Surgery and surgeons

1,981 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 13

Coaching or mentorship: What is the solution for physicians? [PODCAST]

December 22, 2022Dec 22, 2022

"Over the years, I have mentored a lot of trainees. After discovering coaching and seeing my career transform after I started working with a coach, I have become a coach myself. I definitely use coaching techniques with my mentees, but…

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“Over the years, I have mentored a lot of trainees. After discovering coaching and seeing my career transform after I started working with a coach, I have become a coach myself. I definitely use coaching techniques with my mentees, but the relationship I have with them is different from the one …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Wisdom from 50 years a doctor [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

December 21, 2022Dec 21, 2022

"This last doctor was also the happiest doctor I have ever met. He was not a youngster but had a wonderful following of patients and was loved by the entire hospital staff. And he had a very nice singing voice.…

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“This last doctor was also the happiest doctor I have ever met. He was not a youngster but had a wonderful following of patients and was loved by the entire hospital staff. And he had a very nice singing voice. Today this would be considered dangerous.” …

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Wisdom from 50 years a doctor [PODCAST]

Physician voices

When was the last time you wore a white coat?

Janet Chao, MD & Yan Lee, MD

December 21, 2022Dec 21, 20224

When the COVID-19 pandemic began to dominate all aspects of health care, many of our colleagues opted to wear scrubs instead of their routine work attire and white coats. They cited concerns about personal infectious risk and not wanting to bring the virus home to their loved ones on their clothes. This reluctance aligned with research on the white coat as a nidus for infection, but it conflicted with the …

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What if we asked patients what they want?

Jean Paul Brutus, MD

December 20, 2022Dec 20, 20227

Historically, the Canadian health care system has decided what should be done for the care of the population. Who gets care, when and where, what is a priority, what delays are tolerable, and what degree of saturation is acceptable in…

Historically, the Canadian health care system has decided what should be done for the care of the population.

Who gets care, when and where, what is a priority, what delays are tolerable, and what degree of saturation is acceptable in a Quebec emergency room? This paternalistic approach is obsolete.

A modern service company must be interested in the needs and desires of its clientele.

Other than in the health

…

Physician voices

Does your OR case scheduling process need a revamp?

Michael Bronson, MD

December 7, 2022Dec 7, 2022

I've been in the health care industry for over a decade. Starting a few years ago, I embarked on a new project: building a case scheduling platform specifically for anesthesia staff. I'll be the first to say that I never…

I’ve been in the health care industry for over a decade. Starting a few years ago, I embarked on a new project: building a case scheduling platform specifically for anesthesia staff.

I’ll be the first to say that I never envisioned myself becoming a so-called “health care entrepreneur.” From my perspective, I’m just an anesthesiologist who stumbled upon an unaddressed pain point—the tedious process of building OR case schedules—and after looking …

Physician voices

It’s called crying and it’s normal

Jean Paul Brutus, MD

November 27, 2022Nov 27, 2022

Doctors treat people in all types of situations. Life or death. Sometimes both. Babies die, children die, and teenagers die. Women die. Men die. Sometimes you even have the misfortune of delivering a stillborn. Everyone experiences death, but for doctors, it’s part of our daily norm. Day after day, for decades throughout their career, we have to experience death and the pain of others. Beyond being knowledgeable and competent in …

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It’s called crying and it’s normal

Physician voices

Big Joe: living proof of a surgeon’s fallibility

Sid Schwab, MD

November 7, 2022Nov 7, 2022

When I think of Big Joe, I see his overalls and how he filled them. And how a couple of months after I operated on him, there was room for both of us in there. Big Joe: farmer, salt of…

When I think of Big Joe, I see his overalls and how he filled them. And how a couple of months after I operated on him, there was room for both of us in there. Big Joe: farmer, salt of the earth, tough, stoic. And now, bright orange. My initial recommendation, while probably justified, damn near killed him. Big Joe hadn’t been sick a day in his life. He worked …

