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This doctor paid off $200,000 in student loans in 19 months. Here’s how.

Finance

March 18, 2019

There are some milestones that need to be appropriately celebrated. For the 80% of physicians who graduated with student loan debt, paying those loans off certainly qualifies as such a moment. Everyone has a different way of tackling their student loans. Today, I want to outline how we paid off $200,000 in student loans in 19 months, and then discuss what our plans are to rid ourselves of the rest …

3 health tips to help busy physicians

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

March 18, 2019

Practicing medicine at the frontlines is hard. It’s damn hard. Every minute you need to be alert, ready to respond to a potential life or death situation, and be called to another important problem. The current medical practice environment — with excessive bureaucracy, suboptimal information technology, and extreme time pressure with patients — adds exponentially to the mix, and can make for a very stressful job. Make no mistake, even …

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3 health tips to help busy physicians

Why many doctors live paycheck to paycheck

Cory Fawcett, MD

Finance

March 18, 2019

Wealth seems to be an elusive dream for many people. They desire to become wealthy, but feel they don’t earn enough money to reach that goal, as if earning more would make the difference. A study of 10,000 millionaires presented in Chris Hogan’s new book, Everyday Millionaires, showed that 69% of these millionaires reached that level of affluence on a household income of less than $100,000 a year. If all …

The story of an attending’s empathy

Ton La, Jr., MD, JD

Education

March 16, 2019

“Hey, you’re a med student. Right?”

“Yes, I am. Do you need me to scrub in?”

“That would be wonderful, yes! Everyone is either out on vacation or is sick. It’s just me and the resident.”

“OK, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I was on my OB/GYN rotation, and once a week I follow one of the surgeons. It was 7:20 a.m., and a patient was coming in for an unplanned, stat …

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The story of an attending’s empathy

“Doctor” or first name: Which do you prefer?

Health eCareers

Physician

March 16, 2019

This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.

“Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.” So go the famous lyrics from the theme song for “Cheers,” the iconic sitcom of the 1980s. The name thing can get really personal in medicine — and everyone has an opinion — as evidenced by a plaintive blog posting …

Understanding 6 trends shaping health care through gastroenterology

Praveen Suthrum

Tech

March 15, 2019

If you throw a pebble today, it’s likely to land on an article that talks about how artificial intelligence and its brother — machine learning — are changing health care.

Yes, I get it broadly. But I was curious to explore how exactly health care’s trends are shaping a single medical specialty. I chose gastroenterology (GI) because I’m most familiar with the space. And here’s what I found.

Trend #1: Manipulating bacteria …

A pediatrician’s tips for your kids’ snacking habits

Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD

Conditions

March 15, 2019

Parents often ask me about snacks for their children once they are eating table food. Should they even give them snacks? If so, what kinds are good for them, and how often? In general, after age one I recommend three kid-size meals and 1 to 2 snacks to help them get their daily nutritional requirements. Try not to stress or obsess at each feeding about them eating all that you …

An orthopedic surgeon’s guide to tennis elbow

Nancy Yen Shipley, MD

Conditions

March 15, 2019

As a sports medicine orthopaedic surgeon, I often see patients with complaints at their elbow. One of the more common diagnoses is tennis elbow, otherwise known as lateral epicondylitis. Surprisingly, most of my patients with this condition don’t even play tennis! Many types of repetitive arm movement can lead to tennis elbow. It all has to do with the tendons in our arms.

Tendons are the structures that hold muscle to …

The consequences of celebrity endorsements in health care

Sheindel Ifrah

Meds

March 14, 2019

“Try this,” whispers Kate Winslet as I wander past the Lancôme counter. “Your glowing skin will thank you.”

The consequences of a celebrity endorsement are seemingly harmless when it comes to revamping a makeup routine, but what happens when this type of advertisement seeps into the world of health care? It has been proven many times that celebrity endorsements influence decisions about specific political candidates, issues or parties, and the positive …

Does work-life balance really exist for young mothers pursuing medical careers?

Sheindel Ifrah

Education

March 14, 2019

As our society’s awareness of mental-health issues increases, the idea of balancing personal and professional life has become a central topic of conversation. It cannot be disputed that finding a healthy equilibrium is especially important for mothers who enter the professional world, medical or otherwise. As a student in an accelerated post-baccalaureate pre-health program and a mother of a 3-year-old girl and a 10-month-old boy, I have made many strides …

The fallacy of patient-centered care

Myles Gart, MD

Physician

March 14, 2019

I often wonder what it was like before patient-centered care became a mainstream catchphrase. Was there a poor relationship between the patient and physician in the outpatient setting? Were hospitalized patients’ feelings, desires, goals, and therapy options ignored? It amazes me that we were able to care for patients more than ten years ago without using a “patient-centered” approach.

