Category: KevinMD

Who are responsible for outrageous medical bills? Hint: It’s not doctors.

Over the last few years, there has been a slew of articles about patients receiving surprise bills after ER visits. One woman was charged $5,751 for an ice pack and a bandage. An infant was charged $937 for an antibiotic ointment. Who sends bills like …

Medical students are more than just numbers

Student G.M is a 228. When she came to our school, she was a 31. When she went to college, she was a 1270. Now we must make this number a caring, feeling person who has the empathy to impact the lives of patients for decades. Makes sense, right? Wrong!…

I have more hope than ever for women in medicine

Recently, I was a speaker at a conference for 200 physician moms. Most attendees were early- to mid-career. I had to laugh — I was one of the oldest doctor moms in the room. I thought to myself, where are the later-career moms? How many women are quitt…

Will the coronavirus make primary care physicians cool again?

Two topics that have been flooding everyone’s timeline and twitter feed over the past few weeks: COVID-19 and remote work–or for our health care folks, virtual care. I won’t touch too much on COVID-19. There are tons of experts doing amazing work…

MKSAP: 26-year-old man with back pain

Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 26-year-old man is evaluated during a follow-up visit after presenting to an urgent care clinic for back pain 1 