Physician voices

The perioperative surgical home: a model to tackle today’s pressing health care issues

American Society of Anesthesiologists & Randall M. Clark, MD & Robert Shakar, MD

October 18, 2022Oct 18, 2022

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. The health care landscape has never been more complex. A deadly and enduring pandemic; health care delivery challenges that leave some communities at higher risk for adverse outcomes;…

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

The health care landscape has never been more complex. A deadly and enduring pandemic; health care delivery challenges that leave some communities at higher risk for adverse outcomes; an opioid crisis that takes nearly 200 American lives per day; and an ever-evolving regulatory climate. In the midst of these challenges, health care organizations are pressured to …

Physician voices

Singing doctors in the operating room

Ronald Halweil, MD

October 16, 2022Oct 16, 2022

An excerpt from Fifty Years a Doctor: The Journey of Sickness and Health, Four Plagues and the Pandemic. It took me years to fully realize what a unique residency program I had enjoyed in my one-year general surgical training in…

An excerpt from Fifty Years a Doctor: The Journey of Sickness and Health, Four Plagues and the Pandemic.

It took me years to fully realize what a unique residency program I had enjoyed in my one-year general surgical training in Honolulu.

Early in this residency, we had state-mandated education in leprosy. All the new doctors had to visit the Hawaiian leper colony on the island of Molokai for the tutorial and …

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Singing doctors in the operating room

The Podcast by KevinMD

Your anesthesiologist cares for you [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

October 2, 2022Oct 2, 2022

"It’s one of the hard things about anesthesiology. A window opens, you work like all get out, doing all sorts of things while the breeze blows in, then it’s shut again. Sometimes, you see your patient once more; sometimes, if…

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“It’s one of the hard things about anesthesiology. A window opens, you work like all get out, doing all sorts of things while the breeze blows in, then it’s shut again. Sometimes, you see your patient once more; sometimes, if things go awry, you might see them multiple times. Or your …

Physician voices

The heartbreak and joy of missions-based pain medicine: a pain physician’s perspective

American Society of Anesthesiologists & Donna-Ann Thomas, MD

September 27, 2022Sep 27, 2022

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Approximately 30 percent of the world’s population reports living with some form of pain, ranging from headaches to joint pain to cancer-related pain. Unfortunately, pain medicine expertise and…

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

Approximately 30 percent of the world’s population reports living with some form of pain, ranging from headaches to joint pain to cancer-related pain. Unfortunately, pain medicine expertise and the medications and non-drug therapies available to relieve pain are not as widely distributed as the populations that require care. Additionally, many are economically and socially disadvantaged, compounded …

Conditions and diseases

The ramparts of the neurosurgeon’s mind were unassailable

Marc Arginteanu, MD

September 22, 2022Sep 22, 2022

An excerpt from Azazel's Public House. Pete tried to invade Tommy's brain and force an oops moment. But the ramparts of the neurosurgeon's mind were unassailable. Clancy, unaware he was battling on two fronts, tried to spare any brain that…

An excerpt from Azazel’s Public House.

Pete tried to invade Tommy’s brain and force an oops moment. But the ramparts of the neurosurgeon’s mind were unassailable.

Clancy, unaware he was battling on two fronts, tried to spare any brain that had a vestige of life, but in places, the good brain was so intermingled with the bad that it was impossible …

Physician voices

Giving up the knife: Saying goodbye to surgery

Randall S. Fong, MD

September 20, 2022Sep 20, 20222

This year, I stopped doing surgery — giving up the knife, so to speak. It wasn't an easy decision to make. I've been a surgeon for 32 years since graduating from medical school. It's been a distinct part of who…

This year, I stopped doing surgery — giving up the knife, so to speak. It wasn’t an easy decision to make. I’ve been a surgeon for 32 years since graduating from medical school. It’s been a distinct part of who I am for most of my life.

