Specialty care

1,519 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 7

Only trained physicians should provide interventional pain services

American Society of Anesthesiologists & Asokumar Buvanendran, MD

August 29, 2012Aug 29, 201221

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. As an anesthesiologist and pain physician, I understand the complexity of pain management procedures required for chronic pain disease. Chronic pain is a disease like others such as…

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

As an anesthesiologist and pain physician, I understand the complexity of pain management procedures required for chronic pain disease. Chronic pain is a disease like others such as hypertension and cardiac disease. Several interventional pain procedures can be dangerous, even in the hands of the most specially trained interventional physicians, as they are performed near or around the spinal …

Physician voices

Inducing anesthesia on YouTube: How many ways is this wrong?

Karen S. Sibert, MD

August 24, 2012Aug 24, 2012

Really, sir. What were you thinking? I’m talking to you—the anesthesia provider (I hate to think that you might be an anesthesiologist) who allowed himself to be videotaped while a patient injected his own induction dose of propofol. Most people…

Really, sir. What were you thinking?

I’m talking to you—the anesthesia provider (I hate to think that you might be an anesthesiologist) who allowed himself to be videotaped while a patient injected his own induction dose of propofol. Most people know something about propofol even if they aren’t in the anesthesia business–that’s the medication that Dr. Conrad Murray gave Michael Jackson to everyone’s sorrow.

I would insert the link here, but the …

Physician voices

Work-life balance in medicine: Is it possible?

Karen S. Sibert, MD

August 13, 2012Aug 13, 20127

Unless you’ve lately returned from a retreat at a remote Cistercian abbey, if you’re interested at all in women’s issues you’ve probably read Anne-Marie Slaughter’s recent article in the Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” The author eloquently tells how she left her dream job in the State Department as the first woman director of policy planning in order to return to her husband, her …

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Health policy

Is there a future for smaller physician practices after health reform?

Bob Doherty

June 10, 2012Jun 10, 20127

The medical profession has always been marked by division: town versus gown, primary care versus specialty medicine, states versus national. But the real fault line today is not defined by specialty, geography, or teaching versus practice, but by size of…

Physicians in smaller practices, without regard to specialty or where they are located, are embattled and defensive—and therefore are more skeptical when someone tries to peddle the need for delivery …

Physician voices

How doctors handle fear will determine their ability to give care

James C. Salwitz, MD

June 1, 2012Jun 1, 2012

There was a night when I was in training that all the decisions, disasters and chaos, which are the practice of medicine, caught up to me. In those dark hours, I felt practically despondent. What I had seen left me…

At that moment a wise attending physician took a moment to sit with me. Rather than tell me how wonderful …

Physician voices

A good doctor should rarely be surprised by test results

Angry Orthopod, MD

May 23, 2012May 23, 20125

I got into medicine because it is fun, and, of course, to help people. I think most of my colleagues did so as well. I get up every day and I get to go to work and figure out puzzles…

I got into medicine because it is fun, and, of course, to help people. I think most of my colleagues did so as well. I get up every day and I get to go to work and figure out puzzles all day. How cool is that? Sure, it may not always be unwarranted or a bad thing, but testing and more testing can definitely take the fun out of taking …

Physician voices

Being a good doctor is no more an achievement than being a good Mom

The Red Humor, MD

May 16, 2012May 16, 20124

At no other time in my medical training was I as confident that, with hard work and dedication, I could master the field of internal medicine as when I was a newly minted third year medical student. Fresh from having…

At no other time in my medical training was I as confident that, with hard work and dedication, I could master the field of internal medicine as when I was a newly minted third year medical student.

Fresh from having taken the USMLE step 1, I interpreted my ability to recite the mechanism of penicillin resistance or the role of histamine in the immune response, and describe in great detail the …

Conditions and diseases

Why legislators need sex education

Arthur Chernoff, MD

May 15, 2012May 15, 20125

Physicians as guardians of science have an obligation to teach the facts of life to our patients and our legislators. And today the need to dispel ignorance of biologic facts is more urgent than ever. Just as President Obama is deferring legislation on marriage to the states, I will defer the issue of whether the government can or should regulate marriage to legal scholars and our duly elected representatives. However, …

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Why legislators need sex education

Conditions and diseases

How transplants are causing ethical dilemmas

Janet Radcliffe Richards

May 14, 2012May 14, 20122

The trouble with many significant advances in medicine is that that they take us out of our moral depth. They may raise quite different problems from the ones we are used to and, if we are not careful, we may inadvertently undermine the wonderful potential of new technologies by forcing them into existing legal, ethical and institutional frameworks.

Transplantation is a case in point. Transplants save and transform lives; but the …

Physician voices

Tough talk is sometimes needed for your referral source

Neil Baum, MD

May 10, 2012May 10, 20127

All of us would like, whenever possible, to have a bilateral referral arrangement with our colleagues. Have you ever experienced a situation in which you are sending patients to another physician and receiving no reverse referrals? Of course, you can change your referral source, hoping that the other physician will notice that there is a decrease in referrals and will call you to ask what happened, but do not hold …

Physician voices

The Hollywood treatment of oncologists

Don S. Dizon, MD

May 9, 2012May 9, 20126

Recently, I passed my friend and colleague, Dr. Ekaterini Tsiapali, in the stairwell. We rarely get to catch up these days, so it was really quite a nice surprise to see her. "What did you do this weekend?" I asked.…

Recently, I passed my friend and colleague, Dr. Ekaterini Tsiapali, in the stairwell. We rarely get to catch up these days, so it was really quite a nice surprise to see her.

