7 lessons I learned from my friends not working in medicine

--------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the stories you missed on KevinMD. Thank you for your continuing readership. --------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors [New eBrief: The evolution of mobile strategies in healthcare](. Want to know the biggest missed opportunities with most hospitals' mobile strategies? Clinical involvement and strategic alignment. Discover the details in part 1 of our survey results. [See the results now](. Pre-eclampsia has increased 25% in the past 20 years -- including [claims of failure to diagnose it](. And postpartum hemorrhage accounts for 3% of all OB malpractice claims. [Here’s how to address the top risks in women’s health care](. [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. Case Study: Learn how the Hospital for Special Surgery manages over 10 critical alarms for [faster and improved response times](. --------------------------------------------------------------- KevinMD Today: May. 22, 2017 [7 lessons I’ve learned from my friends not working in medicine]( During medical school, my head was buried in the books while I was studying pharmacology and pathophysiology. In residency, my body remained in the hospital for most of my waking hours while I was caring for patients. And, during fellowship, my hands were busy learning how to perform endoscopic procedures. All the while, my friends […] [The promise and pitfalls of evidence-based medicine]( For many centuries medical practice was a black art. What physicians did was based upon theories of how the body worked that turned out to be fanciful at best, dangerous at worst. The late nineteenth century brought breakthroughs in the biological sciences, such as the identification of bacteria and new understandings of physiology, which increasingly placed […] [Confessions of a criminal doctor]( An excerpt from Confessions of an American Doctor: A true story of greed, ego and loss of ethics. The Medical Board of California attorney, Mr. Arnold, proceeded to read the discussion I had with the undercover agent regarding the source of the human growth hormone, including the part where she specifically asked whether the drug was […] [Your next doctor, powered by artificial intelligence]( Although every technology product released today seems as if it is “powered by artificial intelligence,” the actual AI revolution is ahead of us. When it arrives, it will be on par with the industrial revolution in changing our lives, especially in the world of medicine. John McCarthy, a legendary computer scientist, coined the term “AI” […] --------------------------------------------------------------- [Physician Coaching by KevinMD]( Define your online reputation. Grow your social media platform. Be a dynamic keynote speaker. Find out more about [personal, 1-on-1 coaching]( with KevinMD. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Instead of value-based care, how about giving clinicians the resources they need?]( With the ruination of American teaching using “value-based” purchasing and payment concepts virtually complete, the U.S. government is now training its sights on medicine with similar intentions. With the new MACRA pay-for-performance program, CMS bureaucrats believe they can force health care providers to practice better “quality” care by collecting clinical performance, practice-related, and cost data, […] [Revamp health regulations to reduce cost and improve patient safety]( Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist Oliver Schein has found a simple way to save a half a billion dollars a year from our country’s health care bill, with no negative effect on patient health. The only thing standing in the way is a stubborn government requirement. Seventeen years ago, Dr. Schein and colleagues published a study finding […] [Physicians have to stay in their lanes]( I drive a fast car. Which if you know me, is quite uncharacteristic. I would say that it is one the few possessions that generally doesn’t reflect upon who I am. How I chose this car, the make, and model, are a long story not to be discussed here. But let’s just say that it […] [Opioid prescribing: Doctors need to do a better job, but they can’t do it alone]( I recently took a three hour online course on something I learned to do when I was a medical student. And I thought it was something I had been doing fairly well for the past 20 years. New regulations have come down requiring all practitioners to take a CME-certified course on safe and effective management […] [The unlucky privilege of seeing someone’s last moments]( “sonder – noun. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” – from the “Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows,” a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig. I followed the chaplain into the patient briefing room, not quite sure what to expect. The room was dimly […] [Facebook may fuel new mothers’ insecurity. Here’s why.]