A physician lurked on Facebook mom groups. Here's what she found.

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [6 strategic advantages of hospital contact center consolidation](. Find out why unifying your infrastructure can streamline processes and deliver better customer service. [Read the eBrief now](. 2017 was a year of devastating floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and shootings. [Now is the time to protect your medical practice]( before the next natural disaster or [violent incident strikes](. For every 100 appointments, [seven won’t show](. With a $20 co-pay and average reimbursement of $90, your practice is losing as much as $41,000/year. Tired of calling patients to remind them about appointments? [Get that time and money back now](. What hospital CIOs are prioritizing for 2018: [View infographic](. [Patient misidentification can lead to medical errors, patient harm, and costly inefficiencies]( for providers. Get the facts on patient misidentification, and [learn how to avoid it]( from organizations that use biometrics to do so. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Jan. 11, 2018 [Retiring early from medicine: Is it ethical?]( Eight weeks after I delivered my third child, I was diagnosed with a four-centimeter lung mass. Yes, you heard that right. For those in medicine, this is terrifying to hear as the first thing that comes to mind is lung cancer. Lung cancer is notoriously hard to treat, typically fatal with a short life expectancy […] [A physician lurked on Facebook mom groups. Here’s what she found.]( In my off time, as a mom and a physician, I spend a decent amount of time lurking in a rather strange environment, even for the internet. A place so filled with anxiety, stories of ill-chosen spouses and little glimpses of unbridled joy, that you’d think you were somehow inside a taping of the Real […] [Innovation and creativity takes center stage in medicine]( Innovation and creativity have never taken center stage in medicine — until now. There’s a new world out there in surgery, and medicine in general. And over the next few months, join surgeon David Hindin as he shares a new series that explores the many ways hospitals and medical schools have begun to embrace creativity […] [Lessons from the psychiatric ward]( The specter of the psych ward looms large in popular culture: video games, horror movies, novels — the concept of a locked inpatient psychiatric ward is shorthand for a variety of terrors. This perception is driven by a complex cocktail of factors. Psych ward patients have struggled with historical and current abuses, which are compounded […] [Medical students: It is OK to not feel OK]( I pulled into my driveway at 1 in the morning after spending eight consecutive hours in the library. I shut the engine off and allowed the music to continue. And I didn’t move. And then I started to cry. Initially, I resisted the tears, then conceded to the overpowering emotions so desperate to escape. And for […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [An inspiring KevinMD keynote]( will make your event memorable. "Kevin's keynote presentation was perfect. Extremely rich in content, and a delivery that is world class." [Visit Kevin's speaking page]( to find out more. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Why published trading strategies rarely work]( When you browse finance-related websites, it doesn’t take long for you to see ads that claim that they can help you make money, fast. “I’VE BEEN ABLE TO WIN ON 90% OF MY TRADES WITH THIS PROVEN STRATEGY.” – TYPICAL AD #1 “LET ME SHOW YOU HOW TO EARN 25% RETURNS, GUARANTEED.” – TYPICAL AD […] [What is the right reaction for a physician when her daughter goes pre-med?]( I asked a colleague at a recent dinner meeting about his children. They’re all grown, he said, one is actually a doctor. But, he added quickly, “I had nothing to do with it.” His son had chosen his father’s field of radiology, though my colleague similarly disavowed any influence. He did mention, with some relief, […] [Please change the culture of surgery]( It is December 2017. I have been on the road for the last five months, completing my five months of elective rotations. I am a fourth-year medical student aspiring to specialize in family medicine. I also want to learn procedures, so I did two months of surgery, three months of family practice electives. At the […] [The non-difference between MDs and DOs]( “What’s a DO?” is something virtually every osteopathic medical student and physician have been asked at some point in their training. There is this public misconception that professionals who carry MD after their names are the only qualified people to medically treat their ailments. Any other degree is categorized as “alternative medicine” in their mental […] [Expanding coverage and cutting health care costs: ideas for 2018]( The controversy over health care reform often boils down to two issues: coverage and cost. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) made significant impact on the coverage issue, dropping the uninsured rate below 10 percent for the first time in the recorded history of the United States, covering 20+ million Americans in the 8 years since it was passed, and […] [Learn about Clostridium difficile infect with a Medcomic]( Clostridium difficile is a gram-positive anaerobic bacillus which secretes toxins (A and B) that cause diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis. C. difficile is the most common infectious cause of nosocomial diarrhea. Transmission of C. difficile can occur from contact with contaminated humans and fomites. The organism contains endospores that can survive the acidity of the stomach and reach the large intestine. […] [A physician’s love-hate relationship with dividends. And what he does about it.]( When I described my drawdown strategy in early retirement, I stated we will “sell from the taxable account first.” I also plan to collect quarterly dividends from my index funds, but if Vanguard were Burger King and I could have it my way, I’d hold the dividends and take bites out of my account only […] [15 minutes aren’t enough for a primary care visit]( Have you bought a new memory foam mattress recently? Many come vacuumed in shrink bags. Once air gets in the bag, the mattress expands to its normal size. It is fascinating to watch how they expand. It is not so fascinating to watch a patient expand to their actual size, when they are forcefully squeezed […] [5 tips to better communicate with your patients]( Communication is the cornerstone of good health care. Despite all the external challenges we face with the system in which we work, those few minutes we spend with patients and their families are precious — and are what we will be remembered for. We, therefore, owe it to our patients to be at our very best […] [Ignoring your mental health is risky business]( My car has one hundred seventeen thousand miles on it after just three and a half years. It has taken me back and forth from here to Atlanta more times than I can remember, to the beach, to the mountains I love to hike, and across the country in a seven thousand mile trip four […] [The other opioid epidemic that we ignore]( “I made myself a hypodermic injection of a triple dose of morphia and sank down on the couch in my consulting room … I told her I was all right, all I wanted was twenty-four hours’ sleep, she was not to disturb me unless the house was on fire.” – Axel Munthe, MD, The Story of […] [How the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affects this two-physician couple]( The recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is controversial, to say the least. However you feel about it though, the fact is it’s here to stay, affecting everyone by 2018. However, in looking at our own situation as a two physician couple (purely from the medical income standpoint), at first glance, it seems as […] --------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the KevinMD e-newsletter. If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 173 Daniel Webster Highway Nashua, New Hampshire 03062 [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](