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Here’s why pediatricians ask about trauma and violence

Conditions and Diseases

February 28, 2019

As a behavioral pediatrician, I see children with behavior problems. Kids with aggression, kids who have been kicked out of multiple daycares or schools and kids who are not doing well at home or school.

One of the things I always look for are clues as to why. Behaviors, while stressful, are not a diagnosis. They are symptoms of something else. For example: Just because a kiddo is not completing homework …

This residency interview season: Be the rebel

Bryan Pardo, MD

Medical Education

February 28, 2019

Ours is a chaotic and overburdened medical system. As a senior resident, there is every temptation to seek in our incoming classes more obedient interns and junior residents who would obey my orders as their senior without question. I challenge that we must do the harder thing.

The explosive growth in the health care industry has seen a shift in priorities to traumatic, urgent and emergent care. And we see profits …

Being a doctor and parent is hard: 10 ways to make it easier

Maria Perez-Johnson, DO

Physician

February 28, 2019

Being a doctor is hard; being a mother is just as hard — if not harder — and being both often seems impossible. Looking back at my medical career it is difficult to fathom not doing both. I was an older, non-traditional student when I came back to college to attempt to complete my prerequisites for entry to medical school. I had just had a baby a few months before …

How social media can advance humanism in medicine

Pooja Lakshmin, MD

Social Media in Medicine

February 28, 2019

“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or step back into safety.”
– Abraham Maslow.

The New York Times recently published the op-ed “Dr. Google is a Liar,” written by cardiologist Haider Warraich, MD. Dr. Warraich describes the rise of fake medical news and the adverse consequences of a population who gets their medical information from social media. He shares that when …

A Xanax prescription that should have been rejected

Christy Huff, MD

Medications

February 27, 2019

In hindsight, I should have never accepted a Xanax prescription from my doctor. What followed was catastrophic — rapidly developing tolerance and physical dependence on the drug and a prolonged illness. Three-and-a-half years later, I am still slowly tapering off Valium (having transitioned to a longer-acting benzodiazepine to aid in tapering) and experiencing debilitating symptoms daily.

I was unprepared for what happened to me by my medical …

How physicians should respond to the words, “I am depressed”

Leanne Rowe, MD

Physician

February 27, 2019

My response to a colleague who says, “I am depressed,” is critical for many reasons. As doctors have tough masks, it has been difficult for my colleague to disclose this. Due to mental illness stigma in the medical profession, this doctor may have been suffering quietly for some time and could be at risk, perhaps self-medicating with antidepressants, benzodiazepines or alcohol.

When I am the treating doctor of another doctor, listening …

A path to universal health coverage in America

Cedric Dark, MD, MPH

Health Policy

February 27, 2019

Thirteen years ago, as a student in New York City, I marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to implore my colleagues to fight for universal health care. That day, I enunciated what has become my personal mission by saying, “We need universal coverage that is portable. We need universal coverage that is comprehensive. We need universal coverage that ensures equal access to care. Most importantly, we need you — to lead …

Physician negotiating: Go get what you’re worth

Barbara Hamilton, MD

Physician Finance

February 27, 2019

Nearly five years into practice, I have negotiated my first contract, multiple pay increases, call compensation and independent contractor status. I prepared by researching my market value and reading about negotiation strategy. The following are some points I have learned along the way.

If you negotiate in medicine, you may feel like the only one.

Over the years, my mid-career colleagues confided that they have not received a single pay increase, only …

How can doctors stop fake medical news

Shikha Jain, MD

Physician

February 27, 2019

When I started on my path in medicine, I was an optimistic, wide-eyed, enthusiastic medical student. I had fond memories of rounding on Sundays with my vascular surgeon father as a child, and I remembered the appreciation his patients would express when we would run into them at our local grocery store. My dad never complained about taking call or not having enough time to spend with his patients. The …

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How can doctors stop fake medical news

Why is age only a concern regarding surgeons, and not government officials?

Brian C. Joondeph, MD

Health Policy

February 27, 2019

Older surgeons are coming under increasing scrutiny as their competence and ability to practice medicine are called into question especially since many continue to work in their 60s and 70s. The New York Times addressed this in a recent article entitled, “When is the surgeon too old to operate?”

