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Radical realism: A hospice doctor prepares for death

Physician

February 26, 2018

Bruce Wilson, MD, is a hospice doctor and former cardiologist who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February of 2017. In the months that followed, he publicly discussed events as they unfolded on a CaringBridge blog. The irony of the situation was profound: a hospice doctor being handed what some consider a death sentence. A physician who dedicated his career to changing the conversation about end of life care now …

There’s more to the story of the fired patient

Anonymous

Physician

February 26, 2018

She could have been my charming tiny kindergarten teacher, sitting there nonchalantly in her wheelchair with neatly folded arms in her lap. The delicate, airy cloud of silvery blonde hair on her head resembled Queen Elizabeth’s style. I named her Ms. Elizabeth. A few moments ago, though, she looked like a young child who could not comprehend the meaning of her condition. Whenever she was spoken to, her mind seemed …

Are diploma mills hurting the nursing profession?

Patricia Anne Aronin, MD

Policy

February 26, 2018

I have worked with some great nurse practitioners (NPs) who I consider to be friends. They play a vital role in team-based practice. This is not about NP bashing. Nor is it a turf war; now that I’m retired, I have no turf to protect. I am a member of Physicians for Patient Protection out of real concern for the future of medicine in this country.

I want there to be …

Fixation error can be deadly in medicine

Raj Waghmare, MD

Conditions

February 26, 2018

John Grover is a nice guy. He’s fifty-five, short, a little chubby, and he has a neatly trimmed red beard. He’s the kind of guy whose eyes light up the moment you walk into the room; The kind of guy who remembers your kids’ names, their ages, and their interests. I’d met him a few times before. He’d come in once to refill his blood pressure medication because he couldn’t …

Rappers: Stop glamorizing prescription drug use

Hassan Patail, MD

Physician

February 25, 2018

During his 2004 stand up “Never Scared,” Chris Rock said, “I love rap music, but I am tired of defending it.” That statement, for me, holds true more today than ever before. Mumbling about nonsense is already hard to defend and only gets worse when the first line to every song these days has a reference to drugs.

Drugs, sex, and money have always been an important part of music, and …

10 tips that make me a happy doctor

Laurence Kinsella, MD

Physician

February 24, 2018

Burnout is defined as emotional exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment, and a sense of ineffectiveness at work. The inverse of burnout is engagement — a persistent, upbeat sense of fulfillment characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. I haven’t seen that doctor in the hospital lounge in a long time.

I am a neurologist practicing for 25 years in both academic and community hospital settings. I have a busy outpatient practice, …

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10 tips that make me a happy doctor

When a patient dies, do you cry?

Jasmine Toor, MD

Physician

February 24, 2018

Apparently, I wanted to become a doctor since I was four. My mother tells the story of me getting ready for bed and simply saying: “Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a doctor so I can make people better.”

This notion stuck with me, and, luckily, I took a liking to biology, anatomy and all the sciences throughout school making my little four-year-old dreams come true. And now, …

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When a patient dies, do you cry?

5 lessons every woman doctor must learn

Sasha Retana, MD

Physician

February 24, 2018

Recently, I wanted to find some inspirational articles for female doctors. This letter to the young female physician by Dr. Suzanne Koven was one of the first things I came across. I wish someone had written me a letter when I was young and dumb and entering internship. Maybe it would have been a good warning. I mean, I was clueless about what lay ahead. I …

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5 lessons every woman doctor must learn

A medical student’s first day in anatomy lab

Joseph Azar

Education

February 23, 2018

During the first week of medical school classes, we visited the anatomy lab. As far as I can remember, I had extremely mixed feelings on that day. I felt the thrill of taking my first baby steps towards my medical journey blending with a certain feeling of fear. Was I afraid of the pure existence of cadavers in that gloomy, long and hall-like room? Or was it the fear of embarking …

How this physician started his consulting business

Sylvan Waller, MD

Physician

February 23, 2018

I do some of my best thinking while exercising.

A few years ago, I was swimming laps in the still-dark early morning.

Swimming is one of my favorite activities. But in a pool, it gets boring staring at the bottom, so my mind often wanders off to tackle difficult problems.

