Post Author: Catherine Cheng, MD

Can universal health care and capitalism coexist? Yes, here’s how.

Policy
December 4, 2017

Eat what you kill.

Sounds like a mantra from a survival reality show, right? Akin to “eat or be eaten,” “kill or be killed.” It’s also a common reference to the prevailing business model in our American scarcity-minded, competition-driven, fee-for-service health care culture. How ironic, the application of these words to this profession. It was explained to me essentially as: “Every man for himself, and you’re a minion. You are expected …

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Patients have more power than they may realize

Physician
September 21, 2017

A pediatrician husband recently wrote here in KevinMD about the stark differences in assumptions about work-life balance for men and women, in “What does your husband think of you being a surgeon?”  Then I came across another article on Medscape by a male cardiologist, whose wife is also a physician, entitled, “The gender gap in cardiology is embarrassing.” Both men’s wives delayed their medical training, …

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Skirting around language is a disservice to your patients

Physician
September 17, 2017

Sexuality can be hard to talk about. I think this is true for adults far more than for children. Children are naturally curious and nonjudgmental. They just want to know: What is that, what’s it for, why are yours different from mine, and why does he have one of those and I don’t? It’s we adults who squirm and dodge, deflect and bolt. From a very early age, children learn …

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Patients and doctors need one another now more than ever

Physician
September 1, 2017

To the patients concerned about the future of health care:

We need one another now more than ever.

In April last year, I started this blog to help patients and physicians connect in an increasingly disconnected health care system. Both patients and physicians feel bound and invaded from multiple directions, all interfering with the doctor-patient relationship. We all suffer for it.

It occurs to me that many of you may …

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A teacher’s job is to show love first

Education
August 25, 2017

A couple of weeks ago, I met my new medical students. These 10-12 trainees will be my small group for the next two years. We will meet monthly to discuss the soft stuff of medical training — hierarchy, tribalism, death and dying, medical errors, difficult patients, etc. Some call it “third-year medical student support group.” This is my 6th year of the pleasure and privilege (I inherited my first group …

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