When a drug is especially dangerous, or even potentially-maybe-especially dangerous, the FDA requires manufacturers to put a black box warning on the product insert. A black box warning is supposed to very explicitly say “buyer beware,” more than just the typical list of potential side effects mumbled by Mr. TalkFast at the end of a drug ad. It’s easy to ignore the wordy mumbling. The black box: That’s supposed to …
This past spring, I sat in a lecture hall at the Warren Alpert Medical School at the third annual Transgender Conference. A graduate of the Brown family medicine program, Alexis Drutchas, MD was the co-founder. I remember interviewing for residency and asking her what she was working on; she casually mentioned that she was creating a conference for the transgender community and medical community in the Blackstone Valley.
American physicians deserve to be paid well for their work. As a physician, myself, I know what it takes to become a doctor in the U.S. Four years of late nights in the college library in hopes of achieving a GPA commensurate with medical school admission; then four years of medical school, which makes the college work load feel light in retrospect; then, in my case, three years of residency …
This week is National Primary Care Week, an opportunity to engage medical students and healthcare stakeholders in a national discussion around the tremendous role that primary care plays in our health care system.
With so much debate about the high price of health care in the United States, too often one of the most effective methods of controlling costs is overlooked: primary care. A wealth of research continues to show that …
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
– William Shakespeare
I learned about the Dunning-Kruger effect at a medical conference recently. It certainly seems to apply in medicine. So often, a novice thinks he or she has mastered a new skill or achieved full understanding of something complicated, but as time goes on, …
As someone who talks to many physicians about burnout and life in medicine, I find myself having a lot of discussions about the circumstances of people’s jobs. Almost inevitably, there comes a point in the conversation where someone expresses dissatisfaction about an aspect of their contract or an additional responsibility that was placed on them.
As physicians, we’re groomed to take care of patients. During training, we don’t talk about compensation, …
RRegardless of specialty, no physician can truly provide patients with the care they deserve if they practice in isolation. In recent years, the health care system has acknowledged this reality by embracing greater collaboration and team-based care. With an aging population increasing the prevalence of chronic disease and life-threatening conditions, the timing couldn’t be better.
For the field of dermatology, the American Academy of Dermatology’s recent Burden …
Quality-based Medicare payment is far from a new concept. However, the Quality Payment Program (QPP), created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), introduces a new vocabulary, complex requirements and fast-approaching deadlines. Physicians have little time left to successfully navigate the program and avoid penalties for 2017.
A recent survey by the American Medical Association (AMA) …
With summer vacations over and school back in session, I should have gotten up earlier. The usually tough morning commute into Columbus was downright brutal, and I found myself getting repeatedly annoyed as I rushed to make it to clinic on time. Somehow, legally, I managed to make it right at 8 a.m., the start of my weekly asthma clinic. Though I arrived a bit later than usual, I still …
1. This is a calling. Physicians do not typically start out undeclared, drink through a couple of semesters and randomly apply to med school. For many, they started dreaming in grade school. They started pushing themselves for straight A’s in third grade, fought for valedictorian, turned down frat party invites to study, and then essentially gave up four years of their lives to med school incurring an average debt of …
With clinician burnout, depression, resilience and joy in practice so prominent in the primary care literature lately, I have been reflecting on my own career, and the times I experienced the most joy professionally. Looking back, I think it was the years I worked with Chris (not her real name).
Chris, a home health nurse, was at first simply a bubbly voice on the other end of the phone. She had …
Although my medical school created many opportunities for clinical exposure during the first two years, none of it compared to the immersive experiences that were to follow. Textbooks, PowerPoints, and lectures galore were supplanted by hundreds of patient interactions in my rotation months. Here are four patient communication tips that have served me well, and that I wish I knew from the outset of my rotations.
The national debate on health care is moving into a new, hopefully bipartisan phase.
The fundamental underlying challenge is cost – the massive and ever-rising price of care which drives nearly all disputes, from access to benefit levels to Medicaid expansion.
So far, policymakers have tried to reduce costs by tinkering with how care is delivered. But focusing on care delivery to save money is like trying to reduce …
Pink ribbons are everywhere, and we all know what that means: breast cancer. While this has helped raise awareness on a horrible killer and the importance of early screening, it does not address the fact that there is still no cure for stage IV cancer or the fact that men get breast cancer as well. Yes, it is important that we all know that breast cancer is prevalent in our …
In order to fully understand the issues surrounding opioid prescribing practices, it is important to review a brief history of how these drugs came to market.
Opium was the first opioid, derived from the sap of opium poppies whose growth and cultivation dates back to 3,400 BC. In the 18th century, physicians in the U.S. used opium for multiple ailments. Towards the end of the 18th century, the addictive qualities of …
We all know what, in 1888, Rudyard Kipling pronounced to be the world’s oldest profession. But what’s the world’s second oldest? Hunter-gatherer? Nah, everybody did that. Primitive politician? That’s a tautology. Neolithic attorney? Nope. Too similar to the oldest.
I strongly suspect that the second oldest profession was healer/magician. Fire up Mr. Peabody’s Wayback time machine, and you’d probably find that the first healers were regarded as magicians, and the first …
We as women have to stop saying “I’m sorry” for things out of our control. When we apologize for things we are not responsible for, we take a step backwards in the advancement of women in the workplace.
I am a cardiac anesthesiologist, which means I care for patients who are undergoing open-heart surgery. I work in an academic medical center and train doctors to become anesthesiologists. The operating room (OR) can …
Rates of physician burnout are rising, and many physicians cite their electronic health record (EHR) as the primary culprit. That’s no surprise, since doctors spend twice as much time on electronic health record (EHR) systems and deskwork as they do directly interacting with patients. Let that sink in for a moment. Imagine if an airline pilot spent six hours documenting every detail of a three-hour flight. Such …
Something very interesting happened to my patient visits when I changed my office attire.
My clean long cotton lab coats, hanging on the back of my office door, suddenly all seemed dingy when I set out to change lab coat about a week ago. I decided to pretend it was Saturday.
On Saturdays, I usually wear a pocketed button-down shirt instead of one of my usual Jermyn Street ones. I skip the …
