My first patient of residency was Mr. John. He endured life-threatening injuries that left him without speech or the ability to move his limbs. Every day had obstacles, and I met most of his family over time. Mr. John was a family man who looked after others first before himself. A self-made man. He was a man who was physically strong and dedicated to every project and goal he set …
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“In my medical training, we were taught five ways to treat pain: lifestyle modifications, physical therapy, medications, injections, and surgery. Lifestyle modifications are positive changes in diet, exercise, sleep, and stress levels. This is the first-line treatment for painful inflammation. Yet we tend …
From an early age, I shared the soccer field with my younger brother, and later, we shared an orthopedic surgeon when I tore my ACL. I worked hard and excelled at my public STEM high school in New York City. I was also an athletic trainer in high school and college. I fit the classic stereotype of the injured sporty kid going into orthopedic surgery, right?
Not exactly.
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An excerpt from Cutthroat: A Surgeon’s Fight against Big Government, Corrupt Businessmen, and a Broken Healthcare System.
The media, the business world, insurance companies, and even the government have done an amazing job of portraying doctors as the culprits for the exorbitant costs of health care.
They’ve been able to …
A little-known fact about doctors that most patients would find horrifying is that physicians don’t keep track of their results.
If I botch a knee surgery so badly that my patient requires five repairs by a different specialist, I might never find out. As a result, I will continue to use a flawed technique on patient after patient. The fact that I never hear from any of them again will be …
There are not many situations in general medicine where a doctor can affect an instant cure, and the patient will call them a “miracle worker.” Most patient visits end with a prescription or two or some instructions along with the admonition, “You’ll feel better in a few days.”
One exception to this rule: dislocations.
A simple dislocation happens when the end of a bone is pulled out of its socket (or niche) …
“In the end, the patient-physician relationship is crucial to overall decision-making for any plan of care, treatment, or surgery. There are many variations in the reviewed studies in health care literature as to the cost-effectiveness of second opinions in medicine. These studies could be easily misconstrued that there are …
Bunnell. Colles. Dupuytren. Erb. These and countless other names litter the lexicon of orthopedic surgery. Eponyms abound from the moment one enters residency, providing prime “pimp” fodder for senior surgeons to accost trainees.
Besides striking fear into the hearts of residents in morning conferences, eponyms do serve another purpose. They preserve our history.
Contributions of giants in the field are immortalized, perpetuated every time one glimpses a characteristic X-ray or particular pathognomonic …
People who experience debilitating back pain come to their doctors with one pressing question: Do I need back surgery? Often, they are surprised to hear me, a neurosurgeon, answer, “No.” In many cases, physical therapy, pain management, weight loss management, and physiatry can help people to delay – and in some cases avoid – back surgery.
However, if those remedies don’t work well enough, a person might decide that spine surgery …
The New Year is a typical time for resolutions, and one of the most common ones is to get healthier. For many of us, a common stumbling block is dealing with low back pain. As a rehabilitation medicine physician, my focus is nonoperative spine care within one of the top orthopedic practices in the country. Let’s talk about the causes of low-back pain and what we can do about it.
1. …
This article is satire.
As an orthopedic surgeon, it has always been clear that our specialties benefit from a somewhat symbiotic relationship. We feed you patients, and you often return the favor by providing us with the needed confirmation to operate. However, I feel as though there is a deepening rift between our two specialties. It has been developing gradually, almost imperceptibly, over time. Perhaps it is perpetuated by the belief …
If you’ve ever been in a serious accident or traumatic event leaving you with one or multiple injuries, you’ve probably met the rehab doctors a few times. Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R, also called physiatry) is a branch of medicine geared towards helping people heal and adapt to new circumstances after their diagnosis using medications and rehab.
Here, I want to share three ways a physiatrist can be your advocate after …
I’m currently reading What Happened to You by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, and being reminded that I react rather than respond when I am in a trauma activation. When that happens, I don’t have access to higher cortical functions like critical thinking. And as Gabor Mate, MD, would say, I don’t respond to what’s happening; I respond to my perceptions of what’s happening. And actually, I …
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I once spoke at a leadership forum on opioid abuse. I was asked to speak about the role of hospital systems in addressing this important issue. As I thought about what I would say, I realized there was very little I could add. The crisis is epidemic, and hospitals are ill-prepared to do anything proactive. It is that overwhelming. Leading medical missions, I learned an important lesson that …
“I can tell you what I don’t want to do. I don’t want to mill through 50 patients a day, mindlessly clicking through EMR checkboxes so an insurance auditor five states away will deem that I’ve done my job and deserve reimbursement. That’s a high volume, high overhead game, and I …
Before getting dressed for work this morning, I stood in my kitchen, marveling at the ice crystals, or “tree diamonds,” as my mother calls them, from the window above the sink. As I waited for the coffee to brew, I scrolled through the text messages sent to my phone overnight until I saw my friend’s forwarded news link: “Doctors suspect COVID delayed immune response in young surgeon’s death.” I clicked …
It’s good to have options, isn’t it?
So why isn’t there an option when it comes to taking your boards? In other words, can’t residents have a say with which board to become certified with once they’re done with their residency?
Well, there’s good news for you. The answer is yes. You definitely have options. There are other boards for your initial written exams. (And that also includes the oral exams for …
For thousands of years, bonesetters and doctors could not accurately diagnosis broken bones or differentiate such injuries from joint dislocations and torn ligaments. That changed with a chance discovery almost exactly 125 years ago. Subsequently, perhaps with equal parts of chagrin and enlightenment, doctors began using the new discovery to discount their previous assumptions and accurately diagnose skeletal diseases.
In his darkened laboratory on November 8, 1895, …
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
– Albert Einstein
“Mr. Thomas, are you OK? Sir, are you OK?” It was a full clinic day, and I had just improvised a treatment on him.
I had met this patient, “Mr. Thomas,” only once before. After meeting me …
Transitioning from the classroom to the wards is an uncertain and anxiety-provoking time for many medical students. Schedules are constantly changing, as are expectations and learning objectives. Mentorship and advice from upperclassmen, residents, and attendings was an essential tool in my MS3 toolbox. I would go so far as to say that these pieces of insight are the toolbox. The 2020-2021 academic year will provide its own degree of obstacles …
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