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Tips for expats working in health care

Physician

March 9, 2014

How does a working mom and physician keep practicing medicine when her husband’s career brings her halfway around the globe? For me, it was an adventure. While it can be challenging, I encourage other physicians to experience the world with their families while still practicing medicine.

As a 14 year family practitioner from Ohio, I suddenly found myself in Qatar with two young children because of my husband’s job. Qatar is …

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Tips for expats working in health care

Aviation and anesthesiology: The importance of training

James R. Mesrobian, MD

Physician

March 8, 2014

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

Comparisons between the airline industry and anesthesia care are common. One of the most commonly heard analogies is that the takeoff and landing of a jetliner are similar to induction and emergence during a general anesthetic. But there are other equally important analogies between the two …

The request to leave AMA is a signal for an honest conversation

Ishani Ganguli, MD

Physician

March 7, 2014

His nurse paged me at 9pm: Mr. L wants to leave against medical advice (AMA). As the covering doctor, I dreaded the impending standoff even more than usual.

I emerged from the elevator minutes later to find that the gaunt octogenarian had advanced from his isolation room, passed the nurse’s station and the unit doors, and arrived at the elevator bay to greet me. Security guards hovered at a cautious distance …

The societal problem of opioid addiction

Albert Fuchs, MD

Meds

March 6, 2014

Opioids are a family of pain medications chemically related to opium and heroin. They include morphine, fentanyl, codeine, hydromorphone and others. Opioids have unique properties that make them both indispensable for pain management and extremely dangerous.

Unlike virtually any other family of medications, opioids have no maximum effective dose. If any dose, no matter how high, is ineffective at controlling pain, a higher dose can give more pain relief. Most other …

Treating a symptom is not the same as treating a disease

Michael Kirsch, MD

Conditions

March 6, 2014

Physicians and patients collaborate to treat symptoms. This is not newsworthy and even sounds appropriate. Isn’t that what doctors are trained to do? It is but I’m not sure this should be a central focus of our healing mission. Treating a symptom is not the same as treating a disease.

For example, if an individual is having abdominal discomfort, pain medicine should not be the first responder, even if this would …

The myth of the entitled single mother remains as relevant as ever

Rhea Boyd, MD

Physician

February 28, 2014

There is a disconcerting myth about single mothers that has been circulating in our society for some time. It was popularized in the Reagan Era as a denunciation of US social welfare policy and resulted in a pointed caricature of a woman on welfare, forever to be known as the “welfare queen” or the entitled single mother.

The narrative of such a woman goes something like this: Not only is she …

Framing an ethical dilemma: 4 basic concepts of medical ethics

Christopher Johnson, MD

Conditions

February 26, 2014

It seems lately that questions of medical ethics are coming up more and more in the news, things like the rights of patients to make decisions, definitions of futile care, and end of life care. The way to look at these things is not in a vacuum. All of us may have our own opinions about right and wrong, but the field of medical ethics is actually one that has …

Medicare should cover infusion services at patients’ homes

Emma Singh, MD

Physician

February 23, 2014

As I explained his options, my patient’s initial shock turned to disbelief. I told the 84-year-old man that Medicare would pay for treatment of his urinary tract infection if he received infusion therapy at a nursing home, but it would not be covered if he opted to receive the therapy at his own home.

We calculated that the four weeks of therapy at a skilled nursing facility would cost Medicare about …

What’s the difference between speech and voice?

James P. Thomas, MD

Conditions

February 22, 2014

Mr. Heim Stillear, at 70-years-old, seems older and less intelligent to his family, since he was hospitalized for a stroke about two months ago. They come to the appointment with him and help him into the exam chair. When I ask Heim what is going on with him, the long pause before his strained answer begins makes his family uncomfortable.

His daughter interjects, “We are having a very difficult time understanding …

A pediatrician’s survival story: Remembering the children

Natasha Raja, MD

Physician

February 22, 2014

I have just turned on my computer. It is midnight. I should be trying to sleep right now.

My 5-year-old is sick and I am on call for the next few nights. Fortunately, my daughter should get better in a day or two. She needs Tylenol for her fever, mama’s love and time to kick this virus. But as I sat in bed holding her and waiting for her fever to break, …

Is there a downside to open access scheduling?

