Three years ago, I met Dr. Boyce Fish*, the ER physician revived after suicide. I also met Rachel Dawson, wife of Dr. Chris Dawson who killed himself and his two children.
We all sat in red ballroom chairs in a room with nothing in it, but it felt full. All the lights were dim, and I was privy to the darkest innermost thoughts …
“When you’re applying to medical school, it’s remarkable how much four years or more of intense work can come down to one single day. The medical school interview is high stakes: studies have found that interview performance is the most important factor in admissions decisions.
While your MCAT score and your GPA …
“Come to triage right now, and wear your N95. A patient going straight to OR and she’s having fever and chills.”
I was summoned to the triage area of labor and delivery for a patient brought in from the ultrasound clinic and found to have absent fetal heart tones. One of my colleagues started an IV, and I ran to the OR to set up for emergency general anesthesia. The patient …
Keto, Mediterranean, Paleo, intermittent fasting. How many times have you or your patients been sucked into the latest diet trend only to crash and burn just a few weeks later? I have tried every diet in the books and every single time, draw the same conclusion: extreme dietary restrictions are not sustainable. So many of us lose weight with the newest trending diet only to gain it back months later …
Emily Watters is a physician who shares how the mRNA COVID vaccines — known as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — work. (Click to enlarge.)
The other option, the single-dose vaccine created by Johnson & Johnson, is explained here (click to enlarge):
Everyone knows about the doctor car. Doctors know about it. Non-doctors know about it. Other than the doctor house, it is the symbol of medicinal consumerism.
But today, my friends, I am going to completely debunk the doctor car myth!
What is the doctor car myth?
This car myth states that a doctor must have a fancy car to legitimize herself or himself as a physician.
To drive a fancy car is to show that …
Vax’n 8, a group of physicians from Northern California working in a variety of specialties in medicine, are proud to present “My Shot!”, a song adapted from the hit Broadway show Hamilton.
“My Shot” addresses the social, scientific, and political issues currently affecting the decision to receive the vaccine against the virus SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19.
While we completely respect everyone’s freedom of choice, we as a group of physicians support …
Acute COVID-19 infection ranges from no symptoms (asymptomatic) to life-threatening. What about long COVID (the symptoms occurring more than three weeks after infection, also known as post-acute COVID syndrome)? Could there be thousands of people with “mild” long COVID who don’t know it? Could there be legions of people with new low-energy levels being misdiagnosed as depressed, stressed, having a sleep disorder, or being labeled “lazy”? The inability to tolerate …
One of the best feelings medical students must have is the day they match into a residency training program. This day will end an era and starts another. During those few months before July 1st, all medical students go through this phase of mental transitioning from the medical student to the resident. This transitioning process varies in its depth and complexity depending on each student and their environment. Some take …
I do not usually write on this subject. I avoid talking about it also. Not because I do not have what to say but rather because of numerous disturbing memories and experiences since childhood that I intentionally avoid remembering. Events of the last week involving TIME’S UP Healthcare pushed me to write this text.
I come from a society that normalized all forms of female abuse. From …
Sometimes I ask myself why I chose medicine when things get tiring, and we do the same thing repeatedly with a career with such high demands. I think about how we are missing out on our 20s or 30s, and it’s been making me question life, especially when I feel more like a robot rather than a human. During such times, I often reflect on how I felt during the …
“I would encourage you to see amazing women on social media for who they are in the future. Maybe figure out where they have been and what they are working toward. Maybe even figure out how ways to help each other solve the problems this country faces. Instead of looking at someone’s appearance, listen to their story. You got unlucky with me; you can’t intimidate someone who has …
I certified my rank order list (ROL), but …
What if I messed up?
What if I don’t match?
What if my list doesn’t get processed?
What if I should have ranked programs in a different order?
What if, what if, what if …
These thoughts, and their associated feelings, are 100 percent normal. Please re-read that last sentence.
You are no longer in control of one of the biggest decisions of your life and your human …
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In my first quarter of medical school, we learned the pulmonary exam. We were told to watch the patient’s breathing, feel for any asymmetries, use our hands to gauge resonance and listen to all lung fields with our stethoscopes. It didn’t seem too difficult. Our instructor demonstrated the exam on one of my classmates, and we were set loose with a checklist to practice on one another.
I repeated the steps …
An excerpt from I’m So Effing Tired: A Proven Plan to Beat Burnout, Boost Your Energy, and Reclaim Your Life.
Did you know that a recent Harris Poll survey revealed that while about the same percentage of women and men reported feeling burned out in their work life, 35 percent of women told the Harris Poll they felt burned …
She began telling me the same “sob story,” but this time, I looked at her and coldly said, “Mrs. _____, you are going home. I don’t care what you have to say; you are leaving today. I need the bed for someone else.” She began crying. I walked out without saying another word and wrote the discharge order. The Intern with me said the words that I will always remember, …
Bloodletting may be the best-known example of a once widely used, faulty medical treatment, but there are many more. Hormone replacement therapy for postmenopausal women, famously touted by experts, turned out to be complicated and sometimes harmful.
The list of medical reversals is long, and one cause is common. When observational studies compare people in the community who receive treatment with those who don’t, the treatment …
As I write this, I’m struggling with the fact that I haven’t “finished my work for the day.” My inbox has unread emails. My task list is bursting. I have unfinished laundry/ chores/ dishes. I told myself, “I don’t have time to sit and write an article!”
And yet – the seed had been planted. I could no longer ignore the whisper that said, “You have a story to tell. And …
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.
By any measure, the past year has been difficult for everyone.
The ongoing pandemic with its widespread personal, social, and economic disruptions, as well as civil and political unrest throughout the country has clearly stretched the fabric of our society and had remarkably negative …
From the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have observed remarkable, global cooperation as health care providers scramble to address new challenges. Leaping to one another’s aid, clinicians have deepened relationships and formed new connections, in the process solving thorny problems with extraordinary speed. From Belfast to New York, Madrid to Bergamo, Hong Kong to Cape Town, health care providers have …
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