As a first-generation college graduate with the honor of earning my MD and PhD at a federally funded medical scientist training program (MSTP) and nearly no debt upon embarking on the journey of residency, I have a lot to live for and am grateful for a…
Category: KevinMD
Why did it take over a week for doctors to initiate treatment?
Part 3 of a series. Patients with advanced cancer are particularly vulnerable to infection due to a compromised immune system. Moreover, the typical symptoms of serious infection, such as fever and chills, may be absent in cancer patients. If not ident…
How physicians can retire early: 7 steps to follow
Retiring early as a doctor is surprisingly difficult given the typical doctor income. There are four main reasons for this – the heavy debt load to enter the career, the very late start to earning a significant salary (most physicians leave residency a…
Behind the recent good news in cancer statistics
Good news is always welcome, especially when talking about something as serious as cancer. And there is plenty of welcome information in the American Cancer Society’s release of our annual report on “Cancer Statistics, 2019” and its accompa…
It’s OK to care more about things outside of medicine
It seems like natural human tendency to explain ourselves. When we are late to a meeting, we come up with an excuse in case anyone asks. When our kid starts throwing a temper tantrum at the store, people stare at us expecting an apology. In the same…
5 powerful tips for women in medicine
As a woman in medicine, where the odds for pay, promotion, and leadership are stacked against me, I feel obligated to light the path for younger women who come behind me. It has taken me a while to be comfortable with my style of leadership, own my ow…
How should salespeople sell to doctors?
Two device salesmen recently came unannounced to our small private gastroenterology practice. They were hawking a product that could quickly and non-invasively determine how much scar tissue had formed in a patient’s liver, a useful tool for assessing …
Your financial mindset is a baseline for financial success
It’s easy to judge when you don’t experience the same difficulties that others do. The classic scenario in medicine is an internist, who runs marathons and bikes to work, tells his morbidly obese patient to lose weight. How would the scenario work if …
A rare condition that often happens to people with very poor eyesight
I have known him for over thirty years. He has been legally blind for the past five. He tends to be a practical, no-nonsense man. The other day, he seemed restless and very concerned as he lowered his voice and said: “I don’t want you to come to the co…
Marijuana will not fix the opioid epidemic
Marijuana has been used for reported medical purposes for thousands of years when the plant had THC content of 0.5 to 3%. The most common reported medical use is for pain. Several states and the District of Columbia have some form of legalized marijuan…
