“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 …
Meet the orthopedic surgeon who stopped taking insurance and does house calls [PODCAST]
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 …
COVID tragically took a young orthopedic surgeon
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 …
You have options when it comes to board certification
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, …
Orthopedic surgery enters the modern age on a chance observation
“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 …
Fascia in primary care: When chest pain is not in your chest
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 …
Pearls and pitfalls for medical students entering their clinical years
Recently, a few colleagues and I sat down with our six incoming interns during a welcoming round-table discussion. Being the closest member of the faculty to these residents in age and time from residency, I was best able to relate to them and their current feelings.
I, too, sat in those chairs in a conference room that was last used for graduating our outgoing chief residents. I, too, remember the feelings …
6 tips for success in residency training
Every year, National Nurses Day is celebrated on May 6 to raise awareness of the role nurses play in society. The date also marks the beginning of National Nurses Week, which begins on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. In addition to the annual celebration, the World Health Organization has smartly declared 2020 the “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife,” in recognition of their …
Nurses deserve all the respect doctors and patients can muster
I became interested in medicine in my second year of college at Baylor University. I lived in the old Brooks Hall, which was built with large suites and communal bathrooms, and formerly used as military housing. Six of my suite-mates were pre-med and had doctors for either fathers or mothers. They all spoke of the work their respective parents did, and how much enjoyment treating patients brought them, and that …
Kudos to the new breed of physicians
As a fourth-year orthopaedic surgery resident, we had some surgical autonomy. Always at arm’s length from the attending oversight, this was just enough to push us past our comfort zones.
My problem was I loved my comfort zone.
The single most influential day in my career happened late one evening as a PGY-4. I was about to start a complex ankle fracture by myself. The ankle fracture involved the fibula and the …
Why intangible skills are so important for surgeons
I went to a bar last night — and I looked good: red coat, black dress, knee-high suede boots. I was feeling pretty good.
I met my best friend at this bar — he lives elsewhere now — but this is his favorite spot in the world. Like Norm in Cheers, he is also their favorite customer.
We ordered dinner, and my best friend stepped away to talk to the bartender. I …
An orthopedic surgeon goes to a bar. Here’s what happened next.
“Words Kill” is a brilliant song about the perils of texting and driving. Spread the message.
Courtesy of The Fever Breakers, a band made up of hospital employees. Their socially conscious songs are crafted in the basement of the hospital using a piano used for cancer patient music therapy and subsequently recorded in a studio.
A brilliant song about the perils of texting and driving
It took me decades of studying, training, hard work, and sleepless nights to become a doctor. In approximately five years, I became a successful writer, editor, columnist, and a whole array of other titles assigned to that type of work. In under 3 seconds, I became a chronic pain patient for the rest of my life.
Around this time last year, I was taking my two dogs outdoors when they spotted …
The physician who became a chronic pain patient in seconds
A patient groans in agony lying atop a rigid spine board, carried by paramedics into the ER, his neck in a protective collar. The paramedics shout a summary of the accident. Monitors are attached to the man, flashing and beeping the cadence of vital signs. Nurses and physicians swarm. Gloved hands comb through brown hair for bumps or lacerations. They remove his clothes, feeling for pulses in the neck and …
Fasting for Ramadan and being the on-call orthopedic trauma resident
As a female orthopaedic surgeon, I am often asked how I ended up in this field. Although seeing women in orthopaedic surgery is becoming more common, we are still makeup only 6 percent of the orthopaedic surgeons in the U.S.
I actually had no idea what orthopedic surgery was before medical school. In fact, I started medical school thinking I would be an internist, but it really didn’t take me very …
The inspiring story of a female orthopaedic surgeon
An excerpt from We: Ditch the Me Mindset and Change the World.
We use them to greet friends, congratulate acquaintances, and embrace loved ones.
To lay bricks, perform surgeries, and sculpt artwork.
Everyone uses them thousands of times a day in a variety of different ways.
It took me years to recognize …
The journey from hand surgeon to entrepreneur
I’m an orthopaedic surgeon, but if you told me I’d be here when I graduated from college, I’d be laughing at you. When I got started in college, I thought I was going to be pre-med and apply to medical school. It was not a well-thought-out decision. I thought that this was what good Chinese-American children do: Grow up to become doctors. It became clear that this goal was parent-driven …
The journey from a low GPA to an orthopaedic surgeon
As a sports medicine orthopaedic surgeon, I often see patients with complaints at their elbow. One of the more common diagnoses is tennis elbow, otherwise known as lateral epicondylitis. Surprisingly, most of my patients with this condition don’t even play tennis! Many types of repetitive arm movement can lead to tennis elbow. It all has to do with the tendons in our arms.
Tendons are the structures that hold muscle to …
An orthopedic surgeon’s guide to tennis elbow
Many cooks traditionally use broth derived from simmered bones of fish, fowl, or four-footed critters to flavor soups and sauces. Recently, bone-broth bars have popped up around the country and serve a non-caffeinated, nutritious alternative to tea or coffee. In some of these health-conscious establishments, the owners claim that these drinks also have filling, cleansing, and detoxing capabilities.
I decided to see if a daily cup of bone broth should be …
An orthopedic surgeon’s bone broth journey
Over the last 20 years, physical fitness as a means to improve overall health has increased among the over-40 set. This is great, right? Yes, absolutely. Athletes who remain active as they age do a better job than non-athletes in retaining lean muscle mass. They also show improved bone density, bone structure and bone strength. However, what physicians are seeing are injuries related to the increased level of activity.
One area …
ACL injuries in middle-age athletes
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