Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. 15 minutes a day. 7 days a week.
Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD.
Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. 15 minutes a day. 7 days a week.
Rate and review the show so more audiences can find The Podcast by KevinMD.
“People remember stories in your speech. The rest fades away.
I learned that pearl of wisdom from studying great literature and telling personal stories, and now teach it to students of speech. Who can forget the stories of The Iliad and The Odyssey having once read the books or heard of these tales of Homer? And when I want to tell a …
“Being a parent in the middle of a pandemic is not easy. Sheltering in place with canceled daycare, school, and college, while also being a doctor or other healthcare worker, working in high-risk, high-intensity situations, presents many challenges. It also presents many opportunities.
It is possible to choose thoughts about being a physician and a parent during the COVID-19 situation that can …
“Each patient I have seen over these four decades has made me a better doctor. Books do not impact long term memory the way a real patient can. I once heard the chair of medicine at a teaching hospital say that the worst thing about being on call every other night as an intern is missing half the patients. I now …
“We know that the past two months haven’t been easy. We know about the sleepless nights, anger, tears, depression, and anxiety. We know all of this because we know what trauma does to a person, and you are in the middle of experiencing a repeated trauma. The trauma of watching patients die in ways you’ve never seen, the trauma of watching …
“The COVID-19 pandemic has upended health care, with telemedicine emerging as a strategy to reduce risk exposures for patients and clinicians. Video visits, in particular, can be effective for many types of clinical care and offer convenience and savings for patients. As care shifts to this virtual modality, however, there is a risk of jeopardizing the meaningful human interaction that is …
“Faced with the prospect of not being able to provide all COVID-19 patients with the life support that they may need, physicians and nurses are working in conditions that have been described as ‘hell.’
How are providers to cope with the trauma they are experiencing in New York and Italy, and presumably other nations as well? How are they to cope with …
“After almost 30 years in this profession, I have come to the conclusion that there is some truth to that, as no day or week passes that I do not have a depressed, anxious or suicidal teen on my ‘to see list.’ Could it be my own personal history of depression and suicidal ideation? Could it be my own history of …
“Where did the myth of vampires come from? Like many myths, it is based partly in fact. A blood disorder called porphyria, which has has been with us for millennia, became prevalent among the nobility and royalty of Eastern Europe. A genetic disorder, it becomes more common with inbreeding. Porphyria is a malfunction in the process of hemoglobin production. Hemoglobin is …
“As women physicians, especially physician moms and women physicians of color, we have handled and achieved more than the vast majority of the population, in order to reach our current status of physician.
We do because we can.
We are Superwomen. Until we’re not.
Without thought, we take on others’ responsibilities, because we can.
In addition to our own personal responsibility to ourselves and to …
What are the challenges facing psychiatry? How does psychiatry need to innovate the continue to thrive? What is the future of psychiatry What’s your #1 tip for those considering the profession? What advice can you give to primary care clinicians as it relates to behavioral health issues?
Owen Muir is a psychiatrist and host of the podcast, Pandemic Check In.
“Death is not meant to be rushed. Saying goodbye shouldn’t be rushed. Celebrating a life once lived cannot be rushed. And yet, we must. Taking a moment, a minute, an hour, maybe a day to feel something that normally takes far longer. Because we must. And in our hearts, the grief remains. Frozen in time in this state of mourning that …
“Over the last 100 years, the U.S. has had to respond to five avian flu pandemics. The most severe was the 1918 avian influenza infecting 1/3 of the world’s population and killing 650,000 Americans. It was also the last time wide-spread containment, mitigation, and isolation strategies were used in the U.S. Seldom mentioned about the 1918 pandemic are the three ‘waves’ …
“The unparalleled and pervasive nature of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of us in some way. There is limited, albeit growing, research on the mental health effects of disasters. A recent review article pointed out the potentially negative consequences of prolonged quarantine, while other research from Wuhan, China, highlighted the impact of COVID-19, particularly amongst healthcare personnel. Psychiatrists and mental health professionals will play a …
“Recent articles have accused some physicians of hoarding medications for themselves during our international medical crisis. Authors such as these should be ashamed of their coverage and wasted ability on sensationalism when they could be spending their time informing the public about the dangers of COVID-19 and the actions communities, hospitals, physicians, businesses, and public servants are taking on a daily …
“This pandemic presents a unique opportunity for senior anesthesiologists to see the benefit of accommodating the health care needs of our workforce. Just as I tried to avoid the teratogenic effects of certain cases when pregnant, we should consider the most effective ways to protect senior anesthesiologists from a life-threatening infection. When the pandemic has passed, anesthesiologists of all ages can …
“Being present is a wonderful thing. It relieves stress caused by focusing on failures of the past and worries of the future. Both realms are unreachable, largely unchangeable. But at the same time, they both entice and tease our minds such that we often find ourselves everywhere, but at the moment as we focus on changing what has already passed or …
“Recently, I realized that something needed to change in my family life. With three busy daughters at three different schools who participate in multiple activities along with my full-time job as an anesthesiologist, my life depended on accurate and concise communication. However, this was the third time in a week that a ball had been dropped between my husband and me.
“All too often, physicians and other health care providers have tried to do the right things for our patients to ultimately have had our hand slapped.
So pause for a second, get the questions answered, know what future implications are for today’s actions. Make the right choice for your patient, and for yourself, especially if it means amending your contract before you …
“Obesity is a topic that literally hits home for me. For the past two years, the website WalletHub has voted the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission TX metroplex as the ‘fattest city in America.’ As a health care provider, this is deeply disturbing because it puts my community at high risk for a wide variety of health problems, including but not limited to coronary artery disease, …