Lucy Hornstein, MD

Physician

February 20, 2014

The term “open access” in the context of primary care means that patients are able to get an appointment whenever they wish.

The ultimate in open access is 24/7 availability. No, I don’t offer this, although I come pretty close. I’m available by cell phone virtually 24/7 and I’m also almost always willing to come in and see someone if they really need to be seen. This seldom happens. Most of …

Why doctors commit suicide

Pamela Wible, MD

Conditions

February 18, 2014

PAMELA-WIBLE

I’ve been a doctor for twenty years. I’ve not lost a single patient to suicide.

I’ve lost only colleagues, friends, lovers — all male physicians — to suicide.

Why?

Here’s what I know:

A physician’s greatest joy is the patient relationship.

Assembly-line medicine undermines the patient-physician relationship.

Most doctors are burned out, overworked, or exhausted.

Many doctors spend little time with their families.

Workaholics are admired in medicine.

Medicine values …

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Why doctors commit suicide

Why is there a shortage of primary care physicians?

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

Policy

February 17, 2014

Next in a series.

Primary care physicians (PCPs) are becoming extinct. It’s true. Not many medical students choose primary care as their career path. Older PCPs are retiring early. Many others are closing their practices or seeking employment at the local hospital. And there has always been a shortage of primary care physicians in rural and urban poor areas. Today only 30% of all physicians practice primary care (compared to …

When patients abuse emergency department workers

Jonathon Savage, DO

Conditions

February 16, 2014

There are few professional careers centered around protecting and caring for others that garner so much verbal and physical abuse than a career in emergency medicine. Mental health workers, police, fire, and EMS personnel are the other fields that come to mind when I think of a service that “helps” people yet gets abuse dished upon them on nearly a daily basis.

A 2006 survey of emergency nurses showed that 25% …

10 things to know about anesthesia and heart surgery

Kent B. Berg, MD, MBA and Gregory M. Janelle, MD

Conditions

February 15, 2014

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

February is American Heart Month. Unfortunately, heart disease is a major problem in the United States that can result in surgery. In addition to discussing your procedure with your surgeon, you want to be sure to discuss your anesthesia care with your physician anesthesiologist.

Here are …

The influence of Janis Babson can be felt by many physicians

Emily Gibson, MD

Physician

February 15, 2014

I was 8-years-old in June 1963 when the Readers’ Digest arrived in the mail inside its little brown paper wrapper. As usual, I sat down in my favorite overstuffed chair with my skinny legs dangling over the side arm and started at the beginning, reading the jokes, the short articles and stories on harrowing adventures and rescues, pets that had been …

Why patients have lost trust in their doctors

Myles Riner, MD

Physician

February 15, 2014

I came across a really good post on the Daily Beast written by a pediatrician in New England, griping (appropriately) about parents who were unwilling to trust his judgment about vaccinating their children.

Why have so many patients lost trust in their doctors?

You might challenge the assumption that patients used to trust their doctors more, and that would be a fair question. I haven’t …

Everyone should have a pleasant mammogram experience

Abigail Schildcrout, MD

Physician

February 12, 2014

This morning I went for my annual mammogram. It’s not something I generally look forward to. In fact, I mildly dread it.

In my personal experience, mammograms have ranged from quite uncomfortable to downright painful. And then there’s the general unpleasantness of standing topless in a cold room. The first time I had this screening imaging study done, the plate pressed so hard into my sternum that I was almost in …

5 truths about fevers in children

Melissa Arca, MD

Conditions

February 10, 2014

The flu, RSV, colds, croup, strep throat, ear infections. They all have one thing in common: they can cause fevers. And as any parent can attest to, it’s often the fever itself that freaks us out more than anything and prompts many parents to call their child’s pediatrician or hustle them off to the emergency room.

Fever is clearly not a parent’s …

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5 truths about fevers in children

What is the main cause of the primary care crisis?

Stephen C. Schimpff, MD

Policy

February 10, 2014

Next in a series.

Primary care physicians (PCPs) have too little time per patient which means too many referrals to specialists, too little time listening and thinking, no time to delve into the stress or emotional causes of many symptoms and substantial frustration by PCP and patient alike.

Previously in this continuing series on primary care, I described a patient with a straight forward if unusual symptom who was bounced …