A difficult conversation with my mother’s oncologist

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[What is the state of health care communications today?]( Share your perspective on the priorities, challenges, and communication technologies that are redefining health care in 2022. [Take the short survey here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Jun 23, 2022 [A difficult conversation with my mother’s oncologist]( The silence felt heavy on the other end of the phone line. I waited a few seconds, and it dawned on me: He wasn’t ready. This moment, each in our own worlds was a defining point in our journey. Twenty seconds earlier, I had just shared the following with him, “We are ready for hospice.” [...] [A bad death: the importance of truth-telling at end-of-life [PODCAST]]( “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 [...] [Supporting a new mom: my experience and some helpful tips]( I recently came across a number for the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline. It took me back to my first pregnancy and postpartum experience. I belong to a traditional family where there is an expectation of bearing a child after a year of marriage. No one prepares the couple for it. No one talks about [...] [5 reasons physicians are afraid to leave medicine]( At age 33, I got my first job as an outpatient pediatric attending. With great pay, nice coworkers, and exceedingly better hours than in training, to everyone around me, I had finally “landed.” Soon after I began working, however, I woke up with trepidation every morning, forcing myself to get out of bed. Why wasn’t [...] [Art as a tool to manage pain [PODCAST]]( “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 [...] [Why is there a formula shortage?]( This is a complicated answer with a complex history. The most recent factor contributing to the formula shortage is COVID-19 and the pandemic’s effect on supply chains. With the start of the pandemic, people began stockpiling supplies from toilet paper, bottled water, to formula. Concurrently, birth rates decreased due to fear of the virus and [...] [Utilization management is medicine’s great conspiracy theory]( So-called “evidence-based guidelines” are slowly destroying the practice of medicine, and companies that develop these proprietary guidelines are guilty of conspiring with payers to deny individuals necessary medical treatment. Guideline developers, health plans, and their benefit managers contend that utilization management (UM) programs based on medically proven guidelines will reduce unwarranted clinical practice variation and [...] [Precision medicine: the rifle vs. shotgun approach to cancer treatment]( Why does one person respond favorably to lung cancer treatment while another does not? The answer lies in their DNA. Just 20 years ago, lung cancer was broadly categorized into two groups: non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Relatively recently, the treatment of NSCLC shifted from chemotherapy as a single treatment option [...] [Doctors are not the bad guys]( An excerpt from Cutthroat: A Surgeon’s Fight against Big Government, Corrupt Businessmen, and a Broken Healthcare System. The media, the business world, insurance companies, and even the government have done an amazing job of portraying doctors as the culprits for the exorbitant costs of health care. They’ve been able to make the public believe that [...] [Primary care’s inevitable reboot [PODCAST]]( “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 [...] [The body is the gateway to the Original Blueprint]( An excerpt from The Paper Tiger Syndrome: How to Liberate Yourself from the Illusion of Fear. Your Original Blueprint is the part of you that knows abundance is your natural state. It’s the inner voice, which says, I am full. I am satiated. I am content. I am peaceful. I don’t need anything or anyone [...] [7 high performance habits for physicians]( When it comes to developing healthy habits, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. However, certain habits are particularly effective when working as a physician. These are what we refer to as high-performance habits. Being a physician is one of the most challenging jobs out there. I know this because I am one. It takes many years of [...] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Thousands of physicians are browsing this job board](. They love its selection of over 12,000 openings across the U.S. [Physicians are finding opportunities they almost missed](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 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](