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 …
How provider-in-triage systems in ERs compromise patient care
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 …
Virtual scribes are game-changers for physicians
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 …
A successful physician who is also successful in business
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 ophthalmologist analyzes Joe Biden’s red eye
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 …
Doctors aren’t gods. They need God to help them.
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 …
The language of medicine can be complicated. Does it need to be this way?
Imagine your typical yearly physical. It’s probably booked for 20 to 40 minutes. Since you, like many of us, may see your physician only once a year, it is important for you to have your physician’s complete attention and to have all of your concerns addressed. Some of these concerns may be of a sensitive – even embarrassing – nature. Your physician may likewise ask you some probing questions about …
A pediatrician speaks out against combining sibling appointments
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Marijuana is made from the dried flowers of the cannabis plant. Made of more than 500 chemicals, including over 100 compounds called cannabinoids, the primary active compounds in the plant are tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC acts on specific brain cell receptors that …
Does marijuana really relieve pain? Here’s what anesthesiologists say.
Collaboration is the key.
When I think about how hard it is to take care of our patients, and how many different people are involved in their care, it’s a wonder that anything ever gets done.
We need to simplify systems, and harness the power of the information systems available to us, as well as the promise of the electronic medical record, …
How EMRs can actually help physicians
More than 200 health organizations have now implemented OpenNotes. Many more are piloting, are soon to implement — or have implemented, and we don’t know it! For more than three years I’ve been fortunate to represent OpenNotes to potential implementers, and I’m confident I’ve heard almost every clinician concern or anxiety regarding what might happen when patients read their own notes.
Here are the five most common concerns I’ve heard — …
5 clinician concerns about OpenNotes
The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) should be abolished. This single test — which ranks students by the science they’ve learned before going to medical school — prevents the physician population in the U.S. from looking like the population it serves. Underrepresented minority students have lower scores on all standardized tests. And the MCAT is no exception. When medical school admission committees use the MCAT as a screening tool to …
I was recently working in clinic on a Friday afternoon. I was on my last patient of the day, and it had been a particularly long clinic. I had big plans for the weekend and should have already finished. The gentleman entered the room, sat down, and we began the consultation. Because I was so behind, I went through everything a little quicker than I usually would, but still covering …
Never let your patients know you’re in a hurry
It’s 10 p.m.
Seven days before Christmas.
I’m sitting at work “finishing” up some charts.
I am suddenly overcome with anger.
What am I doing here right now at this minute? I am helping no one.
This work I’m typing away at — trying so hard not to scream — it’s hoops. Fucki*g hoops … for insurance companies. So I can beg them to pay me. Pay me pennies for the hard, good, compassionate, humanitarian …
“90 percent of what you will learn over the next four years will be wrong in a couple of decades from now.”
Speaking to a lecture hall of 120 first-year medical students, our professor’s prophecy seemed to fall on deaf ears. Looking around, I saw no concerned students, no diminishment of our collective enthusiasm. For me, however, his words of caution struck a chord on that first day of medical school.
As …
Most of what you learned in medical school is wrong. And that’s OK.
Students’ time in medical school should help them grow and become insightful, caring doctors. Instead, medical education is somehow turning smart, gifted, enthusiastic applicants into exhausted and unhappy students who become interns, residents, and physicians at increased risk of depression and burnout.
I’m no stranger to the demands of medical school. My father and father-in-law were both …
Medical schools cause burnout. Here’s how to fix that.
As media coverage of the 50th anniversary of Woodstock shifted into high gear earlier this month, two articles in the “Arts and Medicine” section of JAMA called attention to another anniversary that transported me back in time.
It has been 40 years since the publication of The House of God — an unabashedly irreverent (some would say “borderline pathological”) fictionalized account of author Stephen Bergman’s …
Does the House of God stand the test of time?
“Jeff, turn my headphones up.”
There is a peace and tranquility to the recording booth before the beat drops. A heavy bass and drum kick in, signaling me to bark gravelly lyrics into a state-of-the-art microphone with hopes that it sounds passable. Over the past year, my rhymes have gone from clunky to less clunky, and for a few moments, they weave between melodic insightfulness and relatable humor. Embedded within these …
Meet the orthopedic surgeon who became a rapper
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Because I work for a medical specialty society, I’m frequently asked by non-members why I believe they should belong to a medical professional society. This is a particularly relevant question these days given the rapidly changing landscape of medicine and with physicians becoming …
Why should you belong to a medical professional society?
As we’ve seen, the lives of those working in the health care system has become overwhelmingly challenging, burdened by all of the excess nonmedical stuff that has been added into our lives as we try to take care of patients.
From prior authorizations, to clicking in the electronic medical record, to endless streams of regulatory requirements, to the continuous onslaught created by …
How can we address retention in the era of physician burnout?
What is coaching? It’s a conscious effort to notice and evaluate how our thinking impacts our experiences, how perspective shows up in the results of our life.
Coaching has been integral to fields other than medicine for many years. Yet, many physicians don’t know much about it — much less anything about its potential to radically transform the culture of medical training and our experiences in health care.
It’s time we caught …
Physician coaching: the new normal?
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