Put your thank you into action: Wear masks correctly and avoid large gatherings

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 [Report] [More than 600 health care professionals]( provide insights on topics including COVID-19 and health care communications, the role of cloud technology, enterprise communications, and more in a 2020 survey conducted by Spok. [See the results](. [COVID-19 related malpractice claims]( are on the horizon, and physicians must document everything now to [defend against future claims](. Reducing redundant tasks and operating more efficiently are key strategies for practices trying to stay afloat in the next year. [Target this time-waster]( at your practice to improve staff and patient satisfaction with one change. [This eGuide tells you how.]( Get a free copy of [Money Insights for Physicians]( which teaches doctors the proven path to move from high income to high net worth! [Take the F3 Assessment]( and find out where you’re at along the path to financial freedom. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Nov 9, 2020 [Put your thank you into action: Wear masks correctly and avoid large gatherings]( I have a video visit in the pulmonary clinic with one of my favorite patients. I ask her how she’s doing and wave to her husband sitting in the background of the living room where she is set up. Deborah says, “We’re good. We’re healthy. We are staying home. We miss our grandchildren and have […] [Pandemic parenting during medical school]( By all appearances, I was just another sweaty-palmed medical student taking the first neuroanatomy exam of the semester. The stakes are high with every step toward becoming a doctor, but they were even higher for me that day. Failing the test would mean withdrawing for the semester, effectively delaying my education by a year. Such […] [Did we do right by her? Did we do right by her family?]( She was dead when we walked in the room. Lungs ventilated, kidneys dialyzed, on pressors to maintain enough tension within her blood vessels to keep blood traveling to her brain and with a tentatively beating heart, but dead, nonetheless. The microbes had done their damage. Necrotic fingertips and toes curling and black, contractures sharply flexing […] [Scared to death and learning to trust]( Cardiologists with national reputations were available at a hospital just an hour away. I had connections there and could get what I was sure would be better care for my mother than she would receive in the small hospital where she had been taken following a heart attack in her office. But what if she […] [Examining the duty of physician officials in the government [PODCAST]]( “The duty of physician officials in the government exceeds that of other officials. As physicians, they have a unique moral obligation to do more than protect the constitution from enemies, foreign and domestic. They have a duty to be unambiguously truthful, to use their power to do good, and to avoid harm. If they fail […] [This Lung Cancer Awareness Month is like no other]( November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, a time when many people in my profession shine a spotlight on the dangers of taking lung health for granted. This year, few need the reminder. COVID-19 is deadly, contagious, and upending life as we know it. It is also a lung disease. As a thoracic surgeon, I tell […] [The pandemic has only further strengthened my passion to become a physician]( As a first-year medical student, the transition to an online curriculum has posed a unique set of challenges. I am often asked, “How exactly can you become a doctor without having seen a patient, without having put a stethoscope on another human being?” I’ve been told many times already by my professors that to listen […] [Advice from a psychiatrist during these unprecedented times]( Unprecedented. How many times have we heard that word? Yet, here we balance between the life we knew and the life we long for with the deep, frightening chasm of the unknown strikingly in between. 2020 has not only been one for the history books; it has upended lives. The world economy crawls along, jobless […] [Moral injury and practicing oncology during COVID-19 [PODCAST]]( “As our office begins to return to pre-COVID operations, it has been uplifting to have a relative sense of normalcy, even though morale seems to be reduced. It is difficult to promote team building and improve morale when everyone has to maintain social distancing. I would love to go out for a meal with my […] [Orientation to HEAL: the 4th best electronic medical record]( An excerpt from Man’s 4th Best Hospital, Now available in paperback from Penguin/Berkley. And in the Fat Man Clinic, what about billing? We would do it ourselves on our screens. Using HEAL, the EHR or Electronic ‘Health’ Record system that BUDDIES had installed in Man’s 4th Best and its other hospitals and clinics, at a cost […] [Moving forward in medicine with your significant other]( The transition from resident to doctor is overwhelming and can impact your personal life deeply, particularly within the context of your relationship. It is important to sit down and discuss with your partner or spouse and discuss your excitement and fear during this odd phase of life. Although the transition can make or break a […] [Should drug use be decriminalized?]( During the final presidential debate, Joe Biden said that “no one should be going to jail for a drug problem, they should be going to rehabilitation,” effectively suggesting that substance use be decriminalized in the US. The war on drugs Since President Nixon declared the “war on drugs” nearly half a century ago, the general […] [Female physician suicides: a silent pandemic]( “Aunty blew her brains out a few weeks ago!” Words I shall never forget. For weeks, she had been in my thoughts. But I never called her. I didn’t because of all the myriad reasons we often give ourselves for not checking up on each other. In my case, they sounded like this; “I am […] [Residency during the AIDS vs. COVID-19 eras]( J.T. is a general internist who completed residency in Atlanta early in the AIDS era. His daughter, R.T., is a third-year internal medicine-pediatrics resident in Los Angeles, and his daughter, D.T., is a second-year OB/GYN resident in Philadelphia. They describe and compare their experiences as residents during a pandemic. Contexts of the pandemic eras J.T.: […] [Imagining a pandemic as a physician novelist [PODCAST]]( “There are some things that we are living through as a result of COVID-19 that I did not imagine in my fictional account. For example: the timeline. As we are now four full months into this pandemic in the U.S., some experts estimate that we are still early in the game. As one doctor put […] [Polarizing medical students do not foster discussion and education]( Though many say freedom of speech has never been more prevalent with the creation of social media, moral relativism and shaming have taken a toll. Evident today, cyberbullying in the name of justice polarizes attitudes while placing some opinions as martial law and others as bigotry. This polarization of America marginalizes majorities and attempts to […] --------------------------------------------------------------- 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](