An excerpt from Right Brain Rescue: One physician’s journey from burnout to bliss reveals the creative muse in all of us. I was about to perform reconstructive surgery, to change someone’s life forever. My hands were posed above the body, and my …
Category: KevinMD
It’s so important for medical students to share their stories [PODCAST]
“As a medical student, you find potential patients everywhere. Whether you’re on an airplane or on a romantic dinner date, we’ve all heard those famous words, ‘Is there a doctor in the house?!’ Here are some of my favorite ‘pati…
Who could understand what it’s like to tell someone their loved one is dying?
I sat outside my patient’s ICU room, my eyes glancing from his chart to him and his wife. The picture was grim. My patient, Tom, was a 56-year-old man, severely ill from decompensated cirrhosis, was admitted for the third time in a month with hypothe…
President Trump received dexamethasone and had 2 episodes of low oxygen saturation levels
President Trump was administered dexamethasone therapy for COVID-19 treatment, and had two episodes of low oxygen saturation levels that required supplemental oxygen, said doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center at a press conference on Sunday. “In…
Reflections of a physician coach
It has been six months since I have achieved certification as a physician peer coach. My motivation was the desire to provide both peer support and guidance to my colleagues in health care. Once certified, I began the process of reaching out to individ…
A love letter to the physician with depression
We’ve never met, but I’ll bet you could use some encouragement right about now. This has been a tough year. Maybe for you, like me, depression feels like an old song that keeps getting played and stuck in your head over and over through the years. Or …
Clinical diagnosis in the age of COVID-19
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD. Making an accurate clinical diagnosis is one of the most important things physicians can do for their patients. But being able to do so is not an easy process to begin with. I…
Physicians sometimes need to deviate from established policies
Some time ago, I performed a colonoscopy on a patient who was having serious internal bleeding. He had already received multiple transfusions since he was admitted to the hospital. After obtaining informed consent for the procedure, I performed the c…
How coronavirus took my grandfather’s life [PODCAST]
“One of the calls you dread making as a doctor is telling a family member their loved one is dying. That was the call I received when my grandfather decompensated. We grow accustomed to making the call as clinicians, but we never expect to get it…
America needs to invest in proactive patient outreach now
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced multiple new threats for physical and mental health. The novel coronavirus itself continues to infect more than 30,000 Americans as we enter the influenza season. The pandemic, economic devastation, and racial recko…