According to NEJM Catalyst, “Patient-and family-centered care encourages the …

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The fallacy of patient-centered care

How Tom Brady and Lebron James can change your patients’ health

Abdel Albakri

Conditions

March 13, 2019

As medical professionals, one of the most challenging things to do is to motivate a patient to make changes in their lives. We passionately want the best for our patients, and it is sometimes so difficult for us to be able to connect with and inspire them to take the next step on a path to disease prevention and longevity. The solution? Enter Lebron James and Tom Brady.

It is no …

Why do patients call me by my first name?

Karen Fahey, MD

Physician

March 13, 2019

For the past several years, I have been befuddled by patients calling me by my first name (Sara) instead of my professional title (Dr. Jones). At first, I ignored this, but as it became more common, I started telling some of these patients that I preferred being called Dr. Jones rather than by first name. This took some patients aback — probably thinking I was a snob — while others …

49 ways to stay out of my ER

Rada Jones, MD

Physician

March 13, 2019

I’m an ER doc. I care for patients. All patients: Those who need to be in the ER; those who don’t; those who wouldn’t be there if they knew better. For them, for you and for fun, I’ve got some tips to keep you happy, safe and away from my ER. Enjoy.

1. Never, ever say “hold my beer and watch this!” Besides “I do!” they are the most dangerous words …

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49 ways to stay out of my ER

A scribe’s haunting view of emergency medicine

Nicole Russell

Education

March 13, 2019

If you’re in the emergency department, it’s probably the worst day of your life. You’re scared, confused, anxious, sad, maybe emotionally numb.

You were at home with your husband and witnessed him have a cardiac arrest. He was unresponsive, and he wasn’t breathing. You felt hopeless because you didn’t know how to help him, but you called 911. They rushed him to the hospital, and you followed the ambulance. By the …

Motrin vs. Tylenol for children: A pediatrician explains

Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD

Meds

March 12, 2019

As a pediatrician, I am asked by worried parents about what they should give their child with a fever, Motrin (ibuprofen), or Tylenol (acetaminophen) to bring down the temperature daily.

This question always requires more than a one-word response to the choice between anti-fever medications. An explanation of medication even being necessary for the fever and to clarify many long-standing fever phobia misconceptions.

Mainly, it is not necessary to treat the number …

For future physician-activists: This is our lane

Jake Fox, Alec Feuerbach, and Jordan Rook

Policy

March 12, 2019

Rudolf Virchow, a pioneering physician of the 1800s, once wrote that “politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale”. Over a century later, this nexus is as apparent as ever, and many doctors engage as practitioners of both.

Twitter erupted this past fall with photos of soiled scrubs, resuscitation room floors and surgically-removed bullets — all crimson with …

Health care workers and administrators aren’t rowing in the same direction

Benjamin Davison, RRT

Policy

March 11, 2019

My wife and I once canoed across a glacial lake. There were twelve people in our 30-foot canoe. To reach the shore of the Mendenhall Glacier, we had to paddle two miles across a lake. All twelve of us had to paddle together to reach the shore. But what if we had different goals? What if the right side of the canoe wanted to paddle east and the left side …

Communication in the hospital setting from a medical student perspective

Ton La, Jr., MD, JD

Conditions

March 11, 2019

When it comes to communication in the hospital setting, I have seen many iterations. My favorite version was at the VA on the inpatient medicine unit. Every morning, we all met in the medicine team room to discuss patients on the floor. The team’s social worker, nurses, residents, students, and the attending ran down the list to identify individual patient goals, what’s needed for safe and effective discharges home, and …

Medicare for all and the problem of health care on demand

Michael Brant-Zawadzki, MD

Policy

March 10, 2019

The evolving politics of single-payer health care conflate the concepts of universal coverage, health care on demand and free health care. To the indiscriminate progressive mind, all three are part of the holy grail. The fly in the ointment is that highly attractive and altruistic politics runs into the brick wall of reality. As Thomas Sowell — a noted Stanford economist — wrote: “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: …

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