Primary Care

Have physicians finally joined the working class?

Physician

November 3, 2016

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 …

Eliminate the stereotypes about female doctors

Linda Girgis, MD

Physician

October 31, 2016

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 …

Make a good impression on your patients. Here’s how.

Karen Hickman

Physician

October 27, 2016

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 …

This doctor stopped telling patients to lose weight. Here’s why.

Elisabeth Poorman, MD

Conditions

October 21, 2016

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 …

Don’t assume that you know what a doctor looks like

Nisha Mehta, MD

Physician

October 20, 2016

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, …

Growing up in a medical family: The good and the bad

Mary Gebara

Physician

October 20, 2016

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 …

Why it’s important for physicians to have hobbies

Maria Yang, MD

Physician

October 17, 2016

During medical school, professors advised us to “have hobbies” and to “do stuff outside of medicine”:

“It’ll give you have something to talk about with patients.”
“It’ll help you maintain balance as you go through your training.”
“It’s important for self-care.”

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 …

8 tips from my non-medicine friends that make me a happier doctor

Nisha Mehta, MD

Physician

October 16, 2016

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 …

Why we decided to “throw away our promising careers” and work part-time

Warren Holleman, PhD and Marsha C. Holleman, MD, MPH

Physician

October 15, 2016

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 …

Double booking patients is difficult and destructive

Hans Duvefelt, MD

Physician

October 14, 2016

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 …

The honest reasons why this doctor chose internal medicine

Ted Tsai, MD

Physician

October 11, 2016

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 …

What does “do no harm” really mean as a doctor?

Cory Michael, MD

Physician

October 7, 2016

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. …

A physician volunteers in Honduras. Here’s what she learned.

Apoorva Jayarangaiah, MD

Physician

October 7, 2016

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 …

If doctors wanted to be wealthy, they would have become UPS truck drivers

Neil Baum, MD

Physician

September 19, 2016

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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 …

The social history: Our patients are more than their diseases

David Goldberg, MD

Physician

September 15, 2016

“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 …

The cure for a poor historian? A good medical record

Eric Beam, MD

Physician

September 4, 2016

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 …

How a board of optometry is restricting eye care to homebound adults

Helen Kao, MD

Physician

September 2, 2016

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 …

To the doctors struggling with depression: You are not alone

Elisabeth Poorman, MD

Physician

August 30, 2016

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 …

The bureaucratic hassles physicians face are extraordinary

Peter Ubel, MD

Physician

August 25, 2016

Left to our own devices, most of us physicians try our best to provide high-quality care to our patients. But almost none of us provide perfect care to all of our patients all of the time. In fact, many of us get so caught up in our busy clinic schedules we occasionally forget to, say, order mammograms for women overdue for such tests, or we don’t get around to weaning …

Donald Trump’s medical letter has so many things wrong with it

Jennifer Gunter, MD

Physician

August 25, 2016

screen-shot-2016-08-16-at-5-08-11-pm

Donald Trump is talking about Hillary Clinton’s health as are two doctors who have never evaluated Clinton. This attention on Clinton has renewed some interest in the letter Donald Trump released last year from his personal physician.

Many outlets have picked it apart, but I want to tell you as a doctor exactly how bad it is. I would never write …