It’s been a little over two years since I started this journey of blogging about passive income, and I’ve learned so much along the way. The term “passive income” has come to mean something very different to me over these years. I used to t…
Category: KevinMD
There’s no room for ego in health care
I was recently seeing a rather complicated medical patient in the hospital. We were treating both a heart and kidney condition, and things were not going so well. To spare anyone non-medical who is reading this the scientific details of the bodily proc…
Physicians sacrifice a lot to deliver care. Technology shouldn’t ask for more.
I had a great case the other night. Around midnight on a Friday, the hospitalist physician called me to evaluate an incarcerated femoral hernia. I thought this elderly and medically ill patient would likely die no matter what I did. I spent a grim half…
You must make a good first impression with patients
First impressions are critical. We are taught early in our careers that first impressions truly matter. Whether interviewing for medical school or a residency program, our goal is to make a positive first impression in hopes of making the cut at each c…
It’s the little things that can make or break the doctor-patient relationship
“The dermatology profession exists for the primary purpose of caring for the patient. The physician-patient relationship is the central focus of all ethical concerns.” – American Academy of Dermatology, Code of Medical Ethics. The doctor-patient …
A physician’s letter to his wife
To my wife, Let’s just start at the beginning. When we first met, you thought I was arrogant and prideful. For two and a half years we would rarely talk while we walked past each other in our small college town. At the time, we never could have imagi…
Money will be lost in health care. This is true no matter how we describe it.
Does anyone in medicine, particularly emergency medicine, understand why we lose money? Why we have to push those metrics so hard to capture every dime? I mean, we’re constantly reminded that satisfaction scores, and time-stamps and time to door, time …
The insanity of American health care prices played out in this one, real oncology appointment
The oncologist had prescribed Xgeva hoping it would strengthen her bones while also delaying the progression of Angela Kahn’s breast cancer. But Kahn (a pseudonym) couldn’t get over the price of the drug. Before the oncologist had a chance …
Asking primary care clinicians to work harder isn’t a solution
“Sorry Dr. Pelzman, just one exam room today.” This is how our medical technician greeted me as I arrived for my Wednesday morning practice session earlier this week, with a full panel of patients on the schedule set to see me over the next…
What this physician learned by helping a medical student write a personal statement
“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…
