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Using the Avengers to explain how cancer treatments work

Medications

March 29, 2019

In a recent talk I gave for colleagues, I ventured outside the box.

I searched for a metaphor to make cancer treatments easy to understand. Around the same time, it so happened my kids decided we needed to re-watch all of The Avengers movies at home. (In order, of course).

Here’s where you get some insight into an oncologist-mom’s brain. While we watched the movies, another part of my brain cogitated on my upcoming …

A physician’s empathy in urgent care makes a big difference

Alexander Rakowsky, MD

Physician

March 29, 2019

While winter is traditionally the busiest time of year for pediatricians, this winter has been particularly difficult in the Midwest with not only a larger number of ill visits, but a late and heavy flu epidemic hitting at a point where most of us were already wearing out. With this flu epidemic, our urgent cares, same day sick clinics and ERs have been setting all-time highs for any particular calendar …

Don’t sign anything: Advice when hospital administration has you against the wall

Shari Covington

Physician

March 29, 2019

If you think you are the only one being threatened by the chief medical officer (CMO) and/or the medical executive committee (MEC) think again.

If you’re thinking it is going to get better or that they have your best interests in mind, also think again.

You are in an unfortunate and common situation happening throughout the country. If you have been called into an abrupt and unannounced meeting and been told to …

The financial barriers of applying to medical school

Shin Mei Chan and Jamieson O’Marr

Medical Education

March 28, 2019

In May 2018, it happened. The American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) opened its floodgates. As we wrapped up our last years in undergrad, we felt a twinge of excitement as we finally began applying to medical school.

But we quickly found one thing that wasn’t all-too-exciting: the bill. In 2018, the AMCAS charged $170 for the first school applied to and $39 per additional school. Like most medical school applicants, …

6 essential tips (and more) that I never learned in medical school

Annette Chavez, MD

Physician

March 28, 2019

1. Cover your patients

It was my first year of practice. One day I saw a new patient, a 25-year-old man with hemorrhoidal pain. My nurse told him to disrobe and put on a lap sheet. When I entered the room, I was surprised to see that the young man was sitting on the exam table, naked from the waist down. The lap sheet sat neatly folded on the table behind …

Remembering Dr. Denton A. Cooley

Ton La, Jr., MD, JD

Medical Education

March 28, 2019

Back in the 70s, Dr. Denton A. Cooley would do eight or so heart operations a day often on babies and children with heart defects. One day, he operated on four babies. Three of them died. It was around eight o’clock at night, and as Dr. Cooley walked down the hall with his team, he said, “Today was a bad day, but …

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Remembering Dr. Denton A. Cooley

The sweet path to hell: addiction in medical professionals

Rada Jones, MD

Physician

March 28, 2019

K: “I was assaulted by an intoxicated female. She punched me and ruptured two discs in my back. I lost my whole self. I could no longer take the CPR course required. I lost my income that was supporting me and my three children.

I needed the narcotics — not only to dull the physical pain but to numb the emotions. I found myself taking more than prescribed. I asked the …

How physicians can burn in, not burn out

Hemalee Patel, MD and Suvas Vajracharya, PhD

Physician

March 28, 2019

Physicians are leaving medicine due to being physically and mentally exhausted. Most tragically, the United States loses one physician a day to suicide — an astronomical number. Physician burnout is a crisis that has been brewing in medicine for years. Administrative tasks, long hours, EHRs and a complete lack of work-life balance are all contributing factors of burnout.

Burnout affects almost half of physicians and is …

Fixing burnout among hospitalists is a leadership challenge

Rahulkumar Singh, MD

Physician

March 28, 2019

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

Burnout among physicians is at an epidemic proportion. National data suggests that more than 50 percent of our workforce is burned out, and this trend has been across the board from physicians in training to practicing physicians. Some of the specialties are more affected than others. Repercussions of provider burnout on health care …

How Big Medicine is hurting patients and putting small practices out of business

John Machata, MD

Health Policy

March 27, 2019

Recently the CEO of a large health care network stated: “Market forces don’t apply to health care.”

Of course, economic and political forces apply to health care. Big Medicine’s most powerful entities (insurers, hospitals, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, and government agencies) formulate health care policy to enrich themselves at the expense of patients and small, independent medical practices.

