Author's posts
Are clinicians complicit in the Fentanyl epidemic?
I have a friend. He is non-medical, just a person who knows a lot of people. He grew up on the rough side of town. He has lost five friends or relatives this past year, he tells me. All to Fentanyl overdoses. Most were young, in their twenties or thirt…
The sacred profession of doctoring
My heart goes out to the doctors who write about the unbearable burdens of doctoring in a corporate setting, feeling driven to see more patients than they want to within the span of an 8-hour clinic day. They’re tasked with dividing their time in…
Retiring from medicine: the good, the bad, and the ugly
I retired as a physician at age 70, when COVID-19 came to town and the clinic I was working closed. During these past three years, I have had the luxury of a long view of my career. Every now and then, I feel the urge to pick up my stethoscope again a…
Balancing motherhood and medical school: tips from those who’ve done it
I was in my first year of medical school when I discovered I was pregnant. This was not a planned pregnancy, as no one would intentionally plan to have a baby during medical school, as it is extremely difficult to manage both. However, there I was, and…
How medicine is broken
I read KevinMD regularly. I see a lot of stories about how broken medicine is: how doctors are retiring, leaving early because they are overworked or underappreciated, or being manipulated by corporate medicine. All these complaints are valid. There a…
Doctoring in the backwoods: challenges and rewards
I worked in rural Kentucky for 20 years, all of it in poverty clinics. I suspect I got to know my patients better than someone working in a specialty clinic in a big city. The challenges and rewards of doctoring are unique to each specialty. But these …
