“My wife is a urogynecologist lucky enough to get through her seven years of residency plus fellowship with “only” $124,000 of student debt. When we discussed how we were going to get rid of this debt, she had always assumed that it was going to take a couple decades to pay off. With our combined income, we certainly could’ve lived like paupers and extinguished her loans rapidly. However, I knew a strategy that involved extreme deprivation after her long years of training could grow old and not ...
Jun 28, 2022•16 min
“For many health care professionals, the stresses of their roles routinely take a heavy toll on their mental and physical well-being. It did for me. The pandemic and the unprecedented loss of life were more overwhelming than any of us could have imagined, and for some, it simply pushed them over the edge. But, even before the pandemic, our peers have been suffering from depression, anxiety, and exhaustion and needed resources to help them better cope and manage their well-being. For me, I learne...
Jun 27, 2022•16 min
“Teaching medical students entrepreneurial and business skills is invaluable as the need for leadership in medicine grows in every single sector. Many physicians already engage in managerial and entrepreneurial-like practices without labeling these skills. By formalizing these skills into medical education, physicians will be able to take their ambitions and ideas about how to best run existing health care institutions and translate them into innovations for the future of the field.” Sofia Yunez...
Jun 26, 2022•14 min
"Stigma surrounding mental illness often prevents patients from seeking the mental health care they need, delaying care and prolonging suffering. Fear, embarrassment, and impaired quality of life are a reality for many patients suffering from skin disorders like severe cases of psoriasis, hair loss, or acne. In these cases, assistance from a dermatologist who bridges both specialties might be better accepted by patients and can help them find relief for their skin and mind more quickly. When it ...
Jun 25, 2022•13 min
"We owe it to our patients to do better. Every time I picture the couple leaving the pharmacy unvaccinated, I am reminded that true health care requires accountability and a willingness to challenge the status quo. That means challenging a 'no' or 'that’s too much work' rather than accepting it passively. If I could do it all over again, I would tell my 18-year-old past self that her voice is more powerful than she realizes. The same applies to any person in a similar situation who feels that th...
Jun 24, 2022•16 min
“Diabetes uniquely requires patients be experts in their own care and demands 24/7/365 vigilance. Close communication with a health care team eases the burden and improves outcomes. Glucose management revolves around numbers. Unfortunately, numbers are just noise unless translated into actions. Innovations, such as color for people with low numeracy, are essential for improving outcomes. Alarmingly, 80 million, fully one-fourth of our population, have low literacy and numeracy. People want to be...
Jun 23, 2022•14 min
“Lifestyle medicine is part of regular medicine but stands apart in that it is health care that directly benefits patients through the restoration of vitality and health, primarily by lifestyle interventions. And its healing capacity does not stop there. Because it unlocks the door to health and well-being , its effects reach well beyond patient care, to entire families, communities, and indeed to the lives of health care providers themselves. Changing the health care system within which physici...
Jun 22, 2022•17 min
“The bottom line is that while you can’t predict exactly which MMI prompt you’ll be given, you can absolutely start preparing for the MMI. Become familiar with the format, practice your delivery, start reading about issues in health care, and start thinking about major points to discuss around these issues. While this won’t take away your anxiety, it can absolutely help improve your confidence and performance–so that the next time you’re faced with an 'angry' interviewer, you’ll be prepared.” Ra...
Jun 21, 2022•15 min
"The tech giants of Silicon Valley – love them or hate them – have put incredible personal technology tools into homes and pockets of our patients and their caregivers. Now, we must activate those instruments for our own sustainability, and for our patients’ benefit. If the neighborly primary care practice is going to survive, we must embrace a more comprehensive and connected health data usage program reassuring patients that we truly know them and are properly equipped to assess future risk. B...
Jun 20, 2022•16 min
"I had also used arts and crafts previously in my own experience to help with healing. Including the previous year when I had a breast cancer recurrence did many crochet projects and took classes in mosaics making as I navigated from victim to survivor. However, following my catastrophic accident, I didn’t know how to do these activities until I could again use my left arm. Which now I am a little thankful for, as I might not otherwise have been as open to trying drawing. As I go forward, I will...
