester of medical school, I returned home to the Antelope Valley in California, an area CNN coined, “health care’s nowhere land” because of low health insurance rates and limited provider networks that force residents to travel far for care. I wanted to help my family and neighbors by using the physical exam skills I learned during my first few months as a medical student, but …

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