Medical
Empathy is a crucial component when working with older adults
An excerpt from Tough Decisions In Care Of Elderly Loved Ones (A guide for caregivers). Empathy is more than just loving an elderly loved one. It is more than simply making the decision we may feel is best for our loved one. Empathy is different from sympathy. Empathy means putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes…
Read MoreWhen physician leaders get acquired and squeezed
As a child, when I first read The Little Prince and saw the picture of the boa constrictor swallowing an elephant, I would often ponder what it felt like to be the elephant. Later in seventh-grade science class, when I learned of amoebae and how they surround and digest neighboring life forms for their sustenance,…
Read MorePain and neuromodulation: What’s all the “buzz” about?
Chronic pain is an enigma for both pain doctors and their patients: difficult to understand (as everyone’s pain is different), challenging to treat effectively, and frustrating to live with. Desperate patients sometimes turn to drastic and irreversible surgical procedures, like amputating nerves to relieve pain, and unfortunately even those procedures may fail to provide the…
Read MoreDuring the coronarvirus outbreak: A failure to recognize physicians’ worth
Recently, Congressman Jimmy Gomez, D-California, questioned HHS Secretary Alex Azar about improper preparation of health care workers before and during their interactions with Americans repatriated from Wuhan, China. A whistleblower reported to the California congressman that while assisting evacuees housed at Travis Air Force Base, federal health employees were not given personal protective equipment or…
Read MoreIT deficits are eating hospital profits. CEOs need to wake up.
I work for a hospital network with the world’s slowest computers. I timed it: Last shift, it took me fifteen minutes to log on. The first computer obtained didn’t function at all. It had been worked on the day before by information technology services (IT). Efficiency and time management appear to be amongst top priorities…
Read MoreIntellectual property provisions in physician employment agreements
An excerpt from The Physician Inventor: The Doctor’s Handbook to Patenting Medical Devices and Methods. “I love my employees, even though I hit one of you with my car.” – Michael Scott When you are offered a position at a hospital or practice group, you will typically negotiate a salary, productivity bonus, call schedule, retirement…
Read MoreOur seniors deserve better. It’s time we all paid more attention.
Most Canadians are familiar with nursing homes or long-term care facilities that provide 24-hour care to seniors who are no longer able to care for themselves independently – but we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them. Given our rapidly aging population, and the likelihood that someone we love, or maybe even ourselves,…
Read MoreCutting down on alcohol helps if you have atrial fibrillation
In medical school, there are lots of cutesy names that help us learn and remember things. “Holiday heart” is one of these — it reminds doctors-in-training that binge drinking alcohol can lead to an episode of atrial fibrillation (afib). The association is a real one; I have met a number of patients who suffered an…
Read MoreWhat it’s like to take a MPH gap year
It has been nearly seven months since I made the decision to take a year off from medical school to pursue a master’s of public health (MPH) degree in Baltimore and nearly eleven months since I last saw a patient. From attending a Public Citizen workshop on access to pharmaceuticals to competing in my first…
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