Category: KevinMD

Do not take online physician reviews at face value

My friend and practice advisor showed me two very negative anonymous reviews of my practice this week. Both were posted within a one-month winter period and were written about family members. They were not written by patients. My staff and I tried dili…

What distinguishes good physicians from truly seasoned medical professionals?

One thing that gastroenterologists know about is stool. But, I’m not referring to that kind of stool in this post. Follow along. When we do a colonoscopy, for example, we are relying upon stool, or more accurately a stool, as in a three-legged stool. T…

Why aren’t doctors rich?

In the 1960s, Lew Goldberg showed that a physician’s intuition and judgment can be fatally flawed.  Interestingly, the same fatal flaw that was exposed by Goldberg is the same fatal flaw that causes some of the biggest financial mistakes that doctors m…

3 ways to advance the credibility of online health information

As first reported by The Wall Street Journal late last month, the war against anti-vaccination propaganda now has a new battlefront. Pinterest, the social-media platform where users discover images and information, has begun blocking vaccine-related se…

Doctors shouldn’t have to find side gigs. Here’s why many do.

Thanks to the internet, collaboration has never been so easy.  If you need to learn about how to install a new irrigation system in your lawn, the resources are a few clicks away.  You just need the time and motivation to make happen.  On the medicine …

Why this physician chose to specialize in infectious disease

Forgive the autobiographical nature of this post, but here’s a recap on how I started down the path to becoming an infectious disease (ID) doctor. To begin, understand that my first year of medical school was rough going. In hindsight, this wasn’t surp…

In the era of team-based care: Some decisions have to be made alone

There is a lot of talk about team-based care nowadays, and I had seen some shining examples of that, most recently when a patient at my clinic had a suicide in the family. But at the same time, there are so many decisions – judgment calls, really – tha…

How physicians and administrators can get to a place of greater trust

Recently, I wrote about some key findings from a 2018 survey of U.S. physicians by The Physicians Foundation. It’s no surprise to anyone working in health care today that the survey found alarming levels of professional dissatisfaction, burnout, and pe…

Medical education fails trainees interested in primary care

“She is meant for more than just primary care,” mused an attending on my internal medicine rotation in medical school. He was referring to a particularly adept resident with whom we were working. This resident was planning on practicing clinic-based ge…

Does running cause arthritis?

In general, physical activity is important in maintaining your health. Many people falsely believe that running can cause arthritis but research show that this isn’t necessarily true. In reality, walking, running or strenuous exercise can signifi…