Do you ever wonder what the staff in hotel conference rooms think about what we talk about in presentations and lectures? I talk about sensitive stuff — sexuality, fertility, etc. — and I use words that many people have not said out loud in front of hundreds or thousands of people. I’m used to the words, of course, and they …
The unexpected people who’s listening to your conference speech
Health care delivery in the United States is being led by practitioners who have ascended to leadership roles primarily through years of loyalty to their organizations. But as burnout worsens and affects the youngest clinicians to the detriment of the system, is this the appropriate cadre to shepherd us towards necessary system transformation?
We share two stories that …
Seniority is the worst metric for health care leadership
Fact-checking has become one of the buzziest buzzwords in journalism. There are more than 100 fact-checking projects around the world. It’s been trotted out to counter alleged “fake” news. And to monitor the accuracy of political leaders who stretch the boundaries of believability. April 2 has been proclaimed International Fact-Checking Day.
Indeed, genuine fact-checking may play an important role in political news coverage. FactCheck.org has been working in this space for 15 years. The …
Fact-checking faces steep challenges in health care
It’s difficult to put into words the honor I feel as an emergency physician. Strangers invite you into their lives, trusting in your training, knowledge, and compassion as they battle crisis. We are involved in intimate details of triumphs and loss on a daily basis, sharing in tears of joy and sorrow as we fight and advocate for our patients. It’s a humbling calling that I’ll never take for granted. …
Modern health care and the Burger King mentality: Sometimes you can’t “have it your way”
I pass by one of our local parochial schools on the way to clinic two mornings a week. With the school year in full swing, each Friday I see the children lining up outside to go to weekly Mass. With the girls in their grey tartan skirts and blue vests and the boys in their blue shirts and pants, they form a colorful, large nameless entity to which I don’t …
Wonder about each patient outside the exam room
It all started with John F. Kennedy’s campaign for the presidency. After eight years with President Eisenhower’s baldness and Vice President Nixon’s receding hairline, the American public was ready for a change. Kennedy had great hair, which he flaunted by appearing bareheaded at his inauguration. A new political maxim was established that day; to win in American politics, it’s not what’s in your head, but what’s on your head that …
Hair is undoubtedly the politician’s crowning glory
The storage capacity of the human mind is amazing. One estimate of the size of the brain’s “RAM” is as high as 2.5 petabytes (a million gigabytes). The number is based on the total number of neurons in the brain and the total number of possible connections per neuron. I suspect it is an overestimate, given the vagaries and innate inefficiency of biological systems. Nevertheless, the true figure …
It’s OK if doctors can’t memorize everything
The United States has been a slow brewing cauldron of gender bias for years. With increasing tensions and an unspoken, formidable energy in most workplaces and educational institutions, women have grown restless. The culmination has and is resulting into an empowering movement for gender equality (#womensrights). And the medical profession is not immune.
I wasn’t surprised to see that a recent CompHealth survey focusing on women in medicine …
Gender bias in medicine: What can women physicians do to overcome it?
In my urban primary care clinic, creativity and advocacy are some of our most basic tools. Recently, one of our residents brought up a homeless patient’s social barriers to colorectal cancer screening: no companion to escort her home from a colonoscopy, no address to send a mail-in test, no reliable commode location to collect a stool sample. This resident created a new workflow to have mail-in screening tests shipped to …
We are healers and advocates. The two roles are inseparable.
An excerpt from Mercy.
I love kids.
Pretty kids. Nice kids. Normal kids.
Not this. This is not a kid.
This is thirty pounds of human flesh kept alive by devices. Peg tube, tracheostomy, ventilator. He’s got contractures everywhere. He’s so folded he’d fit in my carry on. Not that I’d want to …
An excerpt from Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome.
When I migrated from the banks of the East River to the Tiber shores the path was strewn with bureaucratic boulders, land-mines, and pitfalls. I offer the tale of my odyssey as an object lesson to would-be fellow cosmopolites in that …
As a pharmacy technician, I watched countless individuals speak with a pharmacist about how different drug therapies work, and what they should know before taking any pharmaceuticals.
But I also have a hearing loss, and as a patient myself, I am struck by how confusing it is for consumers to find the right treatment.
Hearing loss is a medical condition that affects nearly one-third of adults between 65 and 75, and half …
Should the government regulate hearing aids as consumer electronic products?
A recent uproar in Twitterverse regarding the publication of certain images has sparked further debate after the response from publishers. The images represent scantily clad women with socially “ideal” body-types, seductively eyeing the camera and would, unfortunately, be commonplace in glossy magazines meant to sell products using these women’s sexual appeal. Body positive activists in society, for some time now, have been campaigning industry to stop this damaging and exploitative …
The orthopedic objectification of women
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After my second child was born, I realized a harsh truth: I could not be everything to everyone.
It took me almost 30 years to understand this. I was working as a full-time physician with unpredictable hours. I was trying desperately to make it all work; juggling hospital burdens with the ever-demanding job of being a mother.
I grew up with a mom who was everyone’s mother. As one of the few …
It takes a village to be a physician today
Lucas McClain started smoking cigarettes in high school but switched to vaping after he heard e-cigarettes were a safer alternative.
His vape of choice became the Juul, the king of electronic cigarettes — which comes with a king-size nicotine hit.
Now 21, McClain wants to quit so badly that he’s turning back to the problem he fled in the first place: good old-fashioned cigarettes.
“Juul made my nicotine addiction a lot worse,” the …
Vapers may be using more nicotine than they realize
Dear Alex,
As you realize your destiny, I want to share the lessons I have learned in my 45 years on the front lines of health care. I am hoping they will serve you well on your journey.
First and foremost, love what you do. Have fun with the people who surround you. Know that in medicine, as in life, you will have the chance to make a difference in others’ lives, …
A parent shares health care lessons with her son as he begins medical school
I was on my honeymoon in the Bahamas when I first heard the news: Hahnemann hospital was closing, and so was my child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship program — along with every other fellowship and residency program in the hospital. I was actually running outside enjoying the beautiful weather of the tropics and getting ready to go on a “swimming with the sharks” expedition when I got the email that …
Resiliency in the face of despair, as told by an orphaned Drexel fellow
“I don’t understand, and no one will explain why it happened.” Jake, my adolescent patient, lamented his experience to me during his well-child visit. “Those boys say that people like me are the devil. They don’t even know me. I’m a good person.” Hours before seeing me in clinic that day, a group of minority teens had confronted Jake while at a local youth community center because he was “the …
Why pediatricians must talk to their patients about diversity
I am an experienced OB/GYN, well-versed in obstetrics, infertility, gynecology, surgery and — yes — menopause, or so I thought. So why was I so blindsided by my own menopause transition?
I thought I was going through burnout, with anxiety, anger, mood swings, irritability, and depression. I was at a point in my career as an OB/GYN of 20-plus years that patients flocked to me because of my reputation and expected …
Is it physician burnout or perimenopause?
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 52-year-old woman is evaluated for a 6-week history of chest pressure. The symptom occurs when she walks up an incline on her daily 2-mile walk and is relieved with rest. She also had chest pressure during a stressful meeting at work last week. She reports no associated symptoms. …
MKSAP: 52-year-old woman with chest pressure
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