We’ve come to a sorry pass in American medicine when physicians are willing to spend a lot of money to attend conferences—not to learn how to become better physicians, but to find a way out of the pit of clinical practice.
Few of us have the charisma (or chutzpah) to make a living in medical show business, like Sanjay Gupta or Mehmet Oz. But apparently any physician today can be clever …
Is not seeing patients the answer for many doctors?
Acute and chronic pain is bad. Proper pain management is essential and has been strongly emphasized by the American medical establishment for the past nearly two decades.
Simultaneously, during these years, both the quantity of opioids prescribed by physicians and dentists has increased dramatically and prescription opioid abuse has escalated at an alarming rate among chronic pain patients and the general population. Opioid analgesics now result in Read more…
How to intelligently prevent opioid abuse
Early in my medical training I envisioned myself as an old-fashioned family doctor. Marcus Welby, MD was well before my time, but he seemed like a good fictional role model for a naive student-doctor. (Especially considering Dr. Cox of Scrubs was my alternate choice.) After finishing my primary classroom studies, I was eager to leave the stacks of paper behind and to learn from real clinicians caring for real people. After donning my short white coat …
Doctors and patients are both losing in our health system
The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act.
I’ll leave the detailed legal analysis to other commentators that you’ll no doubt find elsewhere.
Although some may not feel this way, this is an outcome everybody should be happy with.
Most important, patients should be happy. As I wrote in the New York Times Room for Debate recently, the ACA has already …
The Supreme Court on health reform: Everybody wins!
In a pediatrician’s office, summertime is teen check-up time.
And, I love it.
Annual checkups are a time for me to catch up on the school year, brag about amazing extra-curricular accomplishments, and swoon over summer vacation plans. It is also a time for anticipatory guidance, private conversations, and facing the often sobering reality of teen life.
Throughout this past year, I have had the privilege of being involved in the lives of many …
10 topics to discuss with your teen this summer
My boys and I suffer from tree pollen allergies. More than birds chirping or flowers blooming, I have come to associate boogery sleeves and sneezing with the onset of spring. But these are the typical symptoms, which are easily recognizable as allergy-induced.
What I’d like to address in this post are some lesser known symptoms of seasonal allergies, which may also be rearing their ugly heads this spring. Red eyes and …
Lesser known symptoms of seasonal allergies
Going to the doctor can be confusing. Doctors make recommendations based on what they know, and patients are conditioned to trust their doctors. While I think it’s wonderful that patients trust their doctors, there are times when patients want more input into their health care, and if this is the case, then let me make some suggestions as to what might be important questions to ask. There is nothing specific …
Ask your doctor smart health questions
We are a new generation of physicians and physicians in training. The words “stem cell therapy,” “Robertsonian translocation,” and “artificial tracheal transplant” were part of our vocabulary from the first day of medical school. At the astounding speed at which scientific advancements are made, our ability to incorporate new material is in a constant state of change.
Slowly, the heavy textbooks became relics, as we migrated towards a mobile knowledge, a …
Ability to pay for medical expenses should be a vital sign
“I want you to get me a new doctor,” she told me, a bit of disgust coming out in the sharp tone in her voice.
“What happened?” I asked.
“He asked me if I was nauseated, and I told him no, I was just vomiting. Then he asked if I was feeling pain in my stomach, and again I told him no, it was just vomiting. He then told his nurse to …
Playing specialist roulette every time I send people to another doctor
Most of us want to know how to fix this healthcare mess these days. We’re scared about the future and how we’re going to afford costs that never, ever seem to stop skyrocketing. We’re scared about the world our kids are going to inherit and the phenomenal debt they’ll be haunted by throughout their lives. We’re scared about living in a country that’s cowering under the hefty weight of fear …
Health care change will have to come from the public
My mom always told me she gave me the “doctor name” (apparently my name looks good with an MD after it), so in some ways I knew from an early age that this was going to be my profession. Though I toyed with the idea of being a bank teller in kindergarten, I realized after a while that this was really not the job I thought it was (no offense …
Why I chose to become a rural primary care doctor
A better approach to primary care is imperative for improving the delivery of health services to our nation’s population. As a family medicine resident, I see the need first hand in the mountains of East Tennessee.
It’s 11:30pm on a Sunday night when the medical student and I receive the ER call.
“A thirty-two-year-old diabetic male with uncontrolled sugars and right arm cellulitis, I think he needs admission.”
When I reach the ER, …
Health is not Democratic or Republican, it resonates with both sides
Much has been written about educating patients. This can be in the form of educational materials provided during the office visit, providing access to accurate online medical data, or even educating patients about wellness- how to be well, stay well and live well. As physicians, I believe that part of our responsibility is to teach. As the familiar adage from residency goes: “see one, do one, teach one” – we …
Social media is crucial to the development of medicine today
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Recently, I listened with interest to an interview on NPR that posed the question of who needs long-term-care (LTC) insurance. Only one percent of Americans own LTC insurance which defrays the cost of custodial care.
Because of recent experiences I’ve had with my mother, I’ve have been thinking about how I’d like to spend the rest of my life when or if (I admit to fits of denial) the time comes …
Think about the eventuality that comes to ourselves and our parents
Once upon a time people only went to the doctor when they felt sick. For most of human existence there was not much the doctor could actually do when you got there. Yet somehow the human race managed to get through to the second half of the twentieth century when things changed completely.
As technology advanced exponentially we developed a range of treatments so that conditions, which used to be fatal …
We are overdosing on medical tests
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said he could not define hard-core pornography, but “I know it when I see it.”
We in health care seem to have the same reaction to the phrase, verbalizes understanding when it comes to patient education. Patient medical records, including electronic medical records now include free text notes or check boxes indicating the patient verbalized understanding without actually defining this phrase.
In a world where ambiguous …
Verbalizes understanding: What exactly does it mean?
Google’s made big changes recently. Google Maps and Google Places are being replaced by Google+ Local.
While Google+ Local will likely advance the review system for many industries- doctor reviews, however, will grind to a halt. Unless Google recognizes the considerable onus of HIPAA on today’s healthcare professionals, and subsequently carves out a healthcare-friendly mechanism for doctor reviews, expect that far fewer patients will post; the posts will generally read like …
Google+ Local physician reviews: A barrier for patients
A recent post in the DailyDealMedia caught my attention. It was titled “Uprising in Mobile Health Care: Could Medical Apps Replace Doctors?”
The theme of technology versus humanistic aspects of medicine has been the subject of debate for many decades, obviously predating the advent of medical apps. I find it interesting that the introduction of the referenced PwC study highlights the fact that “Solutions, not technology, are the key to success.”
Another piece on this subject …
Could mobile apps replace doctors?
There’s no denying that the Internet has been an industry-changing phenomenon across a wide variety of fields. When it comes to healthcare, though, it’s suffered a rockier relationship.
The reason behind this strained relationship can be summed up handily in one word: skepticism. Skepticism from doctors, nurses and really anyone who spends time diagnosing patients. For the most part, this skepticism is understandable — after all, anyone with an Internet connection …
The physician Internet road does not need to be a rocky one
The Supreme Court’s imminent decision on the Affordable Care Act will trigger a political firestorm whether they accept the legislation in its entirety, throw out every page of the 906-page bill or do something in between, which is the most likely outcome.
If the high court follows the polls, it probably will rule the requirement that individuals purchase insurance – the mandate – is unconstitutional but leave the rest of “Obamacare” …
Will health reform survive the Supreme Court?
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