The other day I asked myself why do I focus my attention on immigrants when there are plenty of other underserved and neglected populations. When an opioid crisis surrounds me, why do I speak of a crisis at the border? When structural and overt racis…
In most other human activities, there are two speeds, fast and slow. Usually, one dominates. Think firefighting versus bridge design. Health care spans from one extreme to the other. Think code blue versus diabetes care. Primary care was once a place w…
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. The administrative burden associated with caring for patients in today’s health care system has emerged as a primary driver of the loss of joy in the practice of medicine a…
The day began in Mom’s room with a 10:00 a.m. conference at Upper Valley Medical Center, west of Columbus, Ohio. In attendance were my 93-year-old mother Joanne (now in her third week of hospitalization), her palliative-care nurse Richard, her Ep…
As doctors, most of us went into medicine with a true desire to help other people. What was once a noble profession is now being worn down by outside forces trying to control us. Third-party insurance companies are driven by profits, not by optimal car…
Twenty-five years ago, when I entered medical school, clinical notes were written in paper charts that were filed numerically on shelves. We didn’t have the electronic medical record (EMR), and burnout wasn’t on the radar. In the past few years, this h…
It hasn’t always been this way. For years, I worked at the typical high-achiever pace, like many striving to become a doctor. Upon entering medical school, I set challenging expectations of myself — graduate at the top of my class, study a relentless n…
Did you know, one in four people over 65 have abnormal memory impairment? This is the finding from screening with an objective test. In half of those who test abnormal, there were common conditions – such as depression and medication interaction…
In the emergency department, we see them all the time. The person with a medical problem too serious to ignore, but not quite bad enough to require admission. The patient referred to the specialist who comes back to the ER. “I couldn’t afford t…
I did not want a baby. As a 26-year-old third-year medical student who had quite recently ended a far from ideal relationship — of this, I was certain. On vacation, in New York City, walking in Soho carelessly, I laughed with my friend Noelle ov…
