Surgery and surgeons

1,981 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 17

The day my patient called me the N-word

March 19, 2021Mar 19, 2021

Two years into my surgical training, and five days after the murder of George Floyd, someone called attention to my Blackness in a way I had never experienced. One of my patients was an older white lady who appeared to…

Two years into my surgical training, and five days after the murder of George Floyd, someone called attention to my Blackness in a way I had never experienced.

One of my patients was an older white lady who appeared to be between 70 to 80 years old. I saw her for a routine postoperative visit when it was time to remove her surgical dressing. As I do with all my patients, …

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The day my patient called me the N-word

Physician voices

An operative field of dreams

Arthur Williams, MD

March 16, 2021Mar 16, 20214

I am in a select crowd. I have been fortunate enough to help some special people in their time of pain and heartache and bewilderment, facing operation or cancer or other ailments. I was fortunate to even get into medical…

I am in a select crowd.

I have been fortunate enough to help some special people in their time of pain and heartache and bewilderment, facing operation or cancer or other ailments. I was fortunate to even get into medical school when I did; my grades weren’t too good, and no doubt in my mind were I to apply today, I wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance of getting into

…

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An operative field of dreams

Conditions and diseases

Pediatric patients need appropriate pain management after surgery

March 8, 2021Mar 8, 20214

Fear of opioid addiction and misuse has been instilled into the American public – in many cases rightfully so. However, we are concerned that new guidelines for opioid prescribing in children and adolescents after surgery recently published in JAMA Surgery do not adequately address the intricacies of pediatric pain management. Generalization of these recommendations may unnecessarily scare families and mislead physicians as they determine an

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Medical education

Why creative endeavors are important for the future surgeon

Thomas Amburn, MD

February 27, 2021Feb 27, 2021

As an aspiring surgeon, I at times contemplate whether being creative has any effect on my future career. On one hand, if you see surgery as an “art,” then possibly a creative personality is beneficial. On the other hand, surgery often seems objective and clear-cut, qualities often deemed uncreative. Perhaps even my goals of surgery and my interests in artistic creation are independent, noncommunicating personality features that are unrelated and …

Physician voices

Make a difference, one life at a time

Andy Lamb, MD

February 26, 2021Feb 26, 2021

I was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, heading to Ukraine “to make a difference,” or so I hoped. I was leading a medical mission to this beautiful yet poor and war-torn country. I was watching the movie First Man about the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon that epic day in July 1969. I was not quite 14 years of age at that time, but I vividly remember the …

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Make a difference, one life at a time

Physician voices

The inestimable value of a mentor

Tammy Euliano, MD

February 25, 2021Feb 25, 2021

Quick, think of someone unrelated to you who has had a major impact on your life. I’d wager the vast majority of us pictured a face or two, and that nearly all (I hope) represented a positive influence. In my thirty-plus-year career in medicine, I’ve been blessed with several, and their impact on my life and career is truly inestimable.

As a smart kid who went to medical school because it’s …

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The inestimable value of a mentor

Physician voices

Why this anesthesiologist rarely cancels surgeries

Stephen Freiberg, MD

February 18, 2021Feb 18, 2021

Medical specialties, especially within the medical community, are known to be identified as comedic stereotypes of themselves. In addition to (or in conjunction with) being viewed as lazy, anesthesiologists are often stereotyped as being obstructionists to the operating room. A…

Medical specialties, especially within the medical community, are known to be identified as comedic stereotypes of themselves.

In addition to (or in conjunction with) being viewed as lazy, anesthesiologists are often stereotyped as being obstructionists to the operating room. A spot-on joke generated during the “first” COVID-19 surge in March of 2020 was in reference to Jerome Adams: “First Anesthesiologist Surgeon General, recommends canceling all elective cases.”

For better or worse, the …

Physician voices

Focus on what you want to do, not what you want to be

Dr. Joshua Inglis

February 17, 2021Feb 17, 2021

I didn’t receive an offer to study medicine after graduating. Despite my best efforts, I’d fallen short. But what happened next made me realize the mistake I’d been making. For a while, I thought I wanted to be a scientist.…

I didn’t receive an offer to study medicine after graduating. Despite my best efforts, I’d fallen short. But what happened next made me realize the mistake I’d been making.

For a while, I thought I wanted to be a scientist.

After graduating from high school, my thirst for knowledge was at an all-time high. And without an offer to study medicine, I enrolled in what I thought was my next passion, science.

Studying …

Physician voices

I’m the best anesthesiologist there is

Stephen Freiberg, MD

February 14, 2021Feb 14, 2021

A moment in medical school that left a huge impression on me was when we had chairman's rounds with the department of medicine's chair. He was a renowned breast oncologist and researcher and described a bit of his process when…

A moment in medical school that left a huge impression on me was when we had chairman’s rounds with the department of medicine’s chair. He was a renowned breast oncologist and researcher and described a bit of his process when interacting with a patient. The process he had developed over his years of experience was so fine-tuned that there was not a single movement, action, word, or breath that was …

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I’m the best anesthesiologist there is

Physician voices

Women in medicine need to have each others’ backs. Too often, they don’t.

Michele Richard, MD

February 13, 2021Feb 13, 20214

The recent controversy and backlash surrounding Kamala Harris’s Vogue cover shows that it is still fashionable to diminish powerful women. It also is the latest example of the sad fact that no matter how far we have come, women are…

As a female vascular surgeon, I have spent my career pushing back on ideas about what …

Conditions and diseases

Changing the national conversation on wound care

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian

February 12, 2021Feb 12, 2021

We all think we know what a bruise looks like. Black and blue, brownish around the edges. But depending on the circumstances, the same bruise can look different from one person to another. To a well-loved child who skinned her…

We all think we know what a bruise looks like. Black and blue, brownish around the edges. But depending on the circumstances, the same bruise can look different from one person to another.

To a well-loved child who skinned her knee, a bruise might look like a bad memory of an epic tree-climb attempt. To a patient with diabetes, a similar bruise might look like the onset of a life-threatening emergency. …

Physician voices

A physician’s story of sexual harassment

Anonymous

January 27, 2021Jan 27, 2021

Like many surgical specialties, the one I was aspiring to is a male-dominated field. As such, all my colleagues were male, and I often felt as though I was trying to be a part of a boy’s club. I shed my intrinsic femininity and instead equipped myself with diplomacy, banter, a light-hearted attitude, and contagious enthusiasm.

I knew nothing about the footy, and I hated beer, but I was witty, I …

Medical education

When selecting a specialty, it’s OK to choose happiness

Anonymous

January 23, 2021Jan 23, 20212

I began pursuing a career in medicine with the fervent desire to become a neurosurgeon one day. When someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I answered neurosurgeon without missing a beat. I chose neurosurgery in high school after falling in love with the nervous system and watching Gifted Hands. I wanted to be like Dr. Ben Carson before his political debut. At that point, …

The Podcast by KevinMD

General surgery, palliative care and the new meaning of the phrase, “going viral” [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

January 20, 2021Jan 20, 2021

"Today and for the foreseeable future, COVID-19 is a serious threat, virulent and contagious, not only leading to an impressive display of human vulnerability and arrogance, but also demonstrating how innovative and creative humans can be during a time of…

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“Today and for the foreseeable future, COVID-19 is a serious threat, virulent and contagious, not only leading to an impressive display of human vulnerability and arrogance, but also demonstrating how innovative and creative humans can be during a time of crisis.

On a daily basis, I am inspired by the outpouring of courage, empathy, and compassion, as well as the injection of …

Physician voices

My Dragon versus my fingers: A weak dictator’s struggles in communication

Barbara Lazio, MD

January 19, 2021Jan 19, 20215

“The nipples are equal and reactive” is a phrase I came across in the physical exam section of a note that I had dictated, courtesy of my Dragon. I have a Dragon. Not a cool Game of Thrones dragon, heroically swooping in at a critical moment, but a program that recognizes my voice and transcribes it into comically broken English in my patient’s medical record. At times, my Dragon has …

The Podcast by KevinMD

How this surgeon beat a medical staff disciplinary action [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

January 10, 2021Jan 10, 2021

"I recently represented a physician in a noteworthy peer review case at an academic medical center. The medical staff president initiated a complaint against a surgeon, who would later become my client. The complaint was that the surgeon inappropriately collected…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Listen and followApple Podcasts Spotify YouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes

“I recently represented a physician in a noteworthy peer review case at an academic medical center. The medical staff president initiated a complaint against a surgeon, who would later become my client. The complaint was that the surgeon inappropriately collected cash payment from an uninsured patient at the hospital’s point of service instead of having his office invoice and collect payment …

Conditions and diseases

Can we do better when delivering bad news in trauma?

Vivek Sant, MD

December 31, 2020Dec 31, 2020

On a recent trauma call, we had a busy night, culminating in a horrific motorcycle trauma that came in early in the morning. The patient had devastating injuries and ended up dying. The detectives finally tracked down the patient’s family. I cleaned myself up, put on my white coat and had the family sit down in a private conference room. I entered with my trauma attending and a consulting specialist, …

Conditions and diseases

Alone in the hospital in the midst of a global pandemic

Kelly Lisciandro, DO

December 30, 2020Dec 30, 2020

I have never felt so alone. I was lying in bed with severe abdominal pain. Pain I never had before. Well, at least not for a reason. As I lay there, I kept thinking, what if I die while I…

I have never felt so alone. I was lying in bed with severe abdominal pain. Pain I never had before. Well, at least not for a reason.

As I lay there, I kept thinking, what if I die while I wait until morning. It was the middle of the night. I had not felt well since earlier the week before with a severe diarrheal illness. One that only babies have with …

Physician voices

A surgeon’s take on the WSJ’s Jill Biden doctor debacle

Adil Shahzad Ahmed, MD

December 21, 2020Dec 21, 20205

When you flick a domino, a chain reaction is inevitable. Joseph Epstein succeeded in creating such a reaction. His inflammatory Wall Street Journal op-ed deriding Dr. Jill Biden’s academic title has become a call to arms across the social media landscape. The armies of Twitter and Facebook have assembled across the pixelated landscape. Hasty battle plans in forum posts are drawn, ignoring the decorum of discourse …

Medical education

Resilience is the vaccine med students need right now. Coaching can help.

Ami N. Shah, MD

December 21, 2020Dec 21, 2020

Whether or not you’re a health care provider, chances are you’ve spent the year thinking, talking, and reading about health care. We’ve had national conversations about everything from the global pandemic to rising health care costs to rationing resources to…

Much less discussed—but very much affected by all of this—is the unintended consequences the pandemic has had on our medical students and residents. In March,

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Surgery and surgeons

Articles, page 17

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