Category: KevinMD

MKSAP: 81-year-old woman with headaches, redness of the face, and itching

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. An 81-year-old woman is evaluated for a 1-year history of headaches, redness of the face, and itching. She indicates being otherwise capable …

5 tips for interns tackling a busy schedule

The rotations on adult medicine and critical care are probably the most challenging ones for the residents doing internal medicine residency. No matter how much we try, we tend to feel overwhelmed, fatigued and swamped sometimes. As we progress into re…

Inappropriate antibiotics are the new drugs of abuse

In my clinical practice, I have encountered patient aggression typically with narcotic medications, in particular with the refusal of a refill due to evidence of concerning behavior, like a positive drug screen for drugs not prescribed. Aggressive beha…

The 4 C’s of the disruptive digital health space

The United States spends more of their GDP on health care than any other developed nation, and yet it produces some of the poorest outcomes — notably in the field of maternal and infant health. The advent of digital health has presented the opportunity…

A student doctor says, “Time’s Up”

According to the NASEM report, half of women medical students experience sexual harassment before they start their careers as physicians. The numbers are even higher for people belonging to minority groups. This harassment is generally overlooked and t…

The tip of the iatrogenic benzodiazepine iceberg

Life experience gives one an intimate appreciation for the meaning behind the saying “just the tip of the iceberg.” Everyone’s encountered something that turned out to be much larger and more complex than was initially understood. In my experience, med…

My first patient taught me a humbling lesson

“How do you say cultural competence in Korean?” “I am always treated with respect in America. So why don’t they care about me here?” My first patient at my community clinic rotation struggled to speak English. But she came prepared, her wor…

Fertility, family planning, and the physician life

Every morning the alarm clock goes off, I hit snooze once, twice, three times — and eventually get out of bed and on with the day. “Snoozing” is a bad habit for sleep hygiene. Unfortunately, I’ve realized the downside of snoozing also is a euphemism fo…

Sharing administrative pain might give us more joy in medicine

I’m still trying to figure out what happened. I don’t want to be put on suicide watch by the wellness office. It definitely began during our weekly noontime mindfulness session. I came in late, furtively signed in (gotta make that metric) and slipped i…

A plastic surgeon explains the dangers of the Brazilian butt lift

The Brazilian butt lift (BBL) is a procedure that enhances the buttocks through fat transfer. Excess fat is harvested from other areas of the body including the abdomen, hips, lower back and thighs through liposuction. BBL is a popular procedure for th…