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How palm reading helps this physician today

Physician

March 9, 2016

I grew up in a house of spirituality, homeopathy, palmistry, astrology, art, and science alike. My father, with a masters degree in statistics, is a computer systems architect. He also fancies himself an amateur palm reader. The irritation with which I reluctantly used to give my hands over to my father, before the SATs, college decisions, medical school admissions, and my residency match results was real, but I was always …

Should doctors marry doctors? Here are the challenges they face.

Tanika Forestal

Physician

March 9, 2016

Fifty years ago, it was very uncommon to find doctors married to other doctors. Why? To answer that question, we need to explore the sociology of the time. Fewer women went to college, which meant fewer female doctors. Many couples married early, right out of high school or right after college. If the wife had career aspirations herself, these were often put aside in order to help her husband get …

The heartbreak of dating an exhausted medical resident

Ruth Diaz, PsyD

Physician

March 8, 2016

When I was finishing my fifth year of studies as clinical psychology doctoral student, I fell in love with a second-year medical resident; a wanderer at heart with the softest smile and a way of listening that made me feel like the whole world stopped when I spoke. Whenever possible, we found ourselves in the forest exploring the world on foot or, if the weather was bad, on long drives …

The problem with cultural competency in medical education

Jennifer Tsai

Education

March 8, 2016

“Let’s say a Chinese patient comes into labor and delivery … simply logs onto the CultureVision website. Next, click on the Chinese section and finally click ‘Labor, Birth and Aftercare.’ Just that quickly you have the information you are looking for.”

CultureVision boasts that it is the “first comprehensive, user-friendly database that gives health care professionals access to culturally competent care.” The website’s automatic slideshow, entitled “Did you Know?” shifts …

A resident’s guide to being a medical student

M. Alexandra Friedman, MD

Education

March 5, 2016

Though I am two years into my residency, I still experience flashbacks to my time as a medical student on the wards. The adrenaline of arriving at the hospital 2 hours before rounds, scrambling to see my patients, constructing a note that no one would ever look at, and preparing a hastily-constructed presentation to deliver in a half-performance, half-examination outside of our patient’s room.

I remember being the object of a …

10 truths of physician parents

Nisha Mehta, MD

Physician

March 5, 2016

1. You either over or under-react to everything related to your child’s health. Your kid chokes? You perform the Heimlich and are back to dinner conversation 2 minutes later. Your infant spits up a little more than usual after their introduction to rice cereal? You decide they may have FPIES and stay up all night worried they may require tube feeds. True story.

2. You can’t go to …

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10 truths of physician parents

We are human beings before we are doctors

Dr. Eunice J. Minford

Physician

March 4, 2016

Mental illness has long been associated with shame and stigma. Although progress has been made through the efforts of global celebrities like Stephen Fry and many others to de-stigmatize mental illness — many are still ashamed to admit to it, and the stigma is far from being annihilated.

Nowhere is this stigma more entrenched than within the medical profession itself. A fact that should shock us out of our judgmental slumbers …

A surprising amount of thought goes into the radiology report

Dr. Saurabh Jha

Physician

March 3, 2016

“‘Normal’ is one of the most powerful words a radiologist can use.”
– Curtis P. Langlotz, professor of radiology, Stanford University

After I used “clinically correlate” thrice in a row in my report, the attending radiologist asked, “How would you feel if the referring clinician said on the requisition for the study ‘correlate with images’? When you ask them to clinically correlate, you’re reminding them to do their job.”

I had been a …

A star medical student feels like he made a terrible decision

Anonymous

Education

March 3, 2016

It is February of our last few months of clinical rotations. I am a rising fourth-year medical student at a well-known East Coast institution with a not-so-bad track record, I guess you could say. I scored in the top percentile for the USMLE Step 1, honored my third-year rotations, and have comments from attendings about how I am destined to succeed in this career. One might think that at this point …

5 reasons why physicians fail as leaders

Robert Pearl, MD

Physician

February 28, 2016

Most physicians are smart and very talented. They’re skilled clinicians and technically superb. But despite such abilities, they fail to get others to follow them, once they take on the role of leader. As a consequence, they’re unable to get physicians to change or improve performance.

