Medical
Physicians: Take back the title you have earned through your training
“Customer #4, please step up to the counter. How may I help you today?” As a patient, have you ever felt that it seemed you were waiting in line at the deli department, listening for your number to be called? Sorry to say, the practice of medicine has evolved in this direction in the past…
Read MoreAppreciation in the personal finance world [PODCAST]
“Appreciation in the personal finance world has two different components to it: Quantitative: increasing value of net worth and financial assets Qualitative: feeling of gratitude for one’s finances, resources, and circumstance. This is not dependent on the dollar amount. These are both important, but the qualitative is the best predictor of increasing wealth and personal…
Read MoreHow to find joy in prison
This question resonates in my mind each day I pass through the prison gatehouse. The gatehouse is a physical barrier and a mental one, separating the outside from the inside, seceding the lives of people who guard and care for inmates from the lives of those within. Each morning, the gatehouse is abuzz with activity…
Read MoreHow PCPs can leverage better coding to succeed in value-based care
Over the last decade, as health care solutions have become more specialized and fragmented, primary care physicians (PCPs) have frequently been cut out of the loop, particularly in coding initiatives. Retrospective and in-home risk assessment solutions work around PCPs. This dynamic further complicates PCPs’ ability to thrive in value-based care, which hinges on primary care…
Read MoreWhy can’t I cover my operating rooms?
The practice of anesthesiology is the practice of medicine. People who go to medical school and do a residency in anesthesiology are best equipped to deal with anesthetic delivery because they are qualified physicians before starting four years of specialty training in anesthesia. Many also have a fifth year of subspecialty training before entering their…
Read MoreCollege student coming home? What to know and do
Because of the pandemic, many college students are coming home to finish the semester, either because of cases on campus, or because colleges are sending everyone home for Thanksgiving and not having them come back until the next term. This situation requires some thought and planning, so as to keep everyone safe — and sane.…
Read MoreWe are human and all in this together
Lulu was a force of nature. She didn’t believe in expiration dates. Her version of attending church was driving her pumped-up (to manage ranch terrain) golf cart out to the pasture to watch the sunset. She always had dogs underfoot who often ate better than humans. She often would write her birthday card messages on…
Read MoreReimagining medical education from within a pandemic
The Prussian pathologist, Rudolf Virchow, who gave us Virchow’s triad: hypercoagulability, endothelial injury, blood flow stasis also gave us the foundations of social medicine, claiming that “physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor” and should be equipped to solve the pressing social problems of their time. In addition, he argued that politics was indeed…
Read MoreCOVID-related stressors and increasing instances of substance abuse [PODCAST]
“While the rise in substance use disorders during COVID will become more apparent as the pandemic eventually ebbs, the silver lining is that this is not a novel problem. We understand substance use disorders far better than we understand COVID-19, and we also know that one of the largest obstacles to treatment is the shame…
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