It's time to address pain despite the opioid crisis

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 Over 1 million total hip and knee replacements are completed annually in the United States. Read An [Examination of Malpractice Claims]( Against Orthopedic Surgeons From the Ambulatory and Inpatient Settings. [Six ways to optimize your EHR for better clinical communication](. Learn how to maximize your EHR investment. [Read the ultimate guide]( on extending the value of your organization’s EHR. Subscribe to the only daily medical podcast. [CME for every episode](. 15 minutes a day. 7 days a week. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Plus: Sep 5, 2022 [It’s time to address pain despite the opioid crisis]( Have you ever felt as if your doctor wasn’t really listening to you or was just rushing through your appointment? Have you ever felt as if your doctor didn’t understand the pain you were in or didn’t take it seriously? Most health care providers are evaluated based on the experience their patients had, and their [...] [Why I’m leaving emergency medicine]( I am hanging up my stethoscope and exiting the ambulance bay doors for the last time. I chose emergency medicine to care for critically ill and injured patients, and I’m leaving because this has become near impossible. I believe it imperative to share some of the reasons that I, and many like me, are leaving [...] [Narrative medicine develops empathy among physicians]( A hallmark of modern medicine involves providing compassionate care through an empathetic doctor-patient relationship. This post describes one powerful technique for developing empathy among medical providers: narrative medicine writing. What is empathy? A basic definition of empathy involves your ability to understand someone else’s perspective by putting yourself in their (metaphorical) shoes. Empathy can involve [...] [Why this doctor prefers perfectionist physicians]( Your plane is about to take off. Like most folks, you are just a little anxious about flying. It is very rare, but you know a lot of bad things can happen to the machine that carries you at 30,000 feet above sea level. Consider this: Would you rather the mechanic who inspects your aircraft [...] [A room once full of vitality lies empty]( More than two months after he died, his name still adorned the whiteboard of the hospital room he inhabited. As I stood there and gazed, recalling the memories he left me with, the nurse who tended to him entered the room and started to cry. Her love for Eric, she told me, did not enable [...] [Combating antimicrobial resistance during COVID [PODCAST]]( “While the world has spent the last two years laser-focused on the COVID pandemic, another public health threat is still lurking in the shadows: the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been recognized since the early 1900s, yet rigorous research over the [...] [Why the Inflation Reduction Act is a win for health care]( Last winter, when the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) was declared “dead” after Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia revealed that he would not support it, health care reform advocates were disappointed. Hopes that important legislation would finally be passed to bring down the price of prescription drugs, bolster funding for home health care and [...] [A paradigm of perseverance]( At her Supreme Court confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson recounted a story from her time as a college undergraduate. She recalled being a freshman at Harvard after having attended public school in Miami, Florida, and her transition to life at the university had been challenging, causing her [...] [How in silico drug development can improve patient outcomes [PODCAST]]( “In silico technologies also enable drug developers to perform, in theory, an unlimited number of tests using a wide range of variables that include age, sex, and the health status of each member of the virtual patient pool, compared to the more restrictive parameters [...] [Medical training and the systematic creation of mental health sufferers]( The COVID-19 pandemic has uprooted our lives, tilting them into imbalance and oftentimes severing our individual sense of inner peace. The newfound public initiative to combat these paralyzing challenges is welcome, especially to me. I’ve coped with major depression for as long as I can remember. The grinding pursuit of my own inner peace led [...] [Monkeypox: Should the hospitality and transportation industries worry?]( The monkeypox outbreak continues to accelerate worldwide; by some counts, the U.S. now harbors the most significant number of currently known cases. Pathways for the initial spread beyond endemic areas for this current worldwide outbreak are thus far unclear but may be at least in part related to international infected passenger travel. Now, with elevating [...] [Smaller practices should participate in clinical research. Here’s how they can.]( The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting shutdown accelerated the adoption of decentralized clinical trials (DCTs). The number of trials with virtual and/or decentralized elements exceeded 1,000 in 2021 for the first time, according to GlobalData. That’s a 50 percent increase from 2020. GlobalData expects the number of site-less and/or virtual clinical trials to jump another [...] [The key to living with less pain is understanding what relieves pain, why it works, and how to achieve it]( An excerpt from The Pain Solution: 5 Steps to Relieve and Prevent Back Pain, Muscle Pain, and Joint Pain without Medication. In a one-year period, more than 54 percent of Americans report musculoskeletal pain, including arthritis pain, low back pain, and neck pain. The search for relief has created a different kind of epidemic. The opioids [...] [How technology can streamline tedious health care processes [PODCAST]]( “Companies that embrace digital processes will reap the rewards, as shown by the Forrester survey taken in 2020 after the pandemic began. The survey found that digital document processes were helping organizations maintain their business resilience and even reap direct rewards of their digitization [...] [Drawing the line on unnecessary medical tests]( How much medical uncertainty can you tolerate? Most patients have not given much thought to this consequential issue, but it hovers over them in their doctors’ offices. This is also an issue for medical professionals. Indeed, how both sides in the doctor-patient relationship navigate this will be instrumental in choosing the path forward. Medicine is [...] [Video visits as clinical touchpoints to improve older adult mental health]( The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a profound toll on older adults, isolating them physically and emotionally from their communities and families. Mental health has suffered across generations and, as a practicing geriatric psychiatrist, I have had a front-row seat to the unique conditions older adult populations are facing. Despite rising rates of depression and anxiety, [...] [If it’s not clinically pertinent, then stay out of my uterus [PODCAST]]( “No matter how far we’ve come, women are still judged by fertility status but shouldn’t be. If it’s clinically pertinent to ask about reproductive health, then yes, absolutely ask … in a respectful way. That doesn’t mean judging personal decisions or situations – it [...] [Coping mechanisms for medical professionals]( I am a pulmonary-critical care medicine physician. I had a medical issue in 2020 and was on limited call responsibilities. When I came back, it was in the throes of the first wave of COVID. It goes without saying that the last three years or so have been very difficult for everyone in the medical [...] [Talk about death in plain, simple, easy-to-understand terms]( “You’re dying.” I can often visualize the impact of my words as soon as they leave my mouth, the heavy weight sinking into the mind and body of my patient as they sit in the stark white hospital bed. It usually isn’t the first time they’ve heard the sentiment. After all, we tell them countless [...] [If a program doesn’t care for fellows, could a union?]( In my self-righteous youth, I bristled at the thought of physicians unionizing. Certain our collective altruism and professionalism would prevail. Unions were for oppressed laborers, not well-regarded, well-paid professionals. Reading the recent paper in JAMA and 30-plus years in the field have caused me to think again. That, and recently having provided support to a [...] [My patient left against medical advice]( “Mr. Stenson left AMA …” “Why?” I said out loud to my attending. “He left with his IVs in …” said his nurse in disbelief. An hour earlier, before rounds, I sat down with Mr. S to talk about his anxiety attack. Ten years ago, he was shot ten times in the chest, which left [...] [Skinny fat and normal weight obesity [PODCAST]]( “Obesity is genetically common in our family. I was being gaslighted and judged by a bunch of obese people, most of whom were doing nothing to improve their health and obesity issues. Yet they fully believe to this day that I am just naturally [...] --------------------------------------------------------------- [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](