In my home, we have two conversations: politics and medicine. The most vociferous discussions are around their product, health care. We know doctors on the right and left, Democrat and Republican, boisterous blues, rebellious reds and garrulous grays. Respecting opinions and debate, we love ‘em all. However, no matter on what side of the aisle they stand, which lever they pull, they share one trait. All physicians are deeply conservative. …
I recently had the privilege of speaking to a group of high school students who were interested in becoming doctors. A large number of them were volunteering in my hospital, and their coordinator asked me if I could spare some time to chat with them about life as a doctor and what they should be doing to get into medicine.
I remember as if it were yesterday when I was their …
Physicians are known to be masters of self-sacrifice, and self-control. They undergo years of training and make substantial emotional and financial sacrifices until they complete their training. The reward at the end of the road is a fulfilling job where he or she can treat people who are in need and enjoy the emotional, personal, and financial fruits of their labor.
But is this the reality? At a time when the …
Someone told me that the reason certain others don’t respect my advocacy on behalf of physicians more is simply that I am a woman. I am seeing this the more I speak up on issues facing doctors these days. It is now the 21st century, and there are a large number of women practicing medicine. In fact, the number of men and women entering medical school these days is nearly …
Patients forming an opinion of your practice are doing so in a matter of seconds. And some of the latest research on first impressions, suggest that it may even be within the blink of an eye. Regardless of the length of time, first impressions are powerful and very difficult to reverse. So, if a patient has formed a bad opinion of you and your staff, during the first point of …
Several years ago, I was meeting a young woman in my clinic for the first time. She was healthy but had been obese most of her adult life, even though she had tried many methods of losing weight. We spoke for a few minutes about diet and exercise, and she agreed to see the nutritionist.
A few months later, she came back to check her progress. She had lost weight, about …
Recently, an African American female physician was prevented from providing help to a passenger in distress on a Delta airlines flight because she didn’t fit the flight attendant’s image of what a doctor looked like.
The racial and gender issues that this event highlight are readily apparent. As a South Asian, I have to say I’ve never been told I don’t look like a doctor on a racial basis. If anything, …
Modern families are an ever-changing nucleus of the pursuit of happiness, well-being, success and security. Medical families are no exception to that; in fact, I believe they are deeply centered on such values and aspirations. While some might believe that growing up in a medical family is a blessing, others may tell you it’s a bit of a bittersweet reward.
Growing up is a tough job, regardless of who your parents …
During medical school, professors advised us to “have hobbies” and to “do stuff outside of medicine”:
Medical students, as a population, tend to be compulsive and there’s always more to read and learn. (Medicine, like many fields, entails lifelong learning, even when you are tired of …
Many of my best friends are in the medical field, and there are practical reasons for that. That said, I don’t think I could survive without the perspective of my equally good friends outside of medicine. In one way or the other, they are always reminding me of the following things:
1. Don’t take yourself so seriously. It’s true that at work we often deal with life or death situations. But …
After the birth of our second child, the two of us waved a white flag and started working part-time. We surrendered the notion that we could maintain two full-time health careers and still be effective parents and loving spouses. Not to mention sane and happy human beings.
It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Doors were opening to professional women, to two-career marriages, and to flexible work arrangements. Ours was the …
Not only have we shortened medical appointments to 15 minutes — we sometimes double book them.
I get the feeling that non-providers think of this as something fairly ordinary, and even reasonable. But it is often a very difficult and destructive thing to do.
The term “double booking” and the way it looks in an ordinary doctor’s scheduling grid suggest that the physician might possibly be expected to be in two places …
As an internal medicine physician, the #3 question people most often ask me is why I chose to be an internist. (The top two being “What is internal medicine?” and “What’s this thing growing on my genitals?”) So I thought that I would pull back the curtain and show how I made my decision.
According to Wikipedia, “Internal medicine or general medicine (in Commonwealth nations) is the medical specialty dealing with …
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I was working at the free clinic late in the first semester of my third year of medical school when I met a patient I will call Mary, the last patient to be seen for the evening. Mary had a fairly typical story among uninsured individuals. She was 26 years old and worked three jobs near minimum wage to make ends meet, none of which offered cost-sharing for health insurance. …
I quickly finished my day’s work in the resident’s clinic (documentations, relaying results) and raced home to hurriedly double check the list of things that I would need for my week long medical mission in Roatán, Honduras.
The air was frigid, and my pace matched the wind. In the 2-hour car ride to the airport, my mind was alive and restless; making mental note after mental note about our endeavor but …
Do doctors make too much money?
I don’t think so. I read with great interest the blog by Dr. Michael Kirsch defending physicians’ salaries: “If you think doctors make too much money, think about this.” Unfortunately, the public’s perception of physicians’ incomes has been that physicians make too much money.
Whenever I hear this remark from patients or even non-physicians, I show …
“Any alcohol use? Any tobacco use? Any other drugs?”
These are the three main questions that most health care providers ask their patients when documenting a social history on a note.
“What stressors do you have in your life? What social support do you have? What is your home life like? What do you do for fun? Do you wear a helmet when you ride a bike? Do you wear a seatbelt?”
I …
Think keeping your life organized is hard? Try keeping your doctors organized.
In this era of fragmented health care, patients find themselves in the impossible position of having to coordinate their care themselves — a task that many can’t meet. Having multiple chronic medical conditions often means being subjected to a dizzying assortment of specialists, medical terminology, and tests that can quickly overwhelm patients.
How many times have you found yourself in …
This spring, the California Board of Optometry shut down the only optometrist providing services to homebound patients in the San Francisco Bay Area. I learned about this because affected patients included several referred from our UC San Francisco Housecalls program, one of a few non-profit, non-concierge home-based practices in the state providing geriatrics care to homebound adults.
With over 1 million adults homebound in California, why would any board deliberately limit …
By the end of my first year of residency, I knew I was in trouble.
I was overwhelmed by the 15-hour days, the unbearable sadness of the tragedies I witnessed, my feelings of impotence and my fears of making a mistake.
My life was my work, and everything else seemed to be falling apart: my physical health, my relationships, my ability to sleep after months of night shifts.
Yet, I came to work …
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