A 25-year-old woman is evaluated in the emergency department for chest pain after a belted motor vehicle accident. She is pregnant at approximately 23 weeks’ gestation. She reports no additional symptoms and is otherwise well. Her only medication…
Category: KevinMD
I’m a jail physician. Here’s what likely happened to Jeffrey Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein’s apparent suicide while in custody at a Manhattan detention facility has focused intense media scrutiny into jail suicide prevention procedures. Suicide is the biggest cause of death in jails in the U.S. — by far. Because o…
Clinical performance data: a physician’s friend or foe?
According to a recent Harvard report, physician burnout is “a public health crisis that urgently demands action.” Half of all doctors report troubling symptoms: depression, exhaustion, dissatisfaction, and a sense of failure. These physicians are twice…
New doctors are prioritizing the wrong things
Every year, there’s this rite of passage, the passing of the baton, as our graduating senior residents move on to fellowships, or into spots as hospitalists, or to practice jobs here in New York City or other cities, and a fresh new group of newl…
The powerful, surreal scene in an El Paso hair salon
I am a psychiatrist living in El Paso. My husband was the orthopedic traumatologist on call at the academic center last weekend when 22 El Pasoans were murdered and 26 wounded in a mass shooting at a busy Walmart in town. The rest of this week has been…
Medical students creating their own oaths: Is that the best way to enter the profession?
As the fall approaches, medical schools across the country are preparing for the arrival of a new crop of medical students. The primary emphasis of medical school is to teach technical competencies so that students graduate with the medical knowledge a…
How a neurosurgeon uses a No Room for Error mentality when making life decisions
As a doctor that specifically deals with brain and spine surgeries, I have adopted a No Room for Error mentality in the operating room. I believe this same mentality can be helpful in making the best possible life decisions. What do I mean by No Room f…
Privilege is your superpower
The team stood around the older woman’s bedside. As one of the medical students, I prepared to meet my assigned patient. While being assigned to me, Mrs. R yelled, I’m not letting that n***** take care of me! As the only Black person in th…
Medicine is too complex for computers to keep up with or understand
Family physicians and others have for years complained about ridiculous quality measures such as the meaningless use program, HEDIS, MACRA, etc. To its credit, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality was willing to take a step back and ask, “Wh…
The lingering effects of a mass shooting
Veronica Kelley was working at an office building across the street from the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Calif., in December 2015 when a county employee and his wife entered with semiautomatic rifles and opened fire, killing 14 and woundi…
