5 reasons why your anesthesiologist is a medical ninja

Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on [KevinMD](. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors There are no easy ways to eliminate alarm fatigue, protect health care workers from workplace violence events, or eradicate physician burnout. [COVID-19 complicates these issues](. Improved communications can be part of the solution. [Read this eBook to find out more](. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to [reopening medical practices during COVID-19](. This [checklist with tips and resources]( can be adapted and downloaded for individual practices. Did you know more than 80% of surveyed Americans who have used telehealth services said they [liked or loved it]( Download the Updox infographic on consumer preferences of telehealth both [now and post-COVID](. [Tax planning for physicians]( updated with recent COVID-19 changes. Learn how to save taxes and keep more of what you make by registering for [this month’s webinars]( Make the Most of Your Home Office and Maximize Your C Corporation Fringe Benefits. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Jun 1, 2020 [30 podcasts in 30 days: The Podcast by KevinMD launches this Monday]( The Podcast by KevinMD launches this Monday, June 1, 2020. We start with three podcasts on Monday, followed by 30 podcasts in 30 days. I talk with KevinMD contributors who share their stories, in their own words. Each interview is designed to be 10 to 20 minutes in length: concise, digestible, and filled with information, […] [5 reasons why your anesthesiologist is a medical ninja]( 1. Anesthesiologists are your protector Think about this: An anesthesiologist’s job is to protect you from the harm your surgeon is causing. Seriously. A surgeon’s job, at its very essence, is to damage your body. Now undeniably, it is with the intention of causing greater good and/or fixing something that is already broken. But in […] [New York City provides residency training like no other]( As a fourth-year anesthesiology resident, I opened up my email eagerly, awaiting the results of the pain fellowship match. It was official; I was heading to a major academic program in New York City. First came excitement and relief immediately followed by a rush of all-encompassing fear. I had grown up in Arizona my entire […] [George Floyd: Framing police brutality through the lens of an emergent public health crisis]( Those who knew George remembered him as “a big man with a heart to match” and a “good friend,” “good person,” and someone who “took care of people.” Tragically, George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020. You may have already seen the heartstrings-shredding video showing his excruciatingly slow and torturously savage homicide. As George […] [Why is it hard to find a good dermatologist in a competitive market?]( We’ve all heard the phrase, “survival of the fittest.” It suggests that in the competitive, “free market” world, it is the “best” who survives and it’s “the cream” that rises to the top. But is that true for doctors? Do patients get better care when competition rules the health care marketplace? A few years ago, […] [COVID-19, Georgia, and racial disparities: Do all lives still matter?]( I learned to call Atlanta home after college. It was at Grady Memorial Hospital that I first shadowed doctors, and decided that I would go to medical school. Two and a half years into being an ATLien, I cried inconsolably because it was time to leave. I have since continued to yearn for the day […] [The new words from the coronavirus pandemic]( With any new illness comes metaphor. It is humanity’s attempt to incorporate the mystery of disease into our own stories. We like to personify illness, give it human characteristics as a way of visualizing it. We name its actions to help lessen its unpredictability. Tuberculosis consumed. Syphilis punished. AIDS invaded. Cancer grows. COVID-19 quarantines separate […] [A gut punch against COVID-19?]( “You are what you eat.” Jean Anthelme Brillant-Savarin, a French lawyer, epicurean, and father of the low carbohydrate diet, penned these words in the 18th century. As we struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, we search for personal ways to influence our health and our immune system to combat this pestilence. Food choices are an overlooked […] [Will telemedicine make us better diagnosticians?]