“What did you do this weekend?” I asked.

“I watched Wit, you know, the movie where Emma Thompson plays Dr. Vivian Bearing, a 50-year-old woman with terminal ovarian cancer? She’s such …

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The Hollywood treatment of oncologists

ASA: Need anesthesiology providers? Consider anesthesiologist assistants

American Society of Anesthesiologists & James R. Mesrobian, MD

May 6, 2012May 6, 20126

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. On March 28, 2012, Governor Scott Walker signed into law SB383, a bill to license Anesthesiologist Assistants (AA) in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants (WAAA), the…

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

On March 28, 2012, Governor Scott Walker signed into law SB383, a bill to license Anesthesiologist Assistants (AA) in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Academy of Anesthesiologist Assistants (WAAA), the Wisconsin Society of Anesthesiologists (WSA), the Wisconsin Medical Society, numerous other medical specialty societies, the Medical Examining Board, and six major hospital systems supported the bill. Since 2001, seven states …

Health policy

Being insured does not equate to being covered

Richard Just, MD

May 3, 2012May 3, 20123

A few weeks ago, my wife and I attended “A Conversation With David ‘Sonny’ Lacks” at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. The event was a sellout with 900 attendees. As it turns out, most of the colleges and universities in San Diego County designated “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” as the book discussed by students …

Physician voices

A doctor has difficulty making sense of medical bills

Manoj Jain, MD, MPH

May 2, 2012May 2, 20125

Rarely do people think about medical costs when there is a medical emergency or an urgent need for a test. Recently, I was in such a situation. A few days after a 22-hour international flight, the calf muscle in my…

Rarely do people think about medical costs when there is a medical emergency or an urgent need for a test. Recently, I was in such a situation.

A few days after a 22-hour international flight, the calf muscle in my right leg began to ache. If it were not for the recent flight, or if I were not a doctor, I would have just let it pass.

But long periods of sedentary …

Conditions and diseases

When a heart attack is textbook perfect, it can be a beautiful thing

Stewart Segal, MD

May 1, 2012May 1, 2012

Participating in a patient’s first heart attack can be an extremely stressful event. Thirty years ago, I was an ER doc. At the end of a typical shift, I would come home to my wife and, often, would remark about…

Thirty years later, I’m the family doc and heart attacks are unnerving. Yes, I know what to do. We …

Physician voices

How money influences our decisions as doctors

Ido Weinberg, MD

April 30, 2012Apr 30, 20127

When you ask young medical students why they want to be doctors, you will probably get all sorts of answers. Some may say they like people and want to interact with them and offer them help. Some students will believe this is their calling. Others still may state they are intrigued by the scientific mysteries the human body is filled with. From my experience, not many medical students just starting …

Physician voices

Why the physician shortage is worse than you think

Karen S. Sibert, MD

April 26, 2012Apr 26, 201247

Only a generation ago, medical students thought about what specialty to choose simply in terms of what interested them most. All doctors made a comfortable income; money wasn’t a primary motivator. There was a sense that cardiac surgeons or neurosurgeons could make more than most other physicians, but in fairness their training was much harder and longer. Internal medicine was held up to us as the most prestigious and intellectually …

Medical education

CME limitations and how we can improve Continuing Medical Education

Behnood Bikdeli, MD

April 16, 2012Apr 16, 20122

Some people critique Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs as spoon-feeding. As a young physician struggling to learn a lot of material, I actually appreciate a bit of ready-to-consume content that I can learn quickly and effectively. The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and other reputable institutions provide CME programs that, overall, help to keep physicians up on the literature and integrate new findings with existing knowledge. However, despite the basic …

Physician voices

Part time medicine and birth of the new normal

Dike Drummond, MD

April 16, 2012Apr 16, 201233

One of the most common stressors for physicians is the sheer toxicity of what are considered full time hours. While the rest of the world considers full time to be 40 hours a week, we all know a full time…

In physician surveys, schedule flexibility and the ability to function as a part time …

Physician voices

I must breathe for this patient

Felicity Billings, MD

April 12, 2012Apr 12, 20122

Mostly it is just terrifying. I sat on the edge of the bed in my fleece pajamas and tried to describe the fear. “I’m sure you’ll do great,” my husband tried to reassure me. “But you don’t understand. Every time…

Mostly it is just terrifying.

I sat on the edge of the bed in my fleece pajamas and tried to describe the fear.

“I’m sure you’ll do great,” my husband tried to reassure me.

“But you don’t understand. Every time you induce general anesthesia, you’re basically almost killing someone. It’s … petrifying.”

“But everyone always said you were a great resident Felicity, you’re going to be a great attending too. I’m sure everything will …

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I must breathe for this patient

Specialty care

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