KevinMD.com

Here’s why doctors must know prescription costs

Medications

January 10, 2018

As the health care debate drags on, prescription drug costs continue to rise by almost 10 percent annually. It is the rare patient who is spared this expense.

Over the years, I have seen how these costs have affected my patients. At first, most patients had little in the way of co-pays. However, once the local economy deteriorated, co-pays skyrocketed as employers tried to curb their health care expenses. Now, large …

Health care and the airline industry have a lot in common

Abraham Morse, MD, MBA

Health Policy

January 10, 2018

There are many apt comparisons to be made between aviation and health care. As a (lapsed) instrument-rated pilot, I may have some insight about the system in which planes function on a daily basis in the United States. It is truly an impressive system which is (to paraphrase Don Berwick) well-designed to achieve the safety results that it does. However, the kind of statement that some health care safety leaders …

Structured settlements are ruining patients’ lives

Thomas D. Guastavino, MD

Physician

January 10, 2018

There are a lot of TV commercials for structured settlement companies these days. You know, the companies that say if you are cash-strapped but have a structured settlement they will be happy to buy your settlement and give you “cash now.” Some of the commercials are quite clever and catchy featuring everything from operettas to boy bands. After seeing so many of these, one has to conclude that there has …

Real physician voices, twice a week

Join 100,000+ subscribers. Free, and one click to unsubscribe.

How the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affects this two-physician couple

Passive Income, MD

Physician Finance

January 10, 2018

The recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is controversial, to say the least. However you feel about it though, the fact is it’s here to stay, affecting everyone by 2018.

However, in looking at our own situation as a two physician couple (purely from the medical income standpoint), at first glance, it seems as though our taxes would actually go up. In addition, if it’s going up for us, it surely …

The other opioid epidemic that we ignore

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Medications

January 9, 2018

“I made myself a hypodermic injection of a triple dose of morphia and sank down on the couch in my consulting room … I told her I was all right, all I wanted was twenty-four hours’ sleep, she was not to disturb me unless the house was on fire.”
– Axel Munthe, MD, The Story of San Michele (1929)

When people in this country mention the opioid epidemic, most of the time it is …

Ignoring your mental health is risky business

Greg Smith, MD

Physician

January 9, 2018

My car has one hundred seventeen thousand miles on it after just three and a half years. It has taken me back and forth from here to Atlanta more times than I can remember, to the beach, to the mountains I love to hike, and across the country in a seven thousand mile trip four falls ago. It runs well, just like new as a matter of fact. I have …

5 tips to better communicate with your patients

Suneel Dhand, MD

Physician

January 9, 2018

Communication is the cornerstone of good health care. Despite all the external challenges we face with the system in which we work, those few minutes we spend with patients and their families are precious — and are what we will be remembered for. We, therefore, owe it to our patients to be at our very best and to make them the absolute center of …

A physician lurked on Facebook mom groups. Here’s what she found.

Audrey Nath, MD, PhD

Physician

January 9, 2018

In my off time, as a mom and a physician, I spend a decent amount of time lurking in a rather strange environment, even for the internet. A place so filled with anxiety, stories of ill-chosen spouses and little glimpses of unbridled joy, that you’d think you were somehow inside a taping of the Real Housewives of This-crying-baby-makes-me-hope-that-I-end-up-having-a-dissociative-fugue. You know, *that* place.

Online mommy groups on Facebook.

And, there I am, lurking …

15 minutes aren’t enough for a primary care visit

DrizzleMD

Physician

January 9, 2018

Have you bought a new memory foam mattress recently? Many come vacuumed in shrink bags. Once air gets in the bag, the mattress expands to its normal size. It is fascinating to watch how they expand.

It is not so fascinating to watch a patient expand to their actual size, when they are forcefully squeezed into an enclosed time space like an office …

A physician’s love-hate relationship with dividends. And what he does about it.

Physician on FIRE, MD

Physician Finance

January 9, 2018

When I described my drawdown strategy in early retirement, I stated we will “sell from the taxable account first.” I also plan to collect quarterly dividends from my index funds, but if Vanguard were Burger King and I could have it my way, I’d hold the dividends and take bites out of my account only as needed.

When I discuss the downsides of dividends, note that I …

Learn about Clostridium difficile infection with a Medcomic

Jorge Muniz, PA-C

Conditions and Diseases

January 8, 2018

Clostridium difficile is a gram-positive anaerobic bacillus which secretes toxins (A and B) that cause diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. C. difficile is the most common infectious cause of nosocomial diarrhea. Transmission of C. difficile can occur from contact with contaminated humans and fomites. The organism contains endospores that can survive the acidity of the stomach and reach the large intestine.