( You haven’t showered in a few days, and you haven’t brushed your teeth yet this morning. But, your baby is one month old today! You picked out the perfect outfit and made sure the lighting was just right for the perfect photo. You posted the best one on Facebook this morning, and you keep checking […] [Cops and doctors have the same problem: People don’t trust them]( Hardly a week goes by without hearing about another case of police brutality. Many times, seemingly unnecessarily lethal force has been used, and these incidents have sparked protests across America. Each case is unique with differentiating circumstances, but the result is all too often — death. Many people have grouped these incidents together concluding that […] [What surgeons do is a violent act]( “I like good strong words that mean something.” – Louisa May Alcott My resident and I are removing a large, recurrent cancer from the neck. Dense scar tissue is everywhere from prior surgery and radiation therapy. The going is slow. Each move is arduous, and bleeding obscures the view of the anatomy. “Watch out,” I […] [The hands tell us the most about a cadaver]( “OK, it is time to move on,” my professor claps his hands together and yells above the chatter. We all look up from our Netter’s anatomy books and our cadavers. The smell of formaldehyde burns my nose as the fluorescent lights flicker above. “We have explored the chest cavity and the abdominal cavity. It is […] [Let’s get rid of the review of systems]( When it comes to the review of systems, I’ve been a natural, a savant — a prodigy you might say. During my first few weeks of medical school, I remember doing mock interviews with fake patients. This was long before I learned anything about “HPI,” “ROS,” physical exams, billing or anything medically relevant for that […] [We need fewer rules, less regulation, and more time with patients]( A physician friend commented recently that practicing doctors and nurses, the highly trained professionals who understand health care better than anyone else, are always too busy working to be involved in health care administration and reform. It is one of the most basic and profound problems affecting our health care system — one of the […] [Here’s what opioid guidelines fail to mention]( Opioids have become so closely associated with chronic pain that it is nearly impossible to talk about one without the other. When we look back just five years ago, when we were still in residency, news stories about chronic pain and opioid overdoses were not commonplace. Now, we find ourselves almost desensitized to each new […] [This physician won’t tell his alcoholic patients to stop drinking. Here’s why.]( When I am facing an alcoholic in the office, I do not advise him to stop drinking. Other physicians may advocate a different approach. We live in a free society and individuals are free to make their own choices. I have decided, for example, not to own a firearm, ride a motorcycle or bungee jump […] [What do physical gait, movement, and apparent drive tell us about each other?]( Two sisters (religious order, not biological relation, as far as I know) live in one of the condos across from us. They are very nice, older ladies, warm and pleasant, always ready with a kind word and a smile as they see others in the complex come and go. They seem, at least on casual […] [MKSAP: 36-year-old woman with facial pain]( A 36-year-old woman is evaluated for a 1-week history of recurrent episodes of facial pain that are 1 to 3 seconds in duration and occur spontaneously dozens of times throughout the day. The pain is sharp, severe, and located in the right infraorbital area. During this same period, she has developed worsening bilateral lower extremity […] [Losing that patient was one of my most traumatic experiences]( The cadaver lab is a rite of passage in medical school — those few months early on when we dissect a human body to better understand our anatomy. It’s grotesque: peeling back skin, separating muscle sinews, and sawing through bone. It’s so emotionally jarring that young doctors in training often compartmentalize the experience, and this […] [A medical student fails USMLE Step 1. Can he ever be a surgeon?]( I received these emails recently. The writer gave me permission to publish them. They have been edited for length, and some details have been changed to protect his anonymity. I’m a third-year medical student at an allopathic state medical school. I’ve always wanted to do surgery. My problem is I failed USMLE Step 1 the first […] [How long can high drug prices last?]( “Pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered,” the saying goes. And so may it prove to be true for the pharmaceutical industry. Three articles, all published May 3, illustrate the greed and egregious pricing by certain drug companies that are gaining public recognition and scrutiny. As an example, Marathon invested $370,000 to obtain the license […] [What does your husband think about you being a surgeon?]( Not once during my eight years of medical school and residency training was I ever asked the converse of the titular question, what was my wife’s opinion of my career choice. Not while scrubbed into a case on my surgery rotations, not in the middle of an overnight call in the neonatal intensive care unit and […] --------------------------------------------------------------- You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the KevinMD e-newsletter. 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