About three months ago, something awful happened. The oncology nurse practitioner (NP) whom I trained for the past two years in my subspecialty decided to seek employment elsewhere in order to have a more flexible work schedule. My team and I lamented …
I pushed open the door with a huge smile on my face while my eyes searched the room for the chubby toddler that was my patient. One sweep across the roomful of siblings, and my eyes stopped on the child crinkling the paper on the examination table. I c…
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 52-year-old woman undergoes perioperative evaluation. She has osteoarthritis of the right hip since sustaining injuries in a motor vehicle …
I first met JB* when the receptionist at the clinic called to tell me that a patient was asking to see me. His name did not ring a bell, and on a quick review of my patient schedule for the week, his name did not appear. I went to the waiting room to s…
One of the most valuable jobs I held following fellowship was working as a full-time deputy editor at UpToDate. My “territory” was breast, gynecologic, and genitourinary oncology, and I helped launch cancer survivorship and palliative care. I learned t…
In a shocking development that could transform the medical profession, the International Journal of Health Services published the findings of a study titled, “Primary care, specialty care, and life chances.” Using multiple regression analysis, the rese…
Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer diagnosed in men in the U.S. According to statistics gathered by the American Cancer Society, approximately 191,930 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in this country in 2020, with on…
My uncle died last year. As physicians, we are all too familiar with death. Even if we are practicing primary care, we are touched by death and the line between life and death. That patient who had what statistically should’ve been acid reflux, but who…
My uncle died last year. As physicians, we are all too familiar with death. Even if we are practicing primary care, we are touched by death and the line between life and death. That patient who had what statistically should’ve been acid reflux, but who…
The patient was well over 6 feet tall and looked like he had recently lost weight. When he took off his winter coat and hung it over the back of the chair, I could see his scapulae like wings under his sweater. He folded himself into the chair and care…