As an independent family doctor, my practice’s existence is in jeopardy. Small physician …

Hospice didn’t stop suffering. But what it did for us was priceless.

Dheeraj Raina, MD

Physician

March 27, 2019

My wife Uzma died peacefully at home. She didn’t take any painkillers for her last three days. Our kids, my parents, and I were next to her. In the weeks leading up to her death, many old friends visited her. Others sent her flowers, cards, and food. It was a good death. Yes, in the last five years cancer and its treatment took a physical and emotional toll. Yes, she left us a …

3 tips from an attorney to avoid a medical malpractice lawsuit

Heather Hansen, JD

Physician

March 27, 2019

Twenty years of defending doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice cases has made me into a nervous patient. When you see the worst, you look for it. At least I do. That’s why when I was scheduled for a minor elective procedure, I was nervous. I set aside the day, canceling all of my depositions and planning to spend the day on emails and phone calls. My specialist’s office texted …

A physician’s secret to restore joy in the exam room

Omar Bukhari, DO

Physician

March 27, 2019

As someone who has been in the medical field for nearly ten years, I have had the opportunity to follow many physicians. I started off shadowing physicians, standing behind them as they would speak to patients in their rooms.

Now, as a resident physician, I spend hours and hours each week in the clinic seeing my own patients. Every week, I read about burnout and how it affects fellow physicians deal …

Medical care was never intended to be daily fights against insurance companies

Robert Bonakdar, MD

Conditions and Diseases

March 27, 2019

Last month I saw Joan, a woman who has had low back pain for years. She’d been through the ringer like every other person in severe pain: countless procedures and medications. She continued to have daily pain that stopped her from staying focused at work, playing with her kids or being the spouse or friend she wanted to be. After our long consultation and review of her records my prescription …

What doctors should learn from taxi drivers

Nneka Unachukwu, MD

Physician

March 27, 2019

I love to travel.

Last spring, I found myself on a plane headed for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. I was on my way to attend a conference in beautiful Rockwall, Texas.

After an uneventful flight, I took my bags, headed for the exit and asked the airport security where the designated space for Uber pick up was. Once I got the information I needed, I whipped out my phone, went to …

Take the naloxone challenge

Matthew Zuckerman, MD

Medications

March 26, 2019

Last week I took the naloxone challenge. I walked up to a pharmacy window, waited in line, and requested naloxone from the pharmacist. She showed a supportive but knowing look, and I became acutely aware of the four people in line behind me. After giving her my name and date of birth, she was able to pull my insurance info from prior visits, and I left with a dose of …

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Take the naloxone challenge

The patient-clinician relationship matters. To all of us.

Quinn Bensi, MD

Physician

March 26, 2019

“The patient-clinician relationship is dead.” Those of us in health care hear this refrain constantly these days, coming at us from all angles. We feel it in the wall that goes up when we turn from our patients to our computer screens. We infer it in administrative meetings in which we are told once again to get our numbers up, or when yet another physician is let go, technically “without …

In medicine, maternal discrimination is real

Anonymous

Physician

March 26, 2019

“Why did you wait to schedule this meeting until September, why not July or August?” Candidly, I replied, “I have a family and being on nights, spending those 90 minutes with them a day is very important to me.” It was then, behind closed doors, in an office where he held all of the power that he said: “You know, I don’t think women with families make as good of …

It’s time to acknowledge the developmental behavioral pediatric workforce

Nerissa Bauer, MD, MPH

Conditions and Diseases

March 26, 2019

There are roughly 15 percent of the nation’s children who suffer from a developmental-behavioral condition or about 1 in 6 children. Unfortunately, many of those children often do not get the help they need.

Children with developmental and behavioral challenges can easily be missed, especially when the behaviors are more subtle or impacts on function are not evident daily, such as with a …

The value of personal narratives in addiction treatment and integrated care

Aine M. Greaney

Patient

March 26, 2019

I was standing behind my trolley in our local supermarket when, in my wallet, I came across that drawing of a human heart. In the miniature pen-and-ink composition, the heart is suspended between two birds’ wings.

At the bottom is a dateline: Opioid Vigil, October 19, 2012.

Memory is a slippery thing, but I recall the 20-something artist as tall and rangy. At that opioid vigil, he sat behind the exhibit table, …