Category: KevinMD

Ignaz Semmelweis and why we wash our hands

An adapted excerpt from Decisions: Practical Advice from 23 Men and Women Who Shaped the World. Reprinted with permission from Kensington Books. Copyright © 2020 Robert L. Dilenschneider. Count me among those who apparently didn’t get the “science gene…

Living at the top of our humanity: a patient’s plea

I often hear professionals talking about “working at the top of their license” – contributing their highest skills according to their training. To overcome this pandemic, now more than ever, every single one of us will need to work and live at the top …

The hospital census calm before the COVID-19 storm

I’m a proud member of our hospital’s Jewish All-Star team, which means I work every Christmas. One great thing about working Christmas is the hospital is never full. No one wants to be hospitalized on Christmas. If patients can go home, they do, someti…

We are not expendable. We are not replaceable.

Health care workers’ lives are not expendable. Yet, we are being asked to battle a microscopic enemy with disgracefully inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE). We know that using PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators) would be the best…

The ethical dilemma facing health care workers today

Health care workers will face some very difficult decisions in the days ahead.  The decision: Am I willing to take care of coronavirus patients without proper protection? This is a very personal dilemma. Everyone who goes into any part of medicine is t…

Communicating about cancer: 5 common terms that are frequently misunderstood

In cancer language, it’s not unusual for the medical or scientific meaning of a word to be different from the way the same word is understood in everyday language. Sometimes the difference reflects a focus on populations vs. individuals, and in that ca…

Our collective struggle to fight COVID-19 coronavirus

I hope we eventually study the COVID-19 event after a sober period of analysis and reflection as an example of a societal panic attack. This is not Ebola, with a mortality rate of over 50%, or even SARS, with a 10% death rate.  We’ve seen this movie be…

COVID-19: 5 tips for psychiatrists

In February, I had my first patient ask about my thoughts on the coronavirus. At that time, I was aware of the coronavirus and cautiously optimistic about the situation. My advice to the patient was to have a healthy level of concern about the virus, g…

A guide for mental wellness while distancing: a psychiatrist’s perspective

One week ago, a mere glance at my phone between patients would have sufficiently caught me up on 30 minutes of disconnect from both social and mainstream media. Today, as I closed one virtual appointment and waited for my 9 o’clock follow-up to join me…

Interested in locum tenens? Beware of fees.

Eighty-five percent of health care facilities used locum tenens temporary doctors in 2019 to address their staffing shortages or gaps in coverage. Physicians are turning to locum tenens work to allow them more flexibility, extra income, the ability to …