“6 in 10 Kids Got Opioids After Tonsil Surgery, Study Says.” So screams the headline from The Daily Beast. “In the midst of the opioid crisis, doctors sent many kids home with oxycodone and hydrocodone,” it goes on to say. Another example o…
Category: KevinMD
Financial literacy is an escape hatch to physician burnout
A friend invited me to dinner to meet his new girlfriend. I’d get to hang out with several other people from work and residency, too. So, I was looking forward to dinner. We all sat down to eat. About ten minutes into the meal, I felt and looked like…
An expensive treatment may be a victim of its own widening use
Medical treatment has knocked down tumors in 6-year-old Easton Daniels’ brain, but the drug used also wiped out his immune system. To bolster his immune function and help keep him healthy, he has visited a hospital for intravenous infusions of immune g…
Saving a physician from burnout saves patients too
Burnout has taken center stage in health care. It impacts every aspect of care and our careers, as we realized we were not living out the ideals and values we thought we had signed up for. As we “merrily” worked along, it was the little gra…
The surgeon who underwent surgery: How being a patient changed him
I lay on my side while my father probed the space between my buttocks, looking for an opening in the incision. I was in bed in the guest room of my house, which had been converted into my room for the last two weeks while I recovered. My father, a surg…
Cancer patients who want to take unproven supplements
One of the most important things we do as physicians is to empower our patients with the knowledge we have so that they can make informed decisions about their care. In oncology, patients also benefit from educating themselves about ways they can try t…
If you build a budget, hospitals will adapt
U.S. health care spending is maddeningly high. As in fifty percent higher than what other wealthy countries spend, with no evidence we’re getting any bang for all those additional health care bucks. In 2014, the state of Maryland took direct aim at thi…
Medical schools need to produce more clinician-activists to help drive social change
For hundreds of years, health care providers have been on the front lines of social change. Think Margaret Sanger, a nurse who championed women’s rights and started the organization that later became Planned Parenthood, or Max Recamier, one of the phys…
Medical schools need to produce more clinician-activists to help drive social change
For hundreds of years, health care providers have been on the front lines of social change. Think Margaret Sanger, a nurse who championed women’s rights and started the organization that later became Planned Parenthood, or Max Recamier, one of the phys…
10 telltale signs that you’re ready for a mindset shift
Physician wellness and work-life balance are hot topics in today’s medical arena. It is on the minds of medical students, residents, and physicians in practice. While the concepts and methods to achieve it are enticing, the question remains how d…
