Welcome to The Podcast by KevinMD.
Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. 15 minutes a day. 7 days a week.
“We need to stay healthy for our patients, but also for ourselves and our families. We need to mobilize the faction not just with regard to this pandemic, but by anticipating the arrival of others. So how do we advocate for ourselves? A great way to start is continuing our conversations amongst our colleagues and sharing experiences, looking to local businesses …
“Physicians are trained to do what is best for their patients and to do no harm. Independent practices have sat quietly watching, feeling hopeless as our communities cannot access the care they need, shamefully shutting our doors to spend hours on the phone with insurers. But no more. We can no longer remain quiet: Our pediatric patients may not be suffering …
“We care for patients suffering from addictions every shift and are often the only care providers they can turn to. Despite our best efforts, we are often forced to watch as these patients continually succumb to their addiction, sacrificing their bodies as collateral damage in the battle.
What frustrates me the most is that every time one of these patients leaves against …
“While preparing to assist our patients in the emergency rooms and dedicated COVID-19 wards, our clinic continues to triage patient concerns, creates new care plans, and provides a necessary layer of support, reassurance, and education in a chaotic and stressful time. Like all of you, my colleagues and I look forward to resuming our normal lives as once this pandemic is …
“I initially fell into the dangerous grief and shame spiral. I shoved these feelings of loss deep down and let shame bubble up. How could I legitimize my feelings when people are dying?
However, I have been working through the idea that comparative pain and its conflicting feelings do not help. To a toddler, their worst grief is not being able to …
“I propose Zooming while driving be added to the DSM criteria for ADHD. I have gotten a new glimpse into the world of some of my patients. One patient even mentioned it’s hard for them to come to appointments, even with transportation, and we were able for the first time to talk at length about those psychological factors that prevent them …
“I wrote a 55-word story in solidarity with my medical students and colleagues I had invited to share their lived experiences during COVID-19 on our Stories in Medicine blog. I wrote out of a need to “unmask” the guilt and angst of some of my colleagues and myself who, though practicing physicians, do not find ourselves directly on the front lines …
“With COVID-19, we have both the unique opportunity and need to deregulate buprenorphine prescriptions. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAHMSA) recently updated guidelines for buprenorphine prescriptions. There are new provisions for telephonic initiation of buprenorphine and scripts up to 28 days for stable patients. Unfortunately, this does not circumvent the major issue: redeployed providers will not be able …
“Children are being encouraged to take on the superhero persona and help protect others. They do this in true average-person-as-the-superhero style by wearing a facemask alone, without any superhero powers or words. Just as wearing a facemask in public has been the norm for years in many Asian countries, it may become the norm worldwide. For this to happen, we need …
“We are health care workers. We are doctors, advanced care practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and so much more. We are on the frontlines. We are our parents’ children, and we are parents to our young children. For the first time, we are at an extremely high risk of being quarantined by the same beast we are trying to conquer. We …
“It’s maddening to see the differences in health outcomes between the rich and the poor. Even more unsettling is reflecting upon the psychological pain accumulated when living in a fad-obsessed materialistic comparison-creating society, the postponed dreams, and the day to day compromise that those with less have to endure – thoughts that may be far removed from the ruminations of the …
“Since the coronavirus outbreak, reports of anxiety have increased, especially among physicians. Physicians face numerous stressors, including fears of contracting the coronavirus, concerns about potentially infecting loved ones, PPE shortages, testing delays, and frequently making quick decisions with limited information.
Common symptoms of anxiety are increased worrying about one’s self and/or loved ones, difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating, poor concentration, increased heart rate, …
“As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds day by day at an exponential rate, we as doctors have been called to duty in unprecedented ways. Speak with any physician in the last few weeks, and you will be hard-pressed to find one who didn’t feel an intrinsic obligation- indeed, wish- to rise to the occasion with an all-hands-on-deck attitude, despite the taxing and …
“Based on the evidence of the effects of trauma, we can predict that our health care teams, patients and families will exhibit signs of this assault through a variety of symptoms–sleeplessness, apathy, depression, and anxiety. The warning signs are already here. We read the desperate accounts and pleas of frontline workers describing the indescribable, holding the hands of patients dying alone, …
“Someday, I suspect I will recount this time of fear with mixed emotions. Sadly, there are people who have died and more to come, and this time will also lead us to reassess our way of life and make changes for the better. I work from home, juggling the management of patients by telemedicine with homeschooling my daughters, still working to …
“All of our patients, but especially our most vulnerable Spanish-speaking patients, need to hear concrete, meaningful, and practical instructions on how to care for each other when they live in large multi-generational families, and positive stories from people who have successfully managed infection with COVID-19. They need to hear that, as their physicians, we are here for them. I want them …
“Trainees like myself travel great distances from home in pursuit of higher edification. Yet the coronavirus makes us worry about the aged family we leave behind – parents and grandparents. A WhatsApp message ensuring they’ve stocked up on acetaminophen, toilet paper and canned soup (low sodium, of course) the only assuage to our anguish.
The rigors of medicine often demand sacrifice, sometimes …
“We do not have to continue to blame external forces for the stresses upon us now. By organizing, mobilizing, and finding solutions to the problems facing us and our adopted community today, we can meet the current challenge to be of help, however we can. Perhaps, in this way, we can stop making pandemics a future generation’s problem to solve, and …
“It is OK to be scared, but it is not OK to let our own anxieties harm our patients. As we tackle the numerous crises created by the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s acknowledge our fear and draw on the logic and clinical reasoning that we have spent years cultivating. We can be scared and scientific, anxious, but courageous. Let’s not create two …
“Although I personally hope to continue to be at or near the frontlines, I understand those that are in a compromised position, and they shouldn’t feel ashamed for wanting to protect themselves or their family. There is no portion of the Hippocratic Oath that implicitly or explicitly states that physicians have a duty to patients above their own safety. Even though …
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