( We have all heard that 90 percent of the time, a patient’s history provides the diagnosis before we even perform a physical exam or order any tests. At the same time, much of our reimbursement used to hinge on how many body systems we examined. Like so many other things in the new reality we […] [We will soon see a mental health pandemic that will cause unnecessary deaths]( Consents have become a prominent part of health care. We sign consents for visits, procedures, medication, privacy, release of information, care of minors … the list goes on and on. We must acknowledge and respect the patient’s autonomy in their care. This is never more apparent or more important than in end of life care. […] [Health care delivery after COVID-19: Move more procedures to the outpatient setting]( The United States has some of the most advanced medical technology in the world, yet COVID-19 has exposed significant deficiencies in our health care system. As nothing will be the same after coronavirus, our health care system must also change as we move forward. Now is the time to work towards improving the current system and […] [Can we help residents feel happier about taking call for free?]( “I stayed up all night, and for what, $10 a consult?” A clearly exhausted and exasperated colleague and friend said to me one morning after his very busy call shift. As a chief resident, one of my roles is to manage the call duty schedule. As such, I frequently hear about how residents feel about […] [Scenes from the COVID battlefield]( I wake to a WhatsApp call. It is my aunt, who lives in India. “We are all worried about you,” she says. “All of us here are praying for you. Make sure that you stay safe.” Coincidentally, she is a nun, so I’ll take her prayers whenever I can get them. I promise her that […] [Anyone can help in an in-flight medical emergency]( While recently on board an international flight, an in-flight medical emergency was called approximately one hour into a ten-hour journey. The overhead page most travelers may have heard while on a plane, “Is there a doctor onboard the aircraft?” The air hostess quickly led me to the front of the aircraft where an elderly passenger […] [Will COVID-19 render the physical exam obsolete?]( “You forgot your stethoscope!” The medical student dutifully pointed out as we were on our way to the patient room. “I don’t need it. But let me grab it anyway to pretend. But don’t tell anyone I said that!” I replied. Her eyes widened with disbelief at the blasphemous statement. At the turn of the […] [Nurses deserve all the respect doctors and patients can muster]( Every year, National Nurses Day is celebrated on May 6 to raise awareness of the role nurses play in society. The date also marks the beginning of National Nurses Week, which begins on May 6 and ends on May 12, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. In addition to the annual celebration, the World Health Organization has smartly […] [The mindset of an entrepreneur: Why failure is an option]( “Failure was not an option” is a phrase that I’ve heard so many times as entry point conversations with the many burned out physician moms and women in medicine I have coached. And in many ways, they are right. However, the context from which it is said is oftentimes what has led to the experience […] [Remember the real heroes in our COVID war]( Every day our governors announce the COVID death toll and highlight a family who lost a member of their family too soon. COVID took a 35-year-old mother. It took a 48-year-old father. These deaths are tragic. But a frequent refrain is that this virus mainly kills those with extensive health problems, it kills the old, […] [Take the time now to hear your patients’ stories]( I rounded recently on a 100-year-old veteran of the Battle of the Bulge. It was a terrible and costly battle fought in Belgium during the winter of 1945, the coldest and snowiest in memory at that time. The German army made a desperate last stand against an increasingly overwhelming US force. Hundreds of thousands of […] [How to ride the wave of adoration for health care professionals]( Health care is enjoying an abundance of positive attention as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. My question, my challenge, is how can we sustain this love-fest between the public and the health care profession even after we obtain a vaccine or an effective treatment for COVID-19? Let’s be perfectly honest: six months ago, the […] [How to mitigate risk and foster resilience among vulnerable populations during COVID-19]( Over the past two months, health professionals and community advocates have brought to the fore of national attention what has been the lived experience of many within black and brown communities for ages — racism kills. The substrate of structural racism and systemic inequities, now combined with a catalyst, COVID-19, is accelerating fatalities among those […] [The social worker and a patient’s homicidal thoughts]( “Howard wants to go to the hospital. He knows he isn’t doing that great. He says he is having homicidal thoughts.” This from my supervisor, Linda. Homicidal thoughts on the part of any client get our attention, especially so with Howard, because years before, he killed a man with a gun. I believe it was […] --------------------------------------------------------------- If a friend sent you this email and you want to subscribe, go to [KevinMD](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 345 Hudson Street New York NY 10014 USA [Unsubscribe]( | [Change Subscriber Options](