That morning, like many of you, I was wrestling with the question of how to turn my passion into a successful side gig …

We are a product of our upbringing: a tale of 2 cities

DocG, MD

Finance

February 22, 2018

We are a product of our upbringing. For many of us, this means we develop values and beliefs about money and work from our parents. Our communities, however, also play a role. It is in these communities that we learn a joint value system, a blueprint for how to approach and interact with the world. It’s easy to underestimate the profundity of this effect.

I grew up in vastly different cities. One …

Influencing your resident evaluations for success

Todd Rice, MD, MBA

Education

February 21, 2018

Performance appraisals are an integral part of an organization’s assessment of employee and trainee standing. Management and human resource literature is full of analysis and debate regarding how to best rate subordinates. Regardless of evaluation system utilized, some of the common goals of individual appraisals are to monitor progress, identify areas for growth, set goals, guide development, provide and elicit feedback through open communication, and document issues that may require …

A physician’s life as an FBI informant

Claire Grove, MD

Physician

February 21, 2018

“Where is Saipan?” I typed into Google to search for this little U.S. territory island in the Western Pacific when I was told about a need for an OB/GYN in 2016.

Next, I inquired to the private physician looking to expand his practice, “Do you really have a significant volume to support another doctor?” My vision of island medicine was that there were a smaller number of births due to a …

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A physician’s life as an FBI informant

The miscalculated fear of an opioid crisis in Haiti

Kenny Moise, MD

Policy

February 20, 2018

Opioids are an essential class of drugs used in pain management. In recent years, complex mechanisms pertaining to their abusive use have prompted a deadly crisis which is unfolding in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 91 Americans lose their lives daily due to an overdose of opioid drugs. This public health crisis has inspired much apprehension even among Haitian …

It’s time to treat C. diff diarrhea

Eric R. Gottlieb, MD

Conditions

February 20, 2018

For millennia, blood-letting was the standard of care for many diseases; today it is a joke, evoked only to mock our predecessors. But it is time to dismount our high horse and realize that there is at least one infection that we still primitively try to drain from the body, not from the bloodstream, but from the colon. This is our friend Clostridium difficile.

According to the CDC, there are about …

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It’s time to treat C. diff diarrhea

Here’s why health insurance is different from other insurance

Joseph Crisp

Policy

February 19, 2018

Anyone who has ever tried to buy health insurance in the open marketplace knows how difficult and expensive it can be. I spent years working at jobs that did not provide health insurance, and I remember the annual feeling of dread when I received notice of the new premium increase. The only way I could keep the cost affordable was by continually raising the deductible until eventually, I was paying …

Pick the right target-date mutual fund. Here’s how.

Wall Street Physician, MD

Finance

February 19, 2018

Many physicians don’t want to think too hard about investing. There are a lot more fun things to do in life than worry about the minutiae of index funds.

One of the best investments for beginner investors are target-date funds. It’s a great way to get started with investing, while you learn more about the principles of asset allocation.

But there are literally hundreds of target-date funds available. How do you pick …

In medical school, everything is a zebra

Jake Eggett

Education

February 18, 2018

As a medical student, I have big shoes to fill. I feel that void in my foot-space at all times. These shoes are expensive, and they are monstrously huge. We’re talking circus-clown, Shaquille O’Neal, Andre the Giant shoes. I feel awkward in these size 24s. I’m stumbling and scuffing them, but I’m not even close to calling it quits. These shoes are staying on. I am trying as hard as …

Are all of those morning labs really necessary?

Kunal Sindhu, MD

Physician

February 18, 2018

After a complicated stay in the hospital, my patient was finally ready to be discharged. After all he had been through, I was excited to tell him the good news.

“You will be leaving this afternoon,” I said, heartened by the smile I saw spreading across his face. He thanked me, and then said something that made me cringe.

“Finally! I thought you guys were going to keep sticking me with needles …

Why do medical students kill themselves?

Nahda Harati

Education

February 16, 2018

“I can’t do this anymore,” Mary* said to me after morning rounds.

As third-year medical students, this could have been in reference to a number of things: 5 a.m. rounds, practice sutures, 14-hour days, the list goes on. Though I later learned Mary was simply referring to living.

An article recently published by JAMA showed depression or depressive symptoms among medical students was as high as 27.2 …