An excerpt from Looking Within: Understanding Ourselves through Human Imaging.
It started as a routine weekend shift, reading studies on patients in the hospital and the emergency department, when the phone rang. Jessie, the nuclear medicine technologist, spoke on the telephone, his matter-of-fact tone slightly colored by …
A critical moment that resulted in a permanent, devastating consequence
In medical school, I was taught to sit down at eye-level when speaking to a patient, ask them how they’d prefer to be addressed, make sure to ask questions in an open-ended manner to allow patients to express themselves, and interject with “that must be really difficult for you” or “I can only imagine how that makes you feel,” as a way to show empathy and foster better connection with …
Can empathy be taught, or is it innate?
Does anyone really want health care for all? I promise this is not a political rant.
Americans, of any political persuasion, should not be misled by the implications of health care for all: It does not mean medical care for all. Providing a card stating you have health insurance is only a nominal solution, provided by politicians, who are looking for a superficial fix. Our problems are more complex than such …
Health care and sick care are interchangeable
A radical change is emerging from within our health care system: Rather than deny or defend medical errors, some hospitals are acknowledging them upfront. This enlightened response has been gaining ground since 2001 when the University of Michigan Hospital introduced one of the first medical error disclosure programs: the Michigan Model.
Hospitals that adopt the model also promise to explain why the error occurred, apologize, offer fair compensation, and learn from …
Medical error disclosure programs: Old habits die hard
Just to give you my background, I manage a large hospitalist program for a busy downtown community hospital that is part of a large health system consisting of a total of 29 acute care hospitals in the same geographical area.
One of the reasons why our team was hired recently to manage this hospitalist program was to change the existing work culture, which had resulted in poor team performance, low physician …
Start a hospitalist program with these 6 steps
Ed is not from Kentucky. I believe he told me he is from West Virginia and from a very low-income family. At about 15, he was hit by a car and paralyzed from the waist down. He’s now about 30.
But for a guy in a wheelchair, he is nothing short of remarkable for what he gets done. He goes everywhere, either by his own strength or by bus, even on …
Can a rehabilitated sex-offender make positive change?
109.
This is the number of people who died each day from firearms in the U.S. in 2017, the most recent year for which the CDC has published data. It is a staggering number, one that deeply damages the fabric of communities and tears families apart.
What’s perhaps most disconcerting is that this number – 109 – may not come as a shock. We have become so numb …
Gun violence requires medical intervention
Currently, in America, there are only three legal groups of prescribers, the physicians (which include MDs, DOs, DPMs), the nurse practitioner (NPs), and the physician assistant (PAs).
The first class of physician assistants, in 1965, was also the year of the first class of nurse practitioners. Today there are nearly 300,000 NPs In America and 123,000 PAs.
PAs are outnumbered almost three to one, and the trend, with the rapid rise, and …
What’s the future of the physician assistant?
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 36-year-old man is evaluated for a 10-day history of abdominal cramping, diarrhea, malaise, and nausea. Diarrhea is watery without mucus or blood. He returned 2 weeks ago from a 7-day trip to Lima, Peru.
On physical examination, temperature is 37.7 °C (99.9 °F); the remaining vital signs …
MKSAP: 36-year-old man with abdominal cramping, diarrhea, malaise, and nausea
“I wish this were not the case, but I am concerned that your disease is getting worse, and your time may be very short.”
“I know you are angry and upset at how you were treated — I will do my best to make sure that does not happen again.”
“I am sorry, but I cannot write a prescription for your pain medication.”
“I know you are confused — I will try to …
A dam about to burst: The job of “doctor” places too much stress on one person
Nearly 100,000 pop culture fans flocked to Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle last year, including many dressed as superheroes, aliens, and robots. But something scarier than a comic book villain is roiling the conference this year — the spread of the coronavirus.
Ten people have died from novel coronavirus in King County, Washington, where Seattle is located, according to the Washington State Department of Health. At least 70 people have …
Is the conference cancelled? How coronavirus is upending the conference industry.
In the dark radiology reading rooms, only the gentle hum of the computers and the quiet chatter of residents dictating radiology reads break the silence. Among the computers sits Dr. Exner, a senior radiology resident at Hospital Woeisme. He has recently become known for a peculiar habit – he has begun adding Rorschach interpretations into every radiology report he completes.
The Rorschach test, created in the 1920s and sometimes referred to …
Resident adds Rorschach reads to radiology reports
When first responders answered roughly ten calls from a long-term care center in Kirkland, Washington, over the course of a week, they did not expect to become patients themselves.
Entering the Life Care Center of Kirkland last month exposed them to the novel coronavirus that sickens people with an illness known as COVID-19. Because the emergency calls came before authorities realized the virus was circulating in the community, some of the …
COVID-19 showcases the bravery of first responders
ADVERTISEMENT
Recently, revelations indicated that the Iran missile strike on the U.S. base in Iraq actually did cause head injuries. So why did the U.S. initially claim no “casualties”? From the limited reports available, it appears that most of the soldiers’ symptoms were consistent with concussions. Let’s define terms: In the wars of the 20th century, our soldiers would have been labeled with “shell shock.” In the past, diagnosing concussion required …
The casualties of the Iran missile attack: not your father’s concussion
“Should I cancel my business trip?”
That is not the kind of question that patients typically ask their doctors. For most people, that’s not even a question they can ask their doctors, at least, not without an appointment, a co-pay and an anxiety-inducing wait in a crowded doctor’s office.
As U.S. cases of coronavirus rose this week, I fielded some version of this question from countless patients via telemedicine. Technology and experience-based …
What coronavirus is teaching us about telehealth
1. What can I do to prevent becoming infected?
When people are sick with a respiratory disease like COVID-19, they cough or sneeze particles into the air. If someone is coughing near you, the virus could easily land on your eyes, nose, or mouth. These particles travel only about six feet and fall out of the air rather quickly. However, they do land on surfaces that you touch all the time, …
How to prevent coronavirus: Your COVID-19 questions answered by a public health professional
“Made in China.” Words ubiquitous throughout the products we use every day and now, ironically, applicable to the virus that has laid siege around the world. Illness and death have spread across borders and continents, as well as fear and panic. Illness and death we can quantify in numbers, however, fear and panic are less easily measured than felt in our news feeds and social media posts. It is the …
COVID-19’s biggest threat is to the health of our economy
As a new nurse, I was constantly overwhelmed. I had spent four years of my life learning how to become a nurse, and then here I was, being “a nurse” and wondering all the time whether I was even any good at it. My heart was in it. But every moment of every shift, I felt anxious about my understanding of the information presented to me. I remember conversations with …
A great nurse shares their knowledge and does not judge
In medical school, physicians learn how to diagnose and treat medical conditions. We learn about all the different presentations and revel in catching a complex or rare diagnosis. In essence, we learn to categorize disorders based on a cluster of symptoms and match them with appropriate treatment plans.
Of course, you want this quality in your physician. This system works well until you enter independent practice and learn quickly that patients …
System failure: We need a reboot to better handle intersectionality
Finances were reported as the second leading cause of physician depression for men and women in 2018.
Doctors, like anyone else, face normal challenges that life throws at them. Additionally, they carry a huge weight on their shoulders as they go through rigorous training, are trained to put patients first, and are expected to increase …
Here’s why doctors are financially depressed
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