Jun 19, 2022•15 min
"In their hearts, her daughters just wanted their mother to make the most of the time she had left. She never made it to the beach or hugged her grandchildren. From diagnosis to death, it was two short months. During those weeks, she waited for test results, went back and forth to the hospital to drain her lungs, and was on infusions for a useless Hail Mary treatment, all of which robbed her and her family of precious time to talk about what mattered most. She died in the hospital with her famil...
Jun 18, 2022•20 min
"It’s time to flip the script on evaluations. How can we shine a light upon the strengths of the wonderful peers we are blessed to work with? How can we amplify their greatness, help them work in their own zone of genius? How can we recognize that we all have different, complementary strengths that overlap so that there are no weaknesses; there are just different approaches or different strengths to mobilize? When we are all working in our own zones of genius, that’s where we create a culture of...
Jun 17, 2022•14 min
"It is a time to ponder on those essential questions: What is your purpose in life, and how can you follow it? What talents can you share with the world, and what are you grateful for? When we deviate from this true calling, when we deviate from love, from creativity, our spiritual crisis occurs. Our body breaks down with negative thought patterns, pain and illness. Even though burnout is the end-stage symptom of chronic stress, it is, in essence, the deviation of our spiritual self. How do we r...
Jun 16, 2022•18 min
"2022 is well underway, and we are still unclear about exactly where this virus is headed and what the lasting impact it will have had on all of us. We have self-driving cars, drones delivering food, and most of us spend our entire day on video calls, and the rest on social media. Who knows what innovations will emerge next year (or, to be cynical, the next pandemic). I am all for the conveniences offered to us by innovation and forward-thinking companies, but I hope we can come to an understand...
Jun 15, 2022•18 min
"It’s been over twenty years since clinical inertia was coined a term, and since that time, experts have debated on how to define it, and where and when it exists across the treatment paradigm. Every year, scores of information cross HCP’s desks on clinical inertia, but when it comes to your patients, how do you determine whether your decisions to delay treatment intensification are clinical inertia or 'appropriate inaction?' And what about obesity? Individualizing treatment targets for patients...
Jun 14, 2022•28 min
"When people think of eating disorders, the image is often of an emaciated, white teenage girl in the hospital hooked up to feeding tubes. In fact, eating disorders are varied in how they present in a person, and they certainly do not 'look' a certain way. Eating disorders occur in all cultures, ethnicities, age groups, genders, and socioeconomic groups. Eating disorders do not discriminate. So, no, eating disorders do not 'look' a certain way, and you cannot tell by looking at a person if they ...
Jun 13, 2022•14 min
"If we want to alleviate the fatigue and frustration women physicians are experiencing, we can always start by solving two old problems: (1) All doctors need fewer bureaucratic tasks forced upon them, and (2) women physicians must be able to work in environments free of harassment and discrimination. There’s yet another solution that must come from outside the workplace. The spouses and partners of women physicians must confront any gender inequalities that may exist within their relationship. I...
Jun 12, 2022•22 min
"COVID-19 melted down the world at a very inopportune time in history. Just as medicine was getting a handle on previously intractable conditions, from sophisticated diabetes management to less invasive surgical procedures, a new threat that devastates our population with few good treatments overwhelms health care. Medical workers come to the rescue, as we always do, though at a personal and communal price. Somebody else keeps our food available, allows our communications to flow without interru...
Jun 11, 2022•18 min
"It’s apparent to most that the dark clouds and stormy waters in the business of health care continue. There is much that needs attention from both health care workers and consumers. We have learned that when we work together, strength, creativity, and energy multiply exponentially. We need to move forward and create a sustainable and caring health care system. We can accomplish this by joining together and acknowledging our struggles, sharing and learning from them. The next step is key to chan...
Jun 10, 2022•15 min
"Many families still prefer their providers to wear a mask. I have no way to know who carries what political or health views around their mask-wearing. Their masks were off, and mine was on. When I asked them for their preference of whether they feel comfortable with me wearing a mask or not, the parent’s response was: 'Whatever you want. It doesn’t really matter.' But it does matter. Doesn’t it? It matters if you feel comfortable and safe. It matters if I am an agent of viral infectivity. It ma...