Jay Conger, a professor of business at Claremont McKenna College who has devoted his career to the study of leadership, has helped me understand why …

A doctor shares the secrets of cancer survivors

James C. Salwitz, MD

Conditions

February 26, 2016

Disclaimer: I have never had cancer. Therefore, at the most basic level, I do not have the right to pontificate about dealing with the dread disease. Rather, I have been the servant and support of those that struggle with cancer. I thought it might be of some assistance to share my observations from the other side of the bed rail. Perhaps, their secrets of survival may help you.

Cancer is a …

Why are mental health questions still allowed on physician job applications?

Pamela Wible, MD

Physician

February 24, 2016

DearPamela

Dear Pamela,

Question for you in regards to disclosure about mental illness. In every job that I have applied for, as part of the credentialing process, there are questions about felonies, treatment for drug/alcohol abuse and mental illness. Why are mental health questions still allowed to be on there? I have had postpartum anxiety/depression three times now, and I feel like it is …

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Why are mental health questions still allowed on physician job applications?

Helpful tips for your first day at a new hospital

Elizabeth Lumpkin, MD

Physician

February 24, 2016

An excerpt from Road Warrior Physician: Locum Tenens a How-to Guide.

There are few things that are more frustrating than to be delayed while en route to your assignment. It happens, so be prepared for it. Keep all travel emergency contact numbers handy. This is one of my prime Evernote …

Should you have a precolonoscopy visit? The answers may surprise you.

Frederick Gandolfo, MD

Conditions

February 23, 2016

Your primary care doctor has been nagging you for years. Your wife and brother seem to be in on the scheme too. Every once and a while one of your coworkers even says (with a chuckle) “C’mon Bob, you’re fifty-seven, you really need to get it done!”

“OK, enough,” you finally say, “I’ll go for a colonoscopy!” So at your next visit you ask your primary doctor how to set it …

Why daughters need their fathers

Meg Meeker, MD

Physician

February 23, 2016

Men, we need you.

We — mothers, daughters, and sisters — need your help in raising healthy young women. We need every ounce of masculine courage and wit you own because a father, more than anyone else, sets the course for a daughter’s life.

After more than 20 years of listening to daughters — and doling out antibiotics, antidepressants, and stimulants to girls who have gone without a father’s love — I …

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Why daughters need their fathers

Tips to rank your match list. Here’s how this medical student did it.

Jennifer Adaeze Anyaegbunam

Education

February 22, 2016

As an early third year medical student, I had a few attending physicians tell me that MD stands for “make decisions.” I find myself subject to these sorts of pep talks when I answer their clinical questions with a response influenced by a high pitched vocal inflection that suggests that I’m uncertain.

For example, while being pimped on the next step in managing a patient, I might have responded with a …

A physician aces his USMLE and ABIM board exams. Here are his tips for success.

Farokh Jamalyaria, MD

Education

February 21, 2016

In this article, I’ll discuss a medicine-specific strategy that many of my physician colleagues and I have used over the years to learn dense, complicated information quickly and effectively, and to do well on board exams.

These are the two most important tenets of studying for a medical board examination:

1. Find the highest-yield information and memorize it cold. With active methods such as mnemonics, teaching others, lecturing “to the wall,” writing notes …

The questionable competency of today’s medical and surgical residents

Gary B. Nackman, MD

Education

February 21, 2016

What does it mean to be competent at something? Competency may be defined as the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. When it comes to determining if a physician is competent in his profession, no one, board, no organization, no government, no residency training program or hospital actually will state that an individual is competent. There are significant legal ramifications to declaring someone as competent to practice medicine, and …

Who is responsible for OR delays? And what can we do about them?

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

Physician

February 17, 2016

Every two or three years, someone, usually a hospital administrator, decides that delays in operating room turnover time need to be looked into. A committee of 20 or 30 stakeholders (love that term) is appointed and assigns someone the job of measuring the time between cases and identifying reasons for delays. In years when turnover time is not being studied, first case starting delays are on the agenda.

In my nearly …

This is what I’m wearing instead of a white coat

Kristin Prentiss Ott, MD

Physician

February 16, 2016

Hospitals are places of long-standing hierarchies where some people are made to feel important and others … not so much. A long time ago, I was told nurses used to stand when a white coat walked into a room. (Imagine that now. Laugh. Snort. Choke. Cough.) In those days, in the patient care setting, white coats were synonymous with importance.

These days, non-clinical hospital administrators, various technicians, and Clinique make-up counter …