Author's posts
What does it mean to be a great doctor?
Like most existential questions, the answer to this question really depends on who you ask. A patient may have one answer, and a physician a completely different response. Ask ten people, and you’re likely to get ten different replies. What does …
Your thoughts about patients are costing you time and energy
Difficult patients. We’ve all encountered them. Maybe we are them. (After all, they say doctors make the worst patients, and there’s probably some truth to that.) But what makes a patient “difficult”? Is it someone with multiple…
From timed essays to time mastery: a doctor’s journey through the power of belief
One of my most stressful high school class memories was an AP English class I took during my junior year. Each week, we had timed writings where we were given a specific amount of time to write an essay on a given topic. As soon as the timer went off, …
From defensiveness to compassion: How shifting your mindset can help physicians overcome negative patient reviews and burnout
One thing that has changed in medicine over my career is the emphasis on patient reviews. As time has passed, more of what we do as physicians has been attached to various metrics, and our identities and success or lack thereof have been defined by the…
