Author's posts
Artificial intelligence is worse than the old boss
It seems that each positive story I read about the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) is countered by a negative story. One internal medicine physician writes: “Someday, with enough computing power and artificial intelligence, we may be abl…
5 topics I don’t want to read about in 2022 (but I probably will anyway)
As 2021 passed into 2022, I was hoping new stories would emerge and dominate the medical landscape. So, I did a bit of crowdsourcing on social media and among colleagues. Here are five topics I’d like to read less about — if for no other reason t…
A message to physician job recruiters: First impressions count
More than half of all physicians in the United States are employed by health care organizations, and the numbers have been trending upward since 2019. Recruiters who work for health systems are tasked with finding the best physicians available, and the…
When retirement is code for “You’re fired!”
A colleague announces he is retiring. Unknown at the time is the fact that there were a series of fires and suicides committed by patients at the psychiatric facility where he was chief medical officer during the year prior to his departure. State inve…
Professional courtesy means being a “doctor’s doctor”
I recently had an email exchange with a friend and psychiatric colleague, Dr. Michael Myers, on the topic of professional courtesy. It’s a topic I’ve written about before. However, one of my essays stirred considerable controversy, so much …
Create a new medical reality
I am an avid medical blogger. Without a doubt, the most common theme I’ve encountered during the past several years is embodied in the following op-ed: “We must help physicians at the brink of burnout, depression, and high stress,” fo…
My biggest blind spot is me
I tend to size people up pretty quickly. Adult ADHD? I can diagnose it in about two minutes. Borderline personality disorder? About one minute. Bad actors on the Dr. Phil show? About 30 seconds (with the benefit of Dr. Phil’s preamble). I can’t help it…
For doctors leaving clinical practice: Consider utilization review jobs
When I decided to leave practice and explore non-clinical career options, I found no shortage of opportunities, ranging from the pharmaceutical industry to the health insurance industry and many points in between. I chose to work in the health insuranc…
Physicians attacking physicians online: trauma of the second order
Anniversaries are usually joyous occasions to celebrate – a wedding date or a date of independence, for example. Other anniversaries invoke solemn occasions, such as the end of a war or 9/11 after the bombing of New York. But there is another type of a…
If Simone Biles were a doctor she would be vilified, not praised
When the greatest-of-all-time gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympics to focus on her mental wellbeing, most observers applauded her decision, viewing it as an act of courage and bravery, an eye-opener for breaking the stigma around mental heal…
