An excerpt from Physician Employment Contracts, The Missing Module: A comprehensive introduction to physician agreements written for doctors. Professional liability or “malpractice” insurance protects a physician and the employer from claims related to…
Category: KevinMD
Why we must embrace medical uncertainty
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.com. In the late 1800s, William Osler stated, “… if you want a profession in which everything is certain, you had better give up medicine.” He made this observation at a time w…
Questions about the measles outbreak you were afraid to ask
There have been over 1,000 cases of measles in the first half of 2019–the most since 1992, according to the CDC. For comparison, 2018 had 372 cases. With New York at the center of the outbreak, it’s reasonable to have questions–from how to know if you’…
Define what true resilience means for you
Can you let things roll off your shoulders? Are you the tough, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is, stand-your-ground type? Do you show up to work no matter what? Has no one ever seen you cry at work? Are these things resilience? We nurses openly divulge t…
36 things I learned in 36 years of medicine
Thirty-six years ago, I arrived an hour early for my first medical school patient care rotation at the East Orange, NJ, VA hospital. Over the years, ‘I’ve seen and learned (and unfortunately also forgotten) a lot about medicine and life. I …
To first-generation college pre-medical students: Your future patients need you
Being a first-generation college student is hard. Being a first-generation college student and being pre-med is even harder. And since education and income are closely linked in the U.S., it’s no surprise that many first-generation college studen…
Reduce health care’s carbon footprint to save our patients
I would like to explore a typical American health care experience through a different lens: energy. Upon entering a hospital, I would see bright lighting and hear the gentle hum from ventilation. If I were to get an MRI, this requires significant energ…
Dealing with the pressures of learning as a physician-in-training
The other day, I happened across a YouTube video called the “Try Not to Look Away Challenge.” There were some obvious video clips, such as a person vomiting, a spider, and a spooky video game. What struck me was a clip from a movie in which a middle-ag…
Alternative cancer therapies and the promise of false hope
How do you respond when patients with a good prognosis want to delay chemotherapy to try an anticancer diet for a few months or visit an unregulated clinic for unproven therapies? I’m asking because of an alarming finding of ASCO’s 2018 National Cancer…
Art therapy and the intersection between chronic illness and mental health
An excerpt from My Beautiful Detour: An Unthinkable Journey from Gutless to Grateful. Managing chronic illness can leave a person susceptible to emotional and mental health issues that can further exacerbate their physical symptoms. Post-traumatic str…
