Category: KevinMD

Physicians, do you suffer from “Someday Syndrome”?

“Someday Syndrome” is prevalent in many walks of life, but it is particularly bad in medicine.  You know what I am talking about.  “Someday, when I have graduated medical school …” or perhaps the more common phrase is, “Someday, when I am an attending …

Do after-hours call centers send too many children to the ER?

A large number of pediatric practices these days use after-hours call centers for parents who have questions about a sick child. I’ve been looking around to find some data about how common this is, but my sense is that the majority of pediatricians use…

Why you’re an unhappy physician

Health care is a tough job to work in — whether you are a doctor, nurse or any other professional. We are dealing with matters of life and death, our patients expect (and deserve) the best from us, and we always have a hundred-and-one things to d…

Fads in medicine and in personal finance

If my medical training taught me one thing, it was how to recognize the destructive nature of fads. They pervade our health care system. Most center around medicine, vitamins, and herbals. Though there also is no shortage of treatments and procedures t…

MKSAP: 23-year-old woman with painful lumps on her legs

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 23-year-old woman is evaluated for 2 weeks of painful lumps on her legs. The lumps persist for several days and make it difficult for her t…

These are the best investments physicians can make

Much of the personal finance blogosphere directed at physicians spend time discussing spending money. And for good reason.  Physicians have a spending problem.  While I am all about educating people about their personal finance shortcomings, it is also…

Treating schizophrenia with long-acting injectables

It happens all too often. You have not been taking good care of yourself. You don’t eat, you sleep poorly, and you neglect your medical health. Over months or sometimes years, you begin to isolate yourself from your friends and family. You can’t seem t…

Why medical writing is essential to medicine

I wasn’t as happy as I expected to be when I walked out of the hospital on my last day in medical school. But then again, there was little to celebrate — my last few patients had terminal cancer, a stroke, and end-stage liver disease from a…

Welcome to the new normal: practices of 500 physicians or more

The day of solo practitioners is coming to an end. In its place will be gaggles of gastroenterologists and flocks of physicians. Mega practices are becoming the norm in American medical care. Here’s a few pictures of this trend, somewhat dated (they on…

Welcome to the new normal: practices of 500 physicians or more

The day of solo practitioners is coming to an end. In its place will be gaggles of gastroenterologists and flocks of physicians. Mega practices are becoming the norm in American medical care. Here’s a few pictures of this trend, somewhat dated (they on…