C. difficile colonizes the intestinal tract after the normal …

Expanding coverage and cutting health care costs: ideas for 2018

Cedric Dark, MD, MPH

Health Policy

January 8, 2018

The controversy over health care reform often boils down to two issues: coverage and cost. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) made significant impact on the coverage issue, dropping the uninsured rate below 10 percent for the first time in the recorded history of the United States, covering 20+ million Americans in the 8 years since it was passed, and putting the United States on a reasonable …

The non-difference between MDs and DOs

Brandon Jacobi

Medical Education

January 8, 2018

“What’s a DO?” is something virtually every osteopathic medical student and physician have been asked at some point in their training. There is this public misconception that professionals who carry MD after their names are the only qualified people to medically treat their ailments. Any other degree is categorized as “alternative medicine” in their mental schema. Truth be told, DOs, or doctors of osteopathic medicine are just as qualified as …

Read more…

The non-difference between MDs and DOs

Please change the culture of surgery

Anonymous

Medical Education

January 8, 2018

It is December 2017. I have been on the road for the last five months, completing my five months of elective rotations. I am a fourth-year medical student aspiring to specialize in family medicine. I also want to learn procedures, so I did two months of surgery, three months of family practice electives. At the beginning of this process, I had wanted to be a general surgeon, but I ended …

Read more…

Please change the culture of surgery

What is the right reaction for a physician when her daughter goes pre-med?

Elizabeth Blanchard, MD

Medical Education

January 8, 2018

I asked a colleague at a recent dinner meeting about his children. They’re all grown, he said, one is actually a doctor. But, he added quickly, “I had nothing to do with it.” His son had chosen his father’s field of radiology, though my colleague similarly disavowed any influence. He did mention, with some relief, that his son was happy with his choice.

About a year earlier, I was catching up …

Why published trading strategies rarely work

Wall Street Physician, MD

Physician Finance

January 8, 2018

When you browse finance-related websites, it doesn’t take long for you to see ads that claim that they can help you make money, fast.

“I’VE BEEN ABLE TO WIN ON 90% OF MY TRADES WITH THIS PROVEN STRATEGY.” – TYPICAL AD #1

“LET ME SHOW YOU HOW TO EARN 25% RETURNS, GUARANTEED.” – TYPICAL AD #2

“SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER AND I’LL SHARE WITH YOU THREE STOCKS THAT ARE READY TO EXPLODE.” …

Read more…

Why published trading strategies rarely work

Medical students: It is OK to not feel OK

Jamie Katuna

Medical Education

January 7, 2018

I pulled into my driveway at 1 in the morning after spending eight consecutive hours in the library. I shut the engine off and allowed the music to continue. And I didn’t move.

And then I started to cry. Initially, I resisted the tears, then conceded to the overpowering emotions so desperate to escape. And for ten minutes, I sat in my dark car in the cold at 1 in the morning …

Lessons from the psychiatric ward

Kristin Puhl, MD

Medical Education

January 7, 2018

The specter of the psych ward looms large in popular culture: video games, horror movies, novels — the concept of a locked inpatient psychiatric ward is shorthand for a variety of terrors. This perception is driven by a complex cocktail of factors. Psych ward patients have struggled with historical and current abuses, which are compounded by misunderstanding and ignorance around mental illness.

During third year, I spent a six-week rotation in …

Read more…

Lessons from the psychiatric ward

Retiring early from medicine: Is it ethical?

Valerie A. Jones, MD

Physician

January 7, 2018

Eight weeks after I delivered my third child, I was diagnosed with a four-centimeter lung mass. Yes, you heard that right. For those in medicine, this is terrifying to hear as the first thing that comes to mind is lung cancer. Lung cancer is notoriously hard to treat, typically fatal with a short life expectancy after diagnosis and extremely unfair to a lifelong nonsmoker who has spent 12 years in …

6 keys to financial freedom

Live Free MD

Physician Finance

January 7, 2018

Personal finance isn’t complicated. In fact, if you do just six things right, you will become financially successful. Let’s keep it simple and get started.

1. Earn a decent income. If you don’t make any money, you will never get ahead financially. Forget about winning the lottery, getting an inheritance, or expecting the government to subsidize your lifestyle. The only way to build wealth is to work.

Jobs with a decent income include computer …

Read more…

6 keys to financial freedom

Real physician voices, twice a week

The Podcast

Latest episodes

The Podcast

Latest episodes