Category: KevinMD

Burnout prevention should be taught in residency

I was not at all prepared for my transition from being a resident to an attending. Now that there are work hour restrictions and constant oversight during training, graduating residents seldom get a preview of what it feels like to be at the top of the…

When physician pay packages become hospital kickbacks

For a hospital that had once labored to break even, Wheeling Hospital displayed abnormally deep pockets when recruiting doctors. To lure Dr. Adam Tune, an anesthesiologist from nearby Pittsburgh who specialized in pain management, the Catholic hospital…

It is time to consider the health of health care workers

As health care workers, we spend most days in hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and the like — places that are concrete containers for pain and human suffering. And we are bound to be affected by what we see, even if it isn’t apparent. Most people …

Would you trust Alexa with your patient data?

Amazon has opened a new health care frontier: Now Alexa can be used to transmit patient data. Using this new feature — which Amazon labeled as a “skill” — a company named Livongo will allow diabetes patients — which it calls “members” — to use the devi…

A love-hate relationship with nursing

If you went to go to a museum in New York City and saw a live heart encased in glass, still pumping and pulsating — it would be my heart, shredded into a thousand pieces all in disarray. But it still would be pulsating. This describes my life as a nurs…

8 tips for having a baby while applying for residency

Being a medical student is tough, applying for a competitive residency spot is tough, and being a new mother is also very tough. I am one of the lucky women to do all three at the same time. I had my child early August of my fourth year of medical scho…

How anti-vaxxers are just like the rest of us

Whenever I talk about my research on how parents come to decide to reject vaccines for their children, my explanations are met with a range of reactions, but I almost always hear the same questions. What is wrong with those parents? Are they anti-scien…

Here’s the secret to emergency department efficiency

A gray-haired emergency medicine physician once provided the most succinct view of ED efficiency ever uttered. He said, “Sometimes they ask us to dig a ditch. Then they give us spoons with which to do the job.” Though cynical, it is the view of many. T…

When gender identity confuses the electronic health record

One little thing. Somehow, with the changeover to the latest release of our electronic medical record, something happened to some of the demographic information on our patients. Suddenly, an enormous number of patients were now labeled as choosing not …

School vaccine exemptions must be for medical conditions only

No, vaccines do not cause autism. No, vaccines do not cause cancer. No, vaccines are not toxic. No, getting the disease is not safer than vaccination. Yes, they are safe. Yes, they are effective. As a pediatrician, I spend countless hours each week tal…