During a particularly long stretch of being on call, of spending my days caring for patients, documenting in the EMR, and sleeping – I was spent. I felt like a horrible doctor. The blooper reel of my medical misadventures ran through my mind – th…
Category: KevinMD
Supporters of Obamacare should consider this Trump proposal
Readers of my articles know that no one has been more critical of Obamacare’s flaws––particularly over the impact the program has had on middle-class consumers in the individual health insurance market. And, readers already know that no one has b…
As the coronavirus spreads, should unvaccinated people be allowed to fly?
As the coronavirus spreads, the nation’s leading health official told a Senate committee on Feb. 25 that “we cannot hermetically seal off the United States to a virus.” The comments from Alex Azar II, head of Health and Human Services, heightened conce…
The problems with testing for novel coronavirus
Just weeks into the federal government’s efforts to contain the novel coronavirus, a new California case has exposed weaknesses in the testing procedures that could be masking more widespread reach of the disease. A woman in Solano County, California, …
How businesses are handling COVID-19
Chances are, if you work for a large company, you received an email like one sent to Volkswagen employees Monday: Coronavirus concerns mean some limits on business travel, everyone should remember to “wash your hands frequently” and stay home if sick. …
Core values were key to reclaiming my physician identity
My identity crisis attempted its first appearance five years ago. I had decided to leave my job as a psychiatrist in an outpatient, community-based practice. My professional role had become incongruent with the doctor I had envisioned becoming. In my m…
Everyone needs rudimentary statistical training
Every day we get bombarded in the news with health statistics. Coffee causes cancer! Coffee cures cancer! And so on. Many of these are meant to grab headlines (and, these days, web page clicks), and the articles they accompany are often very poor at te…
When an aging parent says no to much needed help
The first signs are often subtle — missed appointments, unpaid bills, or a once immaculate home that now has an unmowed lawn and dirty dishes on the counter. It’s easy for adult children of aging parents to miss these first signs that their parents nee…
Working as a digital nomad physician practicing telemedicine while travelling the world
This is not the career path I set out to practice when I left medical school; in fact, it’s a career path that didn’t even exist. But after making a number of lifestyle choices this is where I find myself today. I am sitting writing this ar…
When a wife won’t let her husband die
We were told to wear masks before entering this patient’s ICU room. Entering his room, you could smell his rotting flesh. He was 92 years old. His skin would slough off if you dared to bathe him. His decubitus ulcers were raging with infection. As long…
