From the beginning of medical school, you are taught the rules of patient assessment; you are taught the “ABCs” – airway, breathing, and circulation. You don’t move on to B until you have established A. You don’t move on to C until B is established. If at any time you lose A or B, you go back to the beginning. Emergency medicine doctors are all about A. My first patient …
A large part of patient care in the modern corporate setting is working within your restrictions. Most corporate health care settings will limit how wide your scope can be, and this often determines how you treat patients. As a family physician working within a huge corporate setting, this oftentimes leads to alternate outcomes, such as referring a patient to another office where a procedure can be done safely or having …
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Join us as we explore the world of microplastics with fertility specialist Oluyemisi (Yemi) Famuyiwa. Learn about microplastics, how they permeate our environment, and their potential effects on human health and fertility. Yemi …
In the past two weeks, there have been two social media posts, one from a resident physician and another from an attending physician, criticizing trainees. The resident was critical of a trainee’s inability to identify anatomical structures in the operating room, while the attending physician was entertained by a trainee who mistakenly wore a shoe cover as a scrub hat, with a photo of it included in the post. As …
Purposeful disregard for business education tears away the only platform that guarantees the highest incomes in private medical practice.
Along with the other challenges that continually reinforce physicians’ financial problems, the indoctrination of all medical students and later physicians with the “groupthink” myth that has been destroying physician practice careers for the last century is added to the list. You know, “You can practice medicine without a business education.”
The fact that …
I enter the exam room, met by a faint but lovely strawberry fragrance. Mrs. B. rests comfortably on an office chair; she always eschews the exam table. In her 80s, she is a formidable woman, heavyset, her deep brown skin somewhat pale, yet she sparkles in a long, bright, flowery dress, glasses with large silver frames, one hand resting on a cane of knotty oak. Her two adult sons stand …
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In this episode, we welcome Brooke Kempf, a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, to debunk common myths about schizophrenia and promote a more accurate understanding of the condition. We’ll explore misconceptions about the …
Another recent correlational study on the relationship between talcum powder (TP) and female reproductive tract cancers was published. This research originated in the 1970s when gynecologists at one hospital noted that an unusually high number of women were experiencing these cancers. They reviewed medical records and, in looking at possible causative agents, noted that many of the affected women used TP. They published their findings, and additional case review studies …
Did you ever have a competitor in life who challenged you in every test and every election for a leadership role? If so, today, I would like you to imagine that person and replace them with an emotion that we, as psychiatrists, frequently encounter during our practice – anxiety!
Much like that pushy competition, anxiety can feel overwhelming and challenging. However, it also has the potential to push us to achieve …
Pakistan, classified as a lower-middle-income nation, is experiencing a massive increase in the number of cancer cases. Our health expenditure as a proportion of the gross domestic product (GDP) is worryingly small in contrast to that of more developed nations.
We are fighting with illiteracy, poverty, limited resources, lack of awareness regarding screening and early presentation of tumors, and an inadequate number of trained oncologists. There are very few centers with …
For decades, the medical community has wrestled with the role of race in research and practice, a tug-of-war steeped in historical, social, and political entanglements. While some argue for discarding race, in doing so, we overlook the nuanced interplay between genetics and lived experiences. Does race carry explanatory power, or are there better alternatives to this surrogate?
Race presents a complex interplay of benefits and challenges as a variable in health …
Expert witness testimony is critical to the pursuit of justice. There are always arcane matters that the general public and even many otherwise knowledgeable people don’t understand. That makes it impossible for a judge or jury to come to an evidence-based decision without an expert clarifying and explaining the basics of the science behind the situation. This started with forensics and got off to a bad start with bite mark …
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Interior hospital: (Patient screaming and crying out as they are wheeled in through the ambulance bay and brought into a room …)
Doctor: What brings you in today?
Patient: You gotta help me, Doc … My chest hurts. I think I’m having a heart attack!
Doctor: OK, sir. We’re going to do a series of tests, including an EKG and chest X-ray, and give you aspirin.
Patient: Whatever you’ve got to do, I don’t …
In the medical field, it’s easy for experienced professionals to fall into the “curse of knowledge” trap. This cognitive bias occurs when someone, having a deep understanding of a concept, assumes that others possess the same level of knowledge. While this is a natural human tendency, it can create significant communication gaps, especially in health care settings.
Understanding the concept
Doctors with extensive knowledge about medical conditions and treatments might inadvertently overestimate …
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“Dance with the one who brought you.” This phrase was attributed to an iconic college coach. There have been lots of interpretations of this comment, but the coach basically said that when the big game is on the line, when the championship is at stake, you do not tinker with your personnel and your coaching strategy.
Stick with the basics that brought you to this point in the season.
Throughout our careers, …
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Join us for a conversation with Zachary Fellows, a rheumatologist who spent nearly four years in private practice navigating the complex intersection of obesity and rheumatic diseases. Zachary shares his journey from giving …
A formal clinical track should allow experienced hospitalists to function as inpatient subspecialists: a so-called “focused practice in inpatient subspecialty.” This proposal makes sense on multiple levels.
First, there is a shortage of inpatient subspecialists, particularly in small community settings. Hospitalists, qualified and certified as inpatient subspecialists, could fill this gap.
Second, the practice of hospital medicine is an ideal launching pad for a focused practice in an inpatient subspecialty. Hospitalists are …
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It’s estimated that up to 10 percent of all peer reviews are “shams,” thus, it’s worth a few minutes of education so you’re not left grappling if you suspect you might be the target of one.
As physicians, we purchase malpractice insurance (or it’s provided by an employer) to protect us from patients who file suits claiming negligence or harmful treatment decisions. The tacit understanding is that we’ve worked hard …
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