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I vow not to call my patients “difficult.” Here’s why.

Education

September 9, 2017

I am not a doctor. (Yet.) I am a novice third-year medical student, somewhat able to perform and document a physical exam on a sleeping child, to dial the correct number to call a consult and to make wild guesses about chest X-rays (“I see a consolidation?”). I write about medicine not from a position of experience, but of malleability. I want to become like the best doctors I see.

Towards …

A reminder that physicians are artists

Shannon Tapia, MD

Physician

September 8, 2017

Anyone entering medical training is taught that medicine is an art, one that combines scientific knowledge, discovery and application with its practice. It is both art and applied science. It should never become nor has it ever been only all one or the other.

To be medicine at all, the noble vocation that so many brilliant minds sacrifice to pursue in service to their fellow humans, the practice must balance art …

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A reminder that physicians are artists

A cancer survivor embraces the light of going to medical school

Shekinah N. Elmore, MD

Education

September 8, 2017

This article was originally presented as student remarks at the 2015 Harvard Medical School commencement.

At the end of medical school, I always return to a musing, a zen koan of sorts from Dean Jeffrey Flier. At my white coat ceremony, a close friend and current resident, Dr. Nina Gold was chatting with the dean about the heft of our newly bestowed bright white coats. He asked her, in one beautiful …

7 ways for doctors to stay safe at work

Jenny Hartsock, MD

Physician

September 7, 2017

Being a health care provider has always come with personal risk. We care for all patients, which includes patients agitated due to psychiatric issues, dementia, acute medical illness, alcohol or drug intoxication or just anger. Patients can be extremely volatile and lash out unexpectedly causing physical injury to their doctor, nurse or another provider. Besides the physical risk, patients can be emotionally and verbally abusive as well- and both types …

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7 ways for doctors to stay safe at work

For a long, happy career, be more than just a doctor

Passive Income, MD

Finance

September 7, 2017

“You’re a doctor; focus on being a doctor.”

This piece of advice was recently given to me by my own father, in regards to my multiple ambitions outside of the medical field. He himself only recently retired from a long career as a surgeon, so his opinion is the result of years of experience.

His advice got me thinking.

What makes for career longevity in our field? Statistics show that more than half …

Are CTE headlines overblown? A radiologist investigates.

Dr. Saurabh Jha

Conditions

September 6, 2017

A study published in JAMA looking at the brains of former football players donated to a brain bank, a highly selective sample, found signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — a degenerative neurological disease — in nearly all deceased players examined.

The mainstream media converged towards numerical consensus.

Fox News reported players in a study had CTE.”
CNN reframed the headline, “CTE found …
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Are CTE headlines overblown? A radiologist investigates.

Your patient is angry. Here are 5 things physicians can do.

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

September 5, 2017

It’s a scenario that every doctor is familiar with. You are having a busy day and working full steam to get everyone better. You suddenly receive that unexpected message: “Mr. Johnson and his family are very upset and would like to speak with you now.”

Most of the time, any physician’s initial reaction will be one of irritation, disappointment or frustration: “My goodness, I’m working so hard here, and we have …

Gamification of medical education: Choose Your Own Medventure

Chris Carroll, MD

Education

September 5, 2017

More and more health care practitioners are turning to social media for their medical education. Fellows are learning ultrasound from Snapchat, nurses are learning how to insert NG tubes from watching YouTube, and learners are learning pathophysiology from blogs and podcasts. To reach this audience with credible and reliable content, it is important for medical educators to be present where the learners are, and that means social media.

Users are also …

Patients and doctors should give each other the benefit of the doubt

Weisheng Mao, MD

Physician

September 1, 2017

In my first year in the hospital, as a third-year medical student, there was one refrain I often heard from physicians and staff alike: This is a hospital, not a hotel. It was an expression of the frustration engendered by “needy patients,” those who were upset that their breakfast was late or that the room was too hot or that they couldn’t speak with the physician just this second. Often, …

“You’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a nurse.”

Admin

Policy

September 1, 2017

Alex Wubbels, the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit, was arrested for refusing to draw blood from an unconscious patient. She was absolutely correct, since it was against hospital policy, and constitutional law, to do so.

ZDoggMD dedicated an episode of his Facebook Live show, Incident Report, highlighting the travesty:

“Sir, you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a …

The parable of the pizza shop

Emily Dalton, MD

Physician

September 1, 2017

One day a man decided to open a pizza shop. The first week he sold pizzas and collected money from his customers; the happy customers ate hot pizza, and the man made some money.

