Clutching my duffel bag under my rain jacket, I dash from my truck toward a house that was built by Frankie, the man I’m here to give the last massage of his life. I’ve been massaging people since I was five and have been a professional mas…
Category: KevinMD
The doctor trap: What it is and how to escape it
There is a trap used to capture monkeys that uses a tree with a hollowed-out trunk. The opening is just large enough for the monkey to put its hand inside. While the monkey can easily pull its empty hand out at any time, inside the hole is a larger spa…
Becoming a doctor in India can be life-threatening
Recently, my niece gingerly confided that she was going to study engineering rather than medicine. I was certain she’d become a doctor – so deep was her love for biology and her deference to our family tradition. But she calculated, as would anyone wit…
Dear emergency department clinicians: a letter from administration
Dear emergency department clinicians: We at the top of the administrative and regulatory chain understand that you deal with enormously complicated mental health and substance abuse patients all the time. Your resources are limited, and the demands pla…
Dear emergency department clinicians: a letter from administration
Dear emergency department clinicians: We at the top of the administrative and regulatory chain understand that you deal with enormously complicated mental health and substance abuse patients all the time. Your resources are limited, and the demands pla…
Taking guns away from people in crisis: Does it work?
In his response to mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, President Donald Trump called for an expansion of state laws that temporarily prevent someone in crisis from buying or possessing a gun. A flurry of states have recently passed such…
Taking guns away from people in crisis: Does it work?
In his response to mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, President Donald Trump called for an expansion of state laws that temporarily prevent someone in crisis from buying or possessing a gun. A flurry of states have recently passed such…
How to help physicians end maintenance of certification nationwide
Physicians who are board-certified by one of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) 24-member boards saw their lifetime certification change to time-limited certification in 1990. Several class-action federal lawsuits have been filed against …
Doctors: Step boldly into your calling
We often associate our calling with our career. That’s what I did from the very moment I made that decision to become a doctor. That’s all I focused on. I studied for it. I invested time and money into it. Like many doctors, my identity was intimate…
The white coat serves as a daily reminder of the Hippocratic oath
My classmate and I looked at each other with amusement and embarrassment as we learned that all medical students would now be required to launder their white coats at the hospital. After several complaints that medical student’s white coats did not app…
