Surgery and surgeons

1,981 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 42

A physician anesthesiologist reports in from Afghanistan

American Society of Anesthesiologists & Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH

May 4, 2015May 4, 2015

As a physician, you never quite get used to being paged in the middle of the night. The shrill tones emitted via a radio frequency device that seems squarely stuck in the 1980s are almost always the first sign of…

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

Physician voices

Dear drunk driver: From your trauma surgeon

Jamie Coleman, MD

May 4, 2015May 4, 20152

Dear drunk driver, Tonight, I am tired. Tired from lack of sleep, tired from the long hours, and tired from bearing witness to your destruction. Tonight, you caused an accident while under the influence of alcohol. And you are badly…

Dear drunk driver,

Tonight, I am tired.

Tired from lack of sleep, tired from the long hours, and tired from bearing witness to your destruction.

Tonight, you caused an accident while under the influence of alcohol. And you are badly injured, requiring emergency surgery. Your liver is hard, cirrhotic, and unforgiving. Although I can get you through this first surgery, I know you will …

Physician voices

The downsides of automating health care

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

May 2, 2015May 2, 20157

If you are a doctor, nurse, patient, or just someone interested in patient safety, you should read a five-part story called "The Overdose: Harm in a Wired Hospital" excerpted from a book The Digital Doctor by Dr. Robert Wachter. Dr.…

If you are a doctor, nurse, patient, or just someone interested in patient safety, you should read a five-part story called “The Overdose: Harm in a Wired Hospital” excerpted from a book The Digital Doctor by Dr. Robert Wachter.

Dr. Wachter and the hospital are to be commended for publicizing this incident so others may learn from it. The hospital staff, the patient, and his mother, also deserve credit for allowing their …

Read more…

The downsides of automating health care

Real physician voices, twice a week

Free, and one click to unsubscribe.

Physician voices

When is it OK to secretly record your doctor?

Jeffrey Parks, MD

May 1, 2015May 1, 201513

JAMA published an opinion piece about the controversial issue of patients secretly recording their physicians during encounters. We live in the era of the smartphone. Everyone has one — soccer moms, teenagers, young kids who can’t even read yet, elderly nursing home patients who can’t safely feed themselves. Everyone. And these devices have amazing powers of audiovisual capability. We all know this. …

Medical education

IMGs matching into surgery: What are the chances?

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

April 25, 2015Apr 25, 20154

Anyone considering attending a Caribbean or any foreign medical school should do due diligence. An Internet search is step one. If the school does not list residency match statistics, that could be a red flag. It would not be easy to accomplish, but try to speak with some current students or recent graduates of any schools you are thinking about.

If the school won’t give you any names, use caution, and …

Physician voices

So you want to be a female surgeon. Here are 10 tips to make it.

Dr. Nikki Stamp

April 24, 2015Apr 24, 20153

I am lucky enough, from time to time, to be invited to speak to young women who want to be surgeons when they "grow up." I always have a hard time striking a balance between what I should share that…

I am lucky enough, from time to time, to be invited to speak to young women who want to be surgeons when they “grow up.” I always have a hard time striking a balance between what I should share that is positive and inspirational and what I should share that is a little harsh and uncomfortable. Once, I turned to my …

Medical education

How Murphy’s law applies to medical students

Bradley Lander

April 23, 2015Apr 23, 20152

If the analogy between medical training and a fraternity is true, then medical students are the pledges. For many, the most grueling part of this pledge process is the third year surgery rotation where the modified Murphy’s Law is applicable…

If the analogy between medical training and a fraternity is true, then medical students are the pledges.

For many, the most grueling part of this pledge process is the third year surgery rotation where the modified Murphy’s Law is applicable almost daily: Anything a medical student can do wrong, a medical student will do wrong.

In a fraternity, pledges can do no right. …

Physician voices

I am a general surgeon. There is no shame in that.

Jeffrey Parks, MD

April 22, 2015Apr 22, 20155

A few months ago, I was seeing an elderly man in the hospital with a sigmoid mass seen on his colonoscopy that day. He had presented to the hospital with fatigue and anemia, and the long meandering workup eventually zeroed in on this malignant appearing mass as the source. His daughter was in the room while I discussed the results, the …

Physician voices

Mental illness: Is it organ dysfunction like any other?

Hope Amantine, MD

April 19, 2015Apr 19, 20156

I often get referrals from the town's free clinic. As you would imagine, the patients often have a unique set of problems, coming as they do from the underserved segment of society. One such patient, Julia, was a fiftyish-year-old woman…

I often get referrals from the town’s free clinic. As you would imagine, the patients often have a unique set of problems, coming as they do from the underserved segment of society.

One such patient, Julia, was a fiftyish-year-old woman who had recently moved to town from California. She went to the free clinic (not really sure what the original complaint was) and ended up getting a physical exam that revealed …

Physician voices

A tale of two surgeons: Which would you choose?

