In a recent article for Pain Medicine News, “4 Steps Every Provider Must Take Before Prescribing an Opioid,” two lawyers detail the voluminous documentation doctors must collect and maintain to protect themselves against all these new anti-…
Category: KevinMD
“The Wait” after a mammogram changes lives
There is something both intimate and mysterious about the waiting area for mammograms. You sit in a relatively small space; chairs close together with a gown tied to cover your nakedness, your normally restrained lady parts flopping free against the sc…
For most, the flu is a misery, not an emergency
If you think that you might have the flu, don’t head to the emergency room at the first sign of fever. Emergency departments were created to handle emergencies – heart attacks, strokes, severe trauma, and other life-threatening emergencies. No matter h…
Male physicians don’t have to choose between family or career
“Didn’t you just have a baby? When are you going to stop?” Those words weren’t directed to me but to a colleague by a patient’s parent who was frustrated that they wouldn’t be able to see her for follow-up. Yet, they could have easily been uttered by a…
The problem with high-potency marijuana
Advocates for the legalization of medical and retail marijuana are quick to point out all the possible benefits that a community might see from such a venture. These include increased jobs, increased tax revenue, possible medical benefits and they adve…
A story of treatment failure and end-of-life decisions
Part 4 of a series. By the time my father’s metastatic prostate cancer was diagnosed, he was already experiencing symptoms of poor appetite and weight loss, which grew progressively worse following his first hospital admission. As his nutritional statu…
Negotiation tips for new doctors
In an ideal world, we should all be compensated fairly for our services and skills. The reality, as we all experience, is an amalgam of mistakes and victories. One hopes that with time our skills will translate to a greater number of victories. Most…
Generics aren’t going to help the cost of chemotherapy drugs
Chemotherapy drugs have become ridiculously expensive. Many new drugs come to market costing more than $100,000 per patient for a full course of treatment. Often, patients have to pay a significant portion of these costs. For example, a 20% co-insuranc…
Is personalized medicine mostly marketing and hype?
“Personalized” medicine sounds appealing. Rather than just guessing at what medication to try, a genetic test can figure out, in advance, which medications will be effective and which medications are more likely to make you sicker. Except it doesn’t wo…
Doctors: Never forget the importance of eye contact
Eye contact is one of the most basic mammalian traits that signals an interaction. Anybody who has a dog or cat at home sees on a daily basis how much animals value eye contact (and with dogs, it signals you’ve lost the battle!). In the case of health …