The next week many of his customers who came in had pizza insurance, and had already paid Blue Wall Insurance for their pizzas. Since so many of his customers had purchased pizza insurance, the man signed a …

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The parable of the pizza shop

Dear insurance doctor: You are not my peer

Rick Boulay, MD

Physician

September 1, 2017

I am a gynecologic-oncologist. I work in the high-stakes realm of cancer care. I strategize complex treatment plans involving surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and the newer biological agents to treat the myriad of disease that we call collectively “cancer.” Cure — or at least control — requires urgent and timely administration of these modalities along with various imaging or blood work to assure that the treatment prescribed is effective. I love …

5 keys to a successful long-distance relationship during medical school

Sarah Epstein

Education

August 31, 2017

When my husband Brian started first-year of medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, I jettisoned off to Thailand to spend a year teaching English and traveling. We figured if we were going to date long-distance, why not go all in? Why not ensure that we were a full 12 hours apart, on literal opposite sides of the world. What can I say? We like a …

Nurse practitioners! Tips for negotiating your first job

Monica Elston, FNP-BC

Policy

August 31, 2017

Congratulations on the new job! After countless, grueling hours of juggling school with the rest of your life, you’ve finished and secured a job, a huge accomplishment indeed.

Negotiating your compensation package can be a nail-biting, heart-racing all around anxiety-producing experience. While some of this anxiety might just stem from inexperience with negotiating a contract, you might also be worried about not knowing what to ask for as a new nurse …

A day in the life of an OB/GYN chief resident

Danielle Jones, MD

Physician

August 30, 2017

It’s 5:50 a.m. and my alarm is buzzing. It’s been going off intermittently since 5:30 a.m. Even though I really don’t need to be out of bed until 6:00 a.m., I’ve lived with myself long enough to know my biggest vice is the snooze button.

I roll out of bed and get ready for the day — blue scrubs, messy bun, enough makeup to feel like I tried, freshly clean teeth …

The Big Short in health care: What happens after the bubble bursts

Suneel Dhand, MD

Policy

August 30, 2017

Last week a physician friend recommended watching the movie the Big Short. The description given to me was that it was a great movie that was all about a bunch of guys who saw the 2008 financial crisis coming. Sure enough, that very weekend, I planned a night in to get take out and watch it on Netflix.

And it sure didn’t disappoint. Starring Ryan Gosling, Steve Carrell, Christian Bale, and …

9 reasons the “golden age of medicine” was golden

Thomas D. Guastavino, MD

Physician

August 29, 2017

To listen to all those desperate to reform health care, you get the impression that physicians are pretty horrible people. We are all sexist, greedy, money grubbing tyrants who will perform unnecessary tests and procedures just to make money. We don’t care about quality or cost. We are killing off 250,000 patients every year with our ignored “errors.” We purposely keep our patients in pain, or we addict them to …

15 tips for working with women

Sasha K. Shillcutt, MD

Physician

August 28, 2017

I work in a male-dominated field. As a cardiac anesthesiologist, I work with mostly male cardiac surgeons in a department where the majority of my fellow anesthesiologists are male. I work with some fantastic male colleagues. They are caring, skilled doctors, and I consider many of them to be friends.

While most of them know how to handle emergencies, trauma and difficult work situations, many times they clam up when we …

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15 tips for working with women

The mythical unicorn of vaccine denialists

Christopher Johnson, MD

Conditions

August 28, 2017

I swiped this editorial cartoon by Steve Sack from the redoubtable Dr. David Gorski’s blog, who goes by the nom-de-web of Orac. Recent epidemiology shows reducing the fraction of vaccinated children in the population rather promptly leads to a resurgence of the diseases vaccines protect against. This is the concept of community or herd immunity.

Epidemiologists debate the concept around …

5 ways virtual doctors can help during a natural disaster

Latisha Rowe, MD, MBA

Physician

August 28, 2017

In Houston, all of my colleague’s offices are closed, and there is limited access to the Texas Medical Center due to Hurricane Harvey. As a virtual medical doctor, there was only one thought on my mind this entire weekend, “How can I help?”

As a Floridian, I have certainly faced my share of natural disasters beginning with Hurricane Andrew, a category 5 hurricane in 1992. Living through Hurricane Andrew gave me …

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