Many Americans hold beliefs about the flu vaccine that are at odds with the best available scientific evidence. For example, a recent study found that more than two-fifths, or 43 percent, of Americans believe that the seasonal flu vaccine can give us t…
“Is she in pain?” I asked quietly as the pearlescent baby-shaped image on the screen folded its legs and then extended them. The radiologist doing my ultrasound had just finished pointing out a cluster of alarming abnormalities in our devel…
86 minutes. That’s what I found when I added up how late patients were through a single practice session earlier in the week. Some patients arrived on time, and some a few minutes early, but the average was about 8 minutes late, ranging up to one…
“What took you so long? I’d have thought you would address this issue sooner.” I felt a like a scolded child sitting in the principal’s office. In fact, the small couch I was sitting on rested nearly a foot lower than the chair on which he perched. All…
I am beginning to think that we should not see chronic care patients between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. It just makes us look bad. Our quality metrics make the last blood pressure and the previous diabetic lab test of the year for each of our pat…
Eat less, exercise more is a common refrain heard by millions of people with obesity. If only it were that simple. Decades of research shows obesity is a disease that is caused by a combination of genetic, environmental, biological, and behavioral fact…
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com. It’s no secret that some businesses are family businesses and medicine is no exception. The anonymous Northern California cardiologist known as “Dads Dollars Debts” confesses in a b…
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 55-year-old man is evaluated in the emergency department for a 2-day history of mild nausea and dyspepsia that is worse with fasting and im…
Rock-paper-scissors is a game that nearly all of us played as children. It is a game with incredible opportunities to play mind games with your opponent. There is no luck in rock-paper-scissors as with card games. The game does not have complex rules l…
Women physicians are disheartened when they discover the financial implications of having children. Most of us will not get paid leave. Many of us are the breadwinning partner. And most of us will not become stay at home moms so we will need to pay for…