Jun 09, 2022•19 min
"My IVF baby turns 12 this week — and having attempted frozen and fresh IVF cycles six years ago, which did not result in pregnancies — I can also hold tenderly the space for those who have heard those words, 'Only one child?' Yes. Only one. Only one, magical, amazing, child destined to be ours. How blessed am I? Our thoughts are so very powerful, and I would like to leave you with these thoughts: You are not broken. You never were. Be gentle with yourself." Dympna Weil is an obstetrician-gyneco...
Jun 08, 2022•18 min
"Over the years, trainees poured their hearts out. I began developing wellness electives and curriculum. I ultimately became a founding co-chair of faculty wellness at one institution and the director of wellness at another. This “’final” evasive strategy, working on physician wellness and resilience. Over the years, I have increased the number of disclaimers in my talks: “I know that the system must change, and until it does, here are tips for your own individual resilience.” I have tried to im...
Jun 07, 2022•16 min
"Whether led by the patient or by a primary care physician or nurse practitioner, a proper leadership-based problem-solving methodology is a critical tool. The approach itself is not nearly as important as the discipline to use a formal approach. One approach, for example, is a simple, proven framework that, on average, leads to a significant reduction in the time to resolve problems. " Jim Sholler is a consultant and author of Solved in 7: The Power of Disciplined Problem-Solving . He shares hi...
Jun 06, 2022•16 min
"There are numerous ways your contract (and your life) can be made better. If you do not want to do it for yourself, do it for your patients. A burned-out physician will not give those patients the same quality of care as a reasonably rested physician would give. For the sake of your patients, please renegotiate your contract!" Dennis Hursh is a physician contract lawyer. He blogs at Physicians Contracts Blog . He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, " The Great Resignation is a g...
Jun 05, 2022•18 min
"How does it work? We teach people to speak to one another’s values. Have you heard of listening to answer vs. listening to understand? Well, we take that one step further. We teach first to use personality science to find the values of everyone around you, then listen to, and speak to their values. Don’t speak in your code of values. Speak in the code of values of the other person. Do you know what this does? First, it makes the other person feel valued. Secondly, it causes you to place more va...
Jun 04, 2022•16 min
"To reduce eating disorder risks and to support those who may be suffering in silence, we need to keep talking and promote awareness of the issues while clarifying long-held misconceptions about eating disorders. We can’t help those who do not feel able to speak up. We can’t help people that speak up and can’t access treatment. We can’t help when we constantly contribute to the problem through the cultures we create and perpetuate. With awareness of these concerns, we must use our voices to impr...
Jun 03, 2022•19 min
"These changes on the horizon for our country are unlike anything we have ever experienced. We have only experienced an expansion of rights for those who have been denied fair treatment. Going backwards only infringes our ability to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Future laws that could be overturned include Griswold v. Connecticut, protecting the right of marital privacy against state restrictions on contraception. As an experienced physician with a strong interest in patien...
Jun 02, 2022•25 min
"The visit with my patient helped to change my perspective. I should not have made assumptions about her based on my implicit bias. I highly recommend the Harvard Implicit Bias tests as an exercise in introspection. We also need to share and reflect on our experiences — especially when we were clearly incompetent. There are a number of systems in place that reinforce structural heteronormative care. We need to identify these structures and work to make them more inclusive. The confines of iPLEDG...
Jun 01, 2022•16 min
"We must believe that inside, where our spirits live, there is an understanding, a belief, in those people we have loved and who have loved us, that they will live in us even if they are far away. And perhaps more important these days is that our physical presence is less important than the voices that whisper through space and time into their ears, hearts, and souls, saying that we are, truly, here. It may not be much solace, but it’s all we have." Carol Ewig is a retired teacher who blogs at T...
May 31, 2022•18 min
"We can talk about the system-based approaches we have instituted to avoid burnout and the negative emotional consequences that arise from medical errors, miscommunication, or negative outcomes that occur outside our sphere of control: Just culture. Peer review. Physician health and wellness committees. Social events. CMEs about burnout. Burnout surveys. State-run physician health programs. These have positive impacts. But what else? When we go home and collapse on the couch, wondering what happ...
May 30, 2022•13 min
