“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Several years ago, an anxious senior medical student was preparing his application for The Match, the clearinghouse through which 37,000 candidates ho…
Category: KevinMD
A surgeon mistakes a kidney for a tumor. How can this happen?
A number of media outlets recently featured a story about a Florida general surgeon who removed a normal kidney from a woman who was undergoing spine surgery. How could this have occurred? The 51-year-old patient who had been injured in a car crash was…
Chill out. Doctor’s orders.
You need to chill out. Seriously. Doctor’s orders. Research has long established a link between anxiety and health issues as grave as cancer and heart disease. In today’s world, stressors are everywhere. But thankfully, so are the antidotes to stress. …
The pitfalls and opportunities of rural health care
My medical school is located in Harrogate, Tennessee, a town of 4,000. That’s considered rural. My residency is located in Casper, Wyoming, a city of 60,000. There were some community attendings there that considered that rural. I live and practi…
What a kitten taught me about critical care
I recently read an article entitled “The family said, ‘Do everything.’” It described the case of an elderly patient at the end-stage of life. The article concluded that “If your loved one has reached an end-stage of life, do the right thing. Let them d…
Physician Speaking by KevinMD: Dr. David Geier
Physician Speaking by KevinMD is a boutique speakers bureau founded by Kevin Pho, MD. Today’s spotlight physician speaker is Dr. David Geier. David Geier, MD is a double-board certified orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist in Charles…
Here’s what the corporatization of medicine is doing
Have you ever been to a doctor’s office and felt that your evaluation was rushed? Have you been seen in the emergency room and felt that you were just a number in a long series of patients? Have you ever seen the same doctor for years and felt like the…
The loss a physician feels after partial retirement
Retirement, or half retirement in my case, is a major life change. Transitioning from the accumulation phase, to the maintenance stage, and eventually to the deaccumulation phase can be daunting. These transitions are accompanied by a series of losse…
The recent fish oil and vitamin D studies: Go beyond the headlines
Results of a much-anticipated trial on fish oil and vitamin D generated conflicting headlines recently. Some stories declared good news about the popular supplements. Reuters wrote that fish oil “can dramatically reduce the odds of a heart attack while…
How to reduce burnout in emergency medicine
This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com. As rewarding as working in emergency medicine can be, it also comes with some significant potential downsides. According to some recent studies, stress and burnout rates in the emergency room are som…
