Specialist
I’m a physician, not a provider
Your parents likely spent months searching through baby name books, polling the family, and looking through the photo albums of ancestors to pick the perfect name for you.
Maybe your parents had to see your face before they could pick the perfect one. Names have history, they have power, and they embody your personality.
My daughter was officially named Daniela, yet we called her Bimbi months before she was born. That is …
The unsung heroes: respiratory therapists
Working day after day, year after year, in a busy high acuity ICU, we all have become a “second family.”
The public doesn’t hear much about respiratory therapists, especially during this COVID nightmare. But they have been the unsung heroes.
So who are the respiratory therapists, and what do they do?
Respiratory therapists are specialized health care professionals trained in critical care and cardio-pulmonary medicine. They work therapeutically with people suffering from acute …
Burnout and bias? Or medical gaslighting?
Five years into my practice as an academic allergist/immunologist, my perceptions continue to evolve. Though once primarily informed by my mentors’ wisdom, I continue incorporating my experiences as both physician and autoimmune patient to guide my practice. Though we all know medicine isn’t like it used to be, nostalgia is bittersweet. In its wake, the real question remains: how are we going to respond to ongoing changes and fight for …
Let’s talk about hierarchy and priorities in medicine
Life is full of hierarchies — whether you are the older brother in the family, the supervisor in a company, a chief resident in medicine. There is always a hierarchy. It is a pecking order that keeps our society organized. You know where to look for guidance. Who is the person above your title that can help you with a challenge you are facing?
Even within surgical specialties, there is a …
The expanding role of specialists in value-based care
Value-based care has become a buzzword over the past decade with early experiments in Massachusetts, followed by creating Medicare accountable care organizations (ACOs) as part of the Affordable Care Act. As commercial insurers jumped onto this bandwagon, most providers became familiar with the concepts of gainsharing, upside and downside risk, and bundled payments.
Much of the activity in this space has focused on primary care, particularly for ACOs and ACO lookalikes. …
Will separating obstetrics from gynecology help specialist burnout?
At the end of a long table covered with hors d’oeuvres and a birthday cake, I struck up a conversation with three primary care physicians.
I was hungry for their opinions.
Inside the crowded apartment, we spoke for some 20 minutes about the systemic and cultural causes of burnout in primary care—a conversation that informed the first article in this series.
As I was about to leave, I …
Is it OK for a physician to retire early?
This is a tough post to write. I struggle with this issue daily. Is it OK for a physician to retire early? The obvious answer is: yes. Each individual should live their life as they see fit. But with a continued shortage of physicians (granted this is more in rural areas and not big metropolitan cities), and the time, money and resources required for training physicians, is it selfish to …
How a blanket changed the way I thought about medicine
My sister calls my name three times before I hear her. I am so distracted by the palm trees and the ocean view that I don’t feel her put the car in park. I look up at the “Physician Parking Only” sign straight ahead.
“Hurry up and get out. We’re running late, and I don’t want to have to stay after my shift ends,” she says.
“Don’t you always stay like two …
The decline and fall of informed consent
Margaret Edson’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize winning play, Wit, tells the story of the final hours of Vivian Bearing, PhD, an English professor dying of cancer. Early in the course of her disease, one of her doctors sees the value of her case from a research point of view and asks her to enroll in a clinical trial of an investigational therapy. In the film version of the play, which stars …
In this world of burnout, doctors have to remember why they do this
Recently, I had the privilege of presenting the Clinical Specialty Award for General Surgery at the 2017 Graduate Awards Celebration at Western University of Health Sciences College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP-NW). It was amazing to hear all the accomplishments and meet so many wonderful new doctors in this year’s class. I also got the opportunity to meet a few proud parents and professors.
