Category: KevinMD

MKSAP: 66-year-old man with ST-elevation myocardial infarction

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 66-year-old man is evaluated in the hospital following ST-elevation myocardial infarction treated with primary percutaneous coronary interv…

Imagine viewing health care from space

Instead of driving on the highway, let’s imagine you drove upwards from wherever you are. You’ll reach space in about an hour. On your way up, you’ll begin to see everything differently. Cities, roads, and trees slowly blur out to make way for a new ki…

A physician’s addiction to social media

For Apple iPhone users, the release of iOS 12 included a new feature called “Screen Time.” Although a number of productivity apps that offered a similar snapshot of phone usage were available before this update, I was never interested in quantifying my…

Quality is more than documentation designed to meet billing and data metrics

As I walk into the well-upholstered elevator lobby of the hospital and make my way toward the stairs for another night of covering the ICU, I am again inundated with plaques, advertisements and a six-foot-tall cardboard cutout depicting an executive in…

Direct primary care physicians are not concierge doctors

I recently received a scathing email criticizing an article I wrote about the care of patients in underserved areas. “Should you really even get to write articles about poor, underserved populations when you run a concierge practice?” the author wrote….

How to talk with a struggling physician colleague

My friend, Lello Tesema, and I were sitting in a restaurant in Harvard Square. It was the first, feverish bit of spring when it seems like the entire city has emerged en masse from their winter dens. We were sitting outside under patio lights, wearing …

Reflections after a medical student’s first code blue

We were in the middle of the morning routine – sign out between mouthfuls of eggs and homefries – when the call came in overhead, “Code Blue, 9 West.  Code Blue, 9 West.”  Just like that, our team snapped into action, the continued banter only thinly c…

“P” stands for physician

Medical practice in England in the 1500s was poorly regulated, and there was no way to distinguish between various medical practitioners. A small group of distinguished physicians petitioned King Henry VIII to form a College to grant licenses to those …

Why medical students should develop and increase self-awareness

The most important piece of advice I can give to incoming medical students is to be vigilant about how you are feeling day-to-day and to be aware of your actions. As is often said, our personalities, the distinctive makeup that makes us who we are, are…

How a radiology trick can surprisingly help your finances

One of the great teaching experiences in a young medical student or resident’s life is to be placed in front of his or her peers with an attending physician quizzing him or her on the spot about a particular patient. Often, when radiology imaging…