They described an 80-year-old chief of vascular surgery at a New Jersey hospital who was the first doctor evaluated by a …

A psychiatrist’s attempt to stop burnout

Ashvin Sood, MD

Physician

February 26, 2019

I don’t want to go back. Starting at 6 a.m., the intern entered the hospital with coffee from the bodega down the street, anxious about the patients that were admitted to the ward the previous evening.

I deserve it. At 8 a.m., he had already rounded on his nine patients, one of which was an angry male with dementia who spewed expletives at any healthcare provider that dared cross his path. …

Every physician will kill a patient

Michael Grzeskowiak, MD

Physician

February 26, 2019

How did I miss his hypokalemia? Two weeks into my intern year and my patient’s potassium returned at 2.9. Minutes later, he coded. And I felt responsible. As I explained to my partner how my patient had become pulseless after diuresis of his heart failure, she looked at me and said, “Physicians kill patients, it’s inevitable. Has no one told you it’s part of the job?”

There is truth to this …

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Every physician will kill a patient

A physician’s elective rotation in Rhodesia

Stuart Jamieson, MD

Physician

February 26, 2019

An excerpt from Close to the Sun: The Journey of a Pioneer Heart Surgeon.

In the third year of medical school, we were granted a three-month elective, during which we were encouraged to work at another hospital or in some medically related endeavor to broaden our experience. Most people went overseas. I went back to Rhodesia. I found a cheap air ticket on a charter plane, which left from …

Measles outbreaks: Getting to the root of the problem

Melvin Sanicas, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 26, 2019

Measles outbreaks across the United States have been identified with Texas being the 11th state so far to report an outbreak. The Philippines with over 2 million unvaccinated children has declared an outbreak of measles after nearly 2,000 cases and 26 deaths since January alone. In Madagascar, more than 50,000 people have been infected by the disease since October — more than the total number of …

Medical schools need to cut their cutthroat culture

Glen Jacobs, DeD

Medical Education

February 26, 2019

The United States will be short 120,000 doctors by the end of next decade, according to the latest research from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

That shortage will become permanent unless medical schools make the path to becoming a doctor a bit less arduous.

Some medical schools seem to take pride in imposing a heavy emotional and physical toll on their students. Toughen up aspiring doctors early on, the thinking goes, …

A research attending starts his month on the wards

Jack Rubenstein, MD

Physician

February 26, 2019

An excerpt from The Perfect Dose.

Walking towards the clinical rotation to take care of patients after weeks in the research labs was never easy. The long hallway between the two buildings had an almost transformative effect on Mann as he transitioned his persona to that of Dr. Mann. His clothing changed from jeans and V-neck …

A rare case solved by listening to your patient. And your mother.

Randall S. Fong, MD

Conditions and Diseases

February 25, 2019

History is important. “The farther back you look, the farther forward you will see,” Winston Churchill once said.

Particular to our profession as doctors, William Osler’s famous adage: “Listen to your patient, he is telling you the diagnosis,” rings true even to this day. But there is another, often forgotten edict, created long before these two figures came into being, handed down from generation to generation. And that is: “Listen to …

It’s time to view hospitalization as a procedure

Steve M. Grant, MD

Physician

February 25, 2019

I previously suggested that transitioning from the traditional inpatient care model to the hospitalist model inadvertently motivated providers to hospitalize more patients, specifically borderline sick patients. Our example was a 74-year-old woman with pneumonia whose path to admission met less resistance with a hospitalist at the helm. The question I posed at the end was this: model aside, should we admit that patient or not? What’s best …

Turning a patient: a nurse’s act of duty and compassion

Justin Millan, RN

Conditions and Diseases

February 25, 2019

I met a fellow nurse at a wedding recently who, upon hearing that I worked at a long-term acute care hospital (LTAC), shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh, sure. A lot of turns.”

I shrugged, too. He had belittled my work, but in a way, he was right. We do execute “a lot of turns” at my hospital. We complete at least one turn every 2 hours per patient. With an …

An oncologist’s battle with imposter syndrome

Shikha Jain, MD

Physician

February 25, 2019

Somewhere between medical school, residency and fellowship, I lost my voice. I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I thought I knew where I wanted to be in my career, and how to accomplish those things … until one day, I wasn’t so sure. I don’t know if it happened when I was applying for fellowship or when I returned from maternity leave as a trainee and …

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