The list of accomplishments of …
The truth behind the 27 contact lenses stuck in the patient’s eye
By now I’m sure you’ve heard about British woman who reportedly showed up for cataract surgery only to have her doctors discover that 27 contact lenses were unknowingly stuck IN her eye:
After this news story broke, many friends and family reached out to me asking how this could be possible! Here I will explain how this is (and isn’t) possible by clarifying some …
The high stakes of diagnosis
Xiaoyin “Sara” Jiang, MD, FCAP often calls herself a cellular detective, solving the mystery of disease under the microscope. Surgeons send their patients’ tissue samples to her for a diagnosis, and she knows that getting the answers right is high stakes – life and death.
Created by the College of American Pathologists.
Pay off your medical school loans for free? Here’s how.
We are all panicked over student loan debt. The size of the loan can be worrisome — sometimes overwhelming. The average medical student debt is over $160,000, and it’s not unusual to owe $300,000 to $450,000! The compounded interest is growing every day and adding to your anxiety. Most early career physicians state the stress related to paying off these loans is their greatest emotional burden. Think about that — …
Before my first job, I wish someone had told me a few things
I remember one sunny day in Chicago, in June 2011, when my husband and I packed up our two young children, aged 2 and 5 months. Professional movers had collected our belongings and had driven off a day prior. We were headed out of state, to my first job at an academic hospital. It had been a rather hectic few months for me, having just had a baby 5 months …
A healthy lifestyle can prevent many of the diseases this pathologist diagnoses every day
Kalisha A. Hill, MD, FCAP is a mother, a runner and a pathologist. She believes that a healthy lifestyle can prevent many of the diseases she diagnoses every day. You’ll meet her, learn about her expertise and see why her clinical partners rely on her diagnoses to guide their treatment decisions. Healing begins with her and that’s what patients count on for their care.
Created by the Read more…
The best places for a doctor to practice: It’s more than money
I would think that when physicians decide where to set up practice, there are things that they would want to think about other than how much money they’ll make. Yet if one reads Medscape’s current list of the best and worst places to practice, it would appear that money trumps everything else (although Medscape said it also considered factors like “cultural attractions”). What Medscape apparently did not consider …
Where are you on the physician pain scale?
This cartoon is based on data from the 2015 Medscape Physician Compensation Report. Dermatology is on one end, internal medicine on the other. The other specialties in between. Doesn’t seem to be a trend between the cognitive and procedural specialities, which is a bit surprising. You’d think the latter would skew towards the “happiness” side.
Do you …
When patients yell at staff, they end up hurting themselves
For days, I have been trying to get long-term patient, Stan, on the phone; his blood work came back abnormal, and we need to repeat it. I called the number in our file a bunch of times. The odd thing is that sometimes it rings without stopping, sometimes it is answered by a machine, which immediately beeps and disconnects, and at …
Physician regulators get paid so much more than front line doctors
Medicine has always had it regulatory fiefdoms, but in 2002 they were greatly expanded. At that time, a charter on “medical professionalism” was published by the American Board of Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians, and the European Society of Internal Medicine in the Annals of Internal Medicine that touted three fundamental principles:
- the principle of primacy of patient welfare
- principle of patient autonomy
- principle of social justice
The first set of professional responsibilities for physicians was a …
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Past Week
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The New Zealand health system in crisis: We need to look after our clinicians
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We are all responsible for women physicians’ pay discrepancy
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People behaving badly: 4 steps to de-escalate hostile people
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We’re reacting to medical errors the wrong way
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Certainty is a fading flame in a failing body
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Opioid-free orthopedic surgery: Why (and how) my patients go opioid free after surgery
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Past 6 Months
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The path to gender-affirming care is closing: We need to open it
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Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response
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Please stop saying “provider”
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I’m a physician, not a provider
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Abortion debates need to happen, but both sides need some ground rules
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It’s time to prevent the exploitation of sick people for profit
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Recent Posts
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A physician’s work dread and what he did about it [PODCAST]
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Boundaries for women physicians
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Comparing charity evaluation websites: What do those ratings mean?
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Why you should add advance directives to your college freshman’s college checklist
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I’m a physician, not a provider [PODCAST]
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Melting the iron triangle: Prioritizing health equity in dynamic, innovative health care landscapes
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