Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

A surgeon blogs for one year. Here’s what she learned.

Physician

November 16, 2015

“I admire anyone who has the guts to write anything at all.”
– E. B. White

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
– Ernest Hemingway

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”
– Mark Twain

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
– Maya Angelou

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at …

It’s time to rethink pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Conditions

October 30, 2015

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“Isn’t she … isn’t she pretty in pink?”
– Psychedelic Furs, Pretty in Pink

October in New England. The sky is a brilliant blue, the leaves on the trees are turning impossible shades of orange, yellow, and red.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so in addition to the brilliant fall colors all around, people are wearing pink clothing and pink ribbons, and products on …

Why #ILookLikeASurgeon resonates so powerfully

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

August 31, 2015

“A good surgeon has the eye of an eagle, the heart of a lion, and the hand of a woman …”
– 15th century English proverb

#ILookLikeASurgeon, a hashtag on Twitter and the movement it has inspired, has resonated deeply with me.

I look like a surgeon. There is so much more behind this seemingly simple statement of fact. I am not just stating that I have excelled and I have achieved and …

What laryngitis taught this surgeon about disrupting health care

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

August 23, 2015

Smitty greets Sully as they meet to head to work, “Hey there, Sully! How’s your wife?” Sully answers, “Oh, geez. She’s up in bed with laryngitis.” Then Smitty says, “Laryngitis?! That damned Greek!”

As you may have guessed, I am nursing a case of laryngitis, my voice muted and strained. This time, it has not stopped me from attending to my work responsibilities or other activities. It has required some adjustments though, …

Patients can spot the fake: They need the authentic

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

August 15, 2015

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
– Albert Einstein

“Miracles happen every day; change your perception of what a miracle is, and you’ll see them all around you.”
— Jon Bon Jovi

“The miracle is this: The more we share, the more we have.”
— Leonard Nimoy

It is amazing when things in medicine work just the way …

The physician is the ultimate patient advocate

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

July 13, 2015

“Only one rule in medical ethics need concern you — that action on your part which best conserves the interests of your patient.”
– Dr. Martin H. Fischer, German-American Physician and Author

“A physician shall, while caring for a patient, regard responsibility to the patient as paramount.”
– Principles of Medical Ethics, American Medical Association

“I pledge to pursue the practice of surgery with honesty and to place the welfare and the rights of …

Trust and faith are essential to physician-patient relationship

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

April 28, 2015

Have a little faith in me.
– John Hiatt

Spring ushers in major holidays in many faiths and religions. The rites of spring and the vernal equinox, new life and rebirth are springtime themes and touchstones across many cultures. Faith is important to many people and across many cultures and religions. I would assert faith is even important to atheists and agnostics, and those without a formal religious tradition.

Faith is important …

Is it time to abandon the 9 to 5 workweek in hospitals?

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

April 15, 2015

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Party Weekend
– Joe “King” Carrasco

Fight for Your Right (To Party)!
– Beastie Boys

We Just Wanna Dance
– The Flirts

My favorite radio station, WHFS, had a ritual every Friday afternoon to start off the weekend, back in the day. DJs Weasel and Bob Here would exchange pleasantries as they exchanged shifts, and would launch the same set of songs at the same …

The last breath can be seen as a the passage into eternity

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

March 24, 2015

Eonia I Mnimi (Eternal Memory)
– Greek Orthodox Funeral Blessing

“Have you ever seen anyone die before?” my cousin asked me, from across the bed.

“Sure I have, plenty of times,” I answered.

We were flanking her father, my uncle (really, my mother’s cousin, but extended Greek families are complicated; suffice it to say that our families are very close). He had just taken his last breath.

***

My uncle had been declining for several years with Lewy …

The paradox of physician communication

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

March 16, 2015

Physicians have so many ways to communicate. Yet why are they so far apart?

Communication Breakdown, It’s always the same, I’m having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane!
– Communication Breakdown, Led Zeppelin

Oh why can’t we talk again? Don’t leave me hanging on the telephone!
– Hanging on the Telephone, Blondie

I honestly don’t know how they did it, how doctors practiced and communicated effectively in the days before our modern technology, with computers, …

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The paradox of physician communication

Running late: The bane of every doctor

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

March 2, 2015

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I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!
– The White Rabbit, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland

It is in the very words, “running late.” It is not walking late, or strolling late, or even meandering late. It is always running late, the phrase itself active, implying urgency and speed, rush and anxiety. The distress, just like the White Rabbit. The …

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Running late: The bane of every doctor

Help the doctor! When systems and the system fail physicians.

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

February 25, 2015

Help, I need somebody! Help, not just anybody! Help, you know I need someone, help!
– The Beatles

We are all here on earth to help each other; what on earth the others are here for I don’t know.
– W. H. Auden

“Help the doctor!”

I’m sure most surgeons have heard this exasperated statement at some point in the operating room. It is said with that special mix of …

Giving test results directly to patients: What’s missing is context

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

February 19, 2015

I do not think that word means what you think it means.
– Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Stick to Facts, sir! … In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir: nothing but Facts!
– Charles Dickens, Hard Times

“Information without context isn’t transparency” flashed across my Twitter feed. So now I am thinking about context, and communicating context, in medical care.

This quote, from Heather Pierce, JD, MPH, Director of Science Policy and Regulatory …

The occupational hazards of being a doctor are frightening

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

February 13, 2015

There isn’t any such thing as an ordinary life.
– Lucy Maud Montgomery

Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.
– Gerard Way

My colleague, Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, is currently on leave from his academic anesthesia practice as well as from his post as speaker of the house of delegates for the Massachusetts Medical Society to serve as Lt. Commander Jesse Ehrenfeld, combat anesthesiologist in Kandahar, …

This is exactly why surgeons are so fragile. All of them.

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Physician

January 23, 2015

You are human and fallible.
– Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Alas, the frailty is to blame, not me — for such as we are made of, such we be …
– William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Sha-doo-bee, Shattered …
– Mick Jagger, “Shattered”, The Rolling Stones, Some Girls (1978)

The image of the surgeon is synonymous with strength. Surgeons are stereotypically charismatic, commanding, confident, even arrogant. Strong minds, strong bodies, strong wills. Leaders, especially …

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

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