As of early April, you can walk into Walgreens in 18 states (plus D.C.), and along with a gallon of skim milk, a pair of photo mugs, a six-pack of toilet paper, and a flu shot, you can meet your new primary care provider, get your cholesterol checked, pick up your statin, and schedule a return visit. That primary care provider will not be a physician ...
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“You have to be affable, available, and able,” a senior general internal medicine physician taught me during my final year of residency. “Trust me,” he added, “when you’re in practice, you will love easy consults.”
A consult – short for “inpatient consultation” – occurs when physician caring for a hospitalized patient requests another physician to evaluate the patient and provide recommendations. Typically, both physicians are paid – one for providing overall ...
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A young lady comes to the emergency department and wants to be evaluated for a somewhat non-urgent problem.
Chief complaint: “I’ve lost 50 lbs in the past month.”
She felt a little weak as well, but she had just lost too much weight. No other symptoms.
The patient weighed 132 pounds. Her skin wasn’t sagging. Her jeans didn’t appear to be new and they seemed to fit pretty well. Nothing about her seemed ...
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Radiologists care about their patients, even though most diagnostic radiologists don't meet and greet their patients the same way direct-care clinicians do.
Some people have the erroneous perspective that radiologists and pathologists don’t care about the welfare of their patients. It is possible for us to understand that view if we look at radiologists and pathologists as isolated workers who work in ...
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In her post, “The only thing that truly separates doctors from nurses,” Dr. Leng is right that our current system creates a great deal of confusion for patients. Clothing, titles and even the word “Doctor” are no longer clear enough for people to understand which member of the health care team is caring for them. However, her suggestion that ultimate responsibility for the patient is the only distinguishing feature ...
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With gratitude to Doctors Rafael Espada and Michael Madani, for fixing my father’s heart, twice.
When Michael Phelps was interviewed during the Beijing Olympics, the world first learned about the extraordinary amount of food needed to fuel the swimmer with the wingspan of a pterodactyl. He said that he ate 12,000 calories a day, and no one believed him except for me. I believed him because I too was a swimmer ...
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The shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S. has become a national theme. A common proposed solution to this shortage – and a central component of the patient centered medical home – is team-based care that utilizes various non-physician health care professionals as well as electronic communication. The idea is that many functions carried out by physicians can be done by nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, and others on ...
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The use of ultrasound has had a large impact on health care in resource poor countries. This article details some of the research that has been done overseas to look at the impact on bedside ultrasound by caregivers to deliver more appropriate care for injured and ill patients in Africa, Asia and Mexico.
Using an ultrasound to determine how dehydrated a child ...
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When I was growing up in the 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, there was always some smart aleck boy on the playground who had "facts" to share about the Soviets. His recitation was meant to emphasize how weird, how different, how other our arch enemies were. "They make you wear all brown and gray there." "They eat only boiled cabbage and potatoes." "They tell you what to ...
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Every primary care doctor has been faced with this situation. A patient reports vague symptoms and is very worried that they are a sign of a catastrophic illness. The symptoms aren't even slightly suggestive of the disease the patient is worried about, but the patient's neighbor's brother-in-law was just diagnosed with the same disease, and so the patient is pretty sure that ...
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"A comprehensive and extremely useful roadmap for doctors."
-Eric Topol, MD, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine
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Past 6 Months
Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today
Matthew Moeller, MD | PhysicianA gun owner responds to Sandy Hook
Edwin Leap, MD | PhysicianIs Chris Christie too obese to run for president?
Jeffrey Parks, MD | PhysicianIf I’m wrong about guns, can you please explain why?
Claire McCarthy, MD | PhysicianPrimary care doctors may no longer be needed
Doug Olson, MD | PhysicianWalgreens moves into primary care, and it’s our own damn fault
Kevin Pho, MD | Kevin's Take