Thomas D. Guastavino, MD

April 17, 2015Apr 17, 2015

Let's face it, residency is no picnic. A combination of on the job training and trial by fire, no physician who has gone through it and survived will ever forget the experience. The emotions run from jubilation to sheer terror.…

Let’s face it, residency is no picnic. A combination of on the job training and trial by fire, no physician who has gone through it and survived will ever forget the experience. The emotions run from jubilation to sheer terror. It is inevitable that some of the people you interact with will leave a lasting impression. In the case of the …

Physician voices

Crisis averted after a tense moment in the operating room

Starla Fitch, MD

April 15, 2015Apr 15, 20157

How many times do we start out our day with the best of intentions? It’s probably most days, if you’re at all like me. Even when we’re going through a spell of negativity, we all try to pull it together…

How many times do we start out our day with the best of intentions? It’s probably most days, if you’re at all like me.

Even when we’re going through a spell of negativity, we all try to pull it together for the sake of our patients, our staff, our families.

A couple weeks ago, I was tempted to throw in the towel.

It was one of those days when the last straw was …

Physician voices

So you want to be a surgeon? Here are 10 tips to help you.

Dr. Nikki Stamp

April 12, 2015Apr 12, 2015

My interns started the term with mixed career aspirations. One wanted to do interventional radiology, the other, "not sure." Now, in their last few weeks of our term, they're thinking about a surgical career. Which I think is great. I've…

My interns started the term with mixed career aspirations. One wanted to do interventional radiology, the other, “not sure.” Now, in their last few weeks of our term, they’re thinking about a surgical career. Which I think is great. I’ve been lucky enough to have had some great advice over the years, and I’ve nutted a few things out myself along the …

Physician voices

What does it mean to be a health care leader?

American Society of Anesthesiologists & James D. Grant, MD

April 10, 2015Apr 10, 20155

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. Clearly, physicians are the leaders of the health care team. We were educated and trained for that role. But on the business and political sides of health care,…

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

Clearly, physicians are the leaders of the health care team. We were educated and trained for that role.

But on the business and political sides of health care, maybe not so much.

One reason is that the word “leadership” has a lot of different meanings. A leader in one area is not automatically a leader in another area. Requisite skill sets …

Physician voices

10 secrets to success as an academic surgeon

Sarah Bryczkowski, MD

March 30, 2015Mar 30, 2015

1. Be yourself and learn to be flexible. Don’t ever change who you are as a person. It’s OK to have a personality of your own. If you secretly listen to Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off on the way to…

1. Be yourself and learn to be flexible. Don’t ever change who you are as a person. It’s OK to have a personality of your own. If you secretly listen to Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off on the way to work, it’s OK. As a junior member of the team it’s very unlikely your iPhone playlist will make the cut for the operating room …

Physician voices

Ground rules for the aspiring surgeon

Matt McCarthy, MD

March 29, 2015Mar 29, 2015

An excerpt from The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly. Warning: Contains explicit language. It started with a banana peel. After years of quiet study in the libraries, laboratories, and lecture halls of Harvard Medical School, I finally made the…

An excerpt from The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly. Warning: Contains explicit language.

It started with a banana peel.

After years of quiet study in the libraries, laboratories, and lecture halls of Harvard Medical School, I finally made the tectonic shift to hospital life in the summer of 2006. The third year of medical school marks a …

Read more…

Ground rules for the aspiring surgeon

Physician voices

8 reasons why you should marry a female physician

Jamie Coleman, MD

March 23, 2015Mar 23, 201525

A couple of years ago, I asked a friend of mine how she met her husband. It was at a bar, and when she asked his occupation he replied, “I work for the city.” She took that to mean he…

A couple of years ago, I asked a friend of mine how she met her husband. It was at a bar, and when she asked his occupation he replied, “I work for the city.” She took that to mean he was a construction worker. They began dating and quickly fell in love. Much to her surprise about a month into their …

Physician voices

How an eleven-pound cat precipitated domestic chaos and delayed surgery

Karen S. Sibert, MD

March 19, 2015Mar 19, 20156

Termites are endemic in southern California, and we’ve had spot treatments several times over the years at various sites in our house where little piles of sawdust have appeared as evidence of termite activity. Finally, it became clear that the termites were winning, and more aggressive treatment was in order: tenting. This is the process of hoisting a big, brightly-colored tent over the whole house and putting an end to …

Physician voices

The paradox of physician communication

Kathryn A. Hughes, MD

March 16, 2015Mar 16, 20153

Physicians have so many ways to communicate. Yet why are they so far apart? Communication Breakdown, It’s always the same, I’m having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane! - Communication Breakdown, Led Zeppelin Oh why can’t we talk again? Don’t…

Physicians have so many ways to communicate. Yet why are they so far apart?

Communication Breakdown, It’s always the same, I’m having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane!
– Communication Breakdown, Led Zeppelin

Oh why can’t we talk again? Don’t leave me hanging on the telephone!
– Hanging on the Telephone, Blondie

I honestly don’t know how they did it, how doctors practiced and communicated effectively in the days before our modern technology, with computers, …

Read more…

The paradox of physician communication

Physician voices

10 secrets to success as a female surgeon

Lauren Crawford, MD

March 13, 2015Mar 13, 20153

I bolted through the conference room door on the first day of residency orientation. The room full of interns shifted in their seats. All one dozen of the faces looking up at me were male. I got some crooked, goofy…

So, what would I tell my daughter about how to survive and …

Surgery and surgeons

Articles, page 42

Real physician voices, twice a week

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular