Category: KevinMD

Quality improvement: Helping boost everyone’s triple aim

Recently, the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), L.A. Care Health Plan, and the Southwest Pediatric Practice Transformation Network (a partnership of CHOC Children’s Hospital and Rady Children’s Hospital) came together to announce some incredible…

The power of music in the ICU

“I just don’t know what to do, how to help.”  My patient’s wife was slumped in the plastic chair by her husband’s side, fatigued and beleaguered.  She had been there for hours, days, as we waited for antibiotics to start fighting back against the infec…

Who are the real superheroes of medicine?

Imagine yourself spending two years of your life indoors with books. Sometimes the only person you speak to for a few days is yourself, as you memorize intricate details of bugs and drugs that you never imagined yourself knowing. And then after these t…

Who are the real superheroes of medicine?

Imagine yourself spending two years of your life indoors with books. Sometimes the only person you speak to for a few days is yourself, as you memorize intricate details of bugs and drugs that you never imagined yourself knowing. And then after these t…

Physicians need to stop being so nice

The changes that have occurred in health care over the last few years represent a sea change from the autonomy and clout that physicians once had. It’s no great secret to anybody working in medicine that most of these changes to practice — includ…

A physician’s first telemedicine video visit

I just did my first telemedicine video visit. The concept seems so strange, the idea of carrying out an “office visit” without the patient actually being in the office. Right now we have it structured so that when a patient calls up request…

Tell your patients these family health tips when they’re headed to a theme park

This summer, not unlike many families across the country, we were fortunate enough to visit a theme park while celebrating our break from another challenging school year. Being a mother and a pediatrician, I must admit how concerned I was to witness th…

Don’t make me choose between motherhood and my career

A debate highlighting gender discrimination in medicine currently rages within the pediatric hospitalist medicine community. The debate centers on the board certification process for “grandfathering” for the new pediatric hospitalist subspe…

Who should advocate for older patients in the hospital?

It’s often said that pediatricians and veterinarians have the hardest jobs in medicine because their patients can’t tell them where it hurts. But the same is often true for the health care professionals treating older patients who can&#8217…

10 questions men must ask about their urinary symptoms

Lower urinary tract symptoms in men are amongst the most common reasons for a urological visit. In this post, I explore ten questions that every man must ask when seeking urological help for these symptoms. 1. Are my symptoms related to my prostate? Th…