This doesn’t mean I’ve retired. I’m still practicing in a clinic-based setting and still do procedures in the office. I just no longer operate …

The Podcast by KevinMD

A neurosurgeon puts down the knife [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

September 17, 2022Sep 17, 2022

"MRI studies of these patients determined that it was not only the circuitry that was affected by the burnout but also the size of the brain structures. Compared with the controls, patients suffering from burnout showed volume loss in the…

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“MRI studies of these patients determined that it was not only the circuitry that was affected by the burnout but also the size of the brain structures. Compared with the controls, patients suffering from burnout showed volume loss in the prefrontal cortex. Burnout patients appeared to also have shrinking in their …

The Podcast by KevinMD

How to stay off my operating table [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

September 16, 2022Sep 16, 2022

"Health isn't about luck — it's about intentionality. But even if you're doing and saying all the right things, you might not be any closer to your goals. I know because I was there. As a heart surgeon, I was…

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“Health isn’t about luck — it’s about intentionality. But even if you’re doing and saying all the right things, you might not be any closer to your goals.

I know because I was there.

As a heart surgeon, I was very good at following the rules.

But I was still morbidly obese.

I followed the …

Conditions and diseases

The appendix: an ancient organ for the modern age

Jay Baruch, MD

August 27, 2022Aug 27, 2022

An excerpt from Tornado of Life: A Doctor's Journey Through Constraints and Creativity in the ER. Reprinted with permission from The MIT Press. Copyright 2022. The appendix is a body part with an image problem. Derived from the Latin word…

The appendix is a body part with an image problem. Derived from the Latin word for “hanging on,” the term can mean a bodily outgrowth or a supplementary material attached at the end of a document. The anatomical appendix is a tubular sac tagged on …

Medical education

Just as medicine is rooted in relationships, so too is good advising

Ricky Anjorin, MPH

August 27, 2022Aug 27, 2022

"Well, you may think you want to be a surgeon, now that you're young and think you can do it all, but that will change -- once children are in the picture. You'll see how hard it is to leave…

“Well, you may think you want to be a surgeon, now that you’re young and think you can do it all, but that will change — once children are in the picture. You’ll see how hard it is to leave them and wish you could be with them all the time.”

As a young female medical student, I seriously considered the physician’s words. I imagined what it would be like to …

Physician voices

Management of acute postoperative pain reveals systemic flaws in health care policy

Ross Zbar, MD

August 23, 2022Aug 23, 20225

Medical care in the United States is broken. The pandemic contributed, but we were well along this misdirected journey. There is a pathological push/pull between financial pressures applied by payors and health care systems to decrease costs, thereby generating profits versus the desire of providers to deliver outstanding care to patients. This is ingrained into our system as it is designed. The dynamic is further muddled by our unique medicolegal …

Physician voices

I didn’t know her name until it was over

Sid Schwab, MD

August 14, 2022Aug 14, 2022

I didn't know her name until it was over, much too late. What I knew was she was thirteen and that on this winter day, someone in her family had been pulling her behind their car on a sled. No…

I didn’t know her name until it was over, much too late. What I knew was she was thirteen and that on this winter day, someone in her family had been pulling her behind their car on a sled. No doubt laughing and looking in the rear-view mirror, the person driving had whipsawed around a corner, and the young girl — probably screaming (fear? delight?) — held onto the sled …

Physician voices

We are all responsible for women physicians’ pay discrepancy

Sharon McLaughlin, MD

August 4, 2022Aug 4, 20223

A recent JAMA article showed that starting salaries for female physicians were lower than that of their male counterparts in most subspecialties. New physicians are not expected to have many differentiating factors besides gender, yet the starting salaries differ. It…

A recent JAMA article showed that starting salaries for female physicians were lower than that of their male counterparts in most subspecialties.

New physicians are not expected to have many differentiating factors besides gender, yet the starting salaries differ. It is important to note that specialties with a higher percentage of women also have lower salaries for bother men and women. As the percentage of women physicians in a given …

Surgery and surgeons

Articles, page 13

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