Category: KevinMD

Your home life is what you make it. Don’t let your specialty control you.

The Match is complete, and now the fourth-year medical students are preparing to make their move to residency and chief residents are preparing to start their new career as an attending. The next phase of their lives is about to begin. The Match got me…

Why doctors shy away from business

The Hippocratic Oath says nothing about taking out a bank loan to outfit your own office to start your practice, nor does it include investing in real estate to diversify your income.  Of course, most doctors didn’t opt to enter medicine with the inten…

The end of a life never just impacts the individual who died

To my knowledge, three people who were under my care killed themselves. The first was a young man — late 20s, maybe? — who I met while I was a psychiatry intern. He was hospitalized in the psychiatric unit where I had just started my rotati…

What does it mean for physicians to be financially free?

What does it mean to actually be financially free? If we make it a goal, what are we really working toward? Rather than looking at financial freedom as an abstract concept, it can be very useful to visualize exactly how it could impact your life. Ultim…

The sigh of relief on Match Day quickly changed into a sobering reality

The residency interview trail quickly becomes a lonesome journey, so when I was on it this winter, I’d usually have the hotel room television turned on for some background noise and often find myself watching ESPN’s SportsCenter. On my last interview i…

What to do with physicians who don’t explain

How doctors treat patients’ need for information has changed significantly over the past decades. Sixty years ago medical practice was much more paternalistic than it is now, although some would say it continues to be so in important ways. Still, not t…

Physicians and the employee conundrum

I used to loathe being an employee. I felt like I was always a slave to the whims of my employer. Exposed. So it was with great excitement that I started a business of my own. Yet, it took only a short period of time to realize that being your own boss…

Physicians and the employee conundrum

I used to loathe being an employee. I felt like I was always a slave to the whims of my employer. Exposed. So it was with great excitement that I started a business of my own. Yet, it took only a short period of time to realize that being your own boss…

The consequences of being treated by a master herbalist

In August 2014, a 13-year-old boy with Type 1 diabetes died after being treated by self-described “master herbalist” Tim Morrow who was tried for child abuse resulting in death and practicing medicine without a license. He had told the boy’s mother to …

Why this physician will no longer see nursing home patients

Our practice will no longer see nursing home patients in our office. If a nursing home patient is already established with us, then we will see him; but, we have decided not to accept new patients. Of course, we believe that these individuals — l…