The humiliation a nursing physician faced during her board exam / The opioid disaster: Stop criminalizing doctors

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [3 ways to maximize your hospital contact center]. The contact center is your mission-critical hub for hospital communications. Learn three tips to help maximize this vital department and the support it delivers throughout your healthcare facility. [Read the eBrief]. [Is your hospital communication system trapped in the dark ages?] Just like a medieval page boy, pagers are annoying and inefficient. This leads to delayed patient care, frustrated providers, and potential HIPAA breaches. Learn why you need to ditch your [Page Boy] today. Wearables, apps, EHRs, artificial intelligence: How can doctors adapt to the [massive digital transformation of medicine]? Dr. Bob Wachter, author of The Digital Doctor, shares [powerful insights on medicine of the future] … from digitization to personalization. [Video]: Are communication solutions at your hospital like a puzzle piece that just don’t fit? [There’s a better way]. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Today: Jul. 5, 2016 [The humiliation a nursing physician faced during her board exam] To the American Board of Pediatrics: I took and passed my recertification exam in Washington State last fall and would like to express my sincere gratitude to your organization for setting up more hoops for pediatricians to jump through under the guise of helping us stay up-to-date. The first hurdle was the exam application and […] [The opioid disaster: Stop criminalizing doctors] It’s an unmitigated disaster. One hundred million pain patients. Millions addicted to opioids, hundreds of thousands dead. Pain patients abruptly cut off medication they’ve depended on, sometimes for decades, and offered nothing to replace it. Doctors, fearful of prosecution for overprescribing, dropping pain patients like hot potatoes. Pain patients unable to find any doctor that […] [New doctors may be more unprepared than ever] July is back, and clinical faculty at teaching hospitals have again braced for the annual deluge of new residents just beginning their specialty training. Unfortunately, our new doctors may be more unprepared than ever. The gap between medical school (the four years leading to the MD degree) and residency (advanced training in a particular field) […] [For hospitals to thrive, they need to value nurses] Three weeks ago, I changed jobs. I left a high-tech, high-volume teaching hospital in one of the largest medical centers in the U.S. for the greener pastures of a small, private community hospital. Why? I needed a less stressful position, lower acuity patients and to be rid of the madness of commuting. I am a […] [Why new doctors should think beyond the stethoscope] This spring, thousands of medical graduates will cross the stage and become doctors. Yet practicing medicine isn’t the only career for these young professionals; the path to becoming a doctor also provides ample skills for entering the innovation economy. Today’s medical students are perfectly poised to change the gridlock of the U.S. health care system […] [It’s time for physicians to demand a national medical license] The practice of medicine in the United States is almost entirely based on national guidelines and regulations. Minor, inconsequential differences may exist from state to state, but nothing significant enough to justify the current requirement of comprehensive, redundant licensing of physicians in each individual state in which they practice. Notably, in an uncommon example of […] [On June 30th, I hope we remember the intern within us] Much is made of the date July 1st in the medical profession. Freshly graduated physicians begin their training career in medicine as interns. Although technically physicians, these interns are new to the clinical practice of medicine and all that comes with that. Much has been made of the experience of the new intern. Samuel Shem’s […] [The widespread use of fentanyl escalates the risk of overdose] A fentanyl overdose led to the recent death of musician and singer Prince, according to the medical examiner’s report released June 2. The drug seems likely to become as notorious as propofol did after the death of Michael Jackson in 2009. For all of us in anesthesiology who’ve been using fentanyl as a perfectly respectable anesthetic medication […] [Did Prince die because he had bad doctors?] Prince died of an opioid overdose. A tragic and avoidable fate but, even more tragically, one that is becoming increasingly common in the United States. Some people who overdose live on the edge of society–homeless and with no access to good medical care. Prince, by contrast, had several mansions and a number of physicians actively […] [The story of a doctor who destroyed his EMR] “I love you,” she said as she was leaving the room. “I, I um …” “Not you. Your computer.” She cast my computer, still warm and glowing with its brilliantly colored logout screen, a glance of longing and desire, and left the exam room. “Oh, I thought …” The slamming of the exam room door […] [It’s time for doctors to tell insurance companies how they really feel] The time has come. The time has come for patients to know how dangerous the state of health care has become and to finally do something about it. I’m ticked off. So ticked off that I’m writing this in between office patients, and I really try very hard to prevent my patients from waiting. Apparently […] [What does quality mean in the eyes of a patient?] One hot topic that has recently gained a relatively large amount of attention over almost all areas of medicine is quality improvement. Hospitals have created dedicated senior-level positions to oversee it, interdisciplinary councils have been formed to research and address it, and employees are reminded daily, if not more often, of their role in implementing […] [Changing medical school education clearly isn’t easy] Ezekiel Emanuel, the University of Pennsylvania physician and ethicist, has written an opinion piece suggesting many changes in both pre-medical education and the medical school curriculum. He would do away with many of our hallowed medical school prerequisites such as calculus, physics, and organic chemistry, feeling that those subjects are simply used to “weed out” […] [MKSAP: 86-year-old woman with pain] Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. An 86-year-old woman is evaluated in her assisted-living facility for pain. Four weeks ago, she developed herpetic lesions on her right posterior thorax in a T7 distribution. She was treated with acyclovir, and the lesions healed; however, she has persistent severe […] [Open access endoscopy raises potential ethical issues] Like nearly every gastroenterologist, we have an open access endoscopy system. This means that patients can be referred, or refer themselves, directly to our office for a a procedure without an office visit in advance. Why do we do this? We offer it as a convenience, so patients do not need to make two visits […] [Don’t remove your own IUD. Please.] Removing one’s own IUD is apparently “a thing.” There are even YouTube videos of women sharing their experiences. If you can get a medical degree from Google then why not get your OB/GYN residency from YouTube? All kidding aside, I’m a gynecologist and I’m going to explain why you shouldn’t. It’s not that people can’t technically […] [I live a life in which pain plays a constant role] When my friend Madeline turned seventy, she celebrated in a big way: She walked a half-marathon; she hosted a cabaret for family and friends at which she sang and told stories; she traveled to China. Now, six years later, this dynamic woman has become a virtual prisoner in her apartment. She has undergone back surgery, […] [Tips to improve your communication with patients] “We experienced an iatrogenic event that produced an untoward sequela, and while it is now quiescent, it may still recrudesce.” No one likes to be given bad news, especially of disease. But first, you have to understand what it means. When it comes to communication of medical information, the way the message is delivered is often just […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Follow on Facebook] | [Twitter] --------------------------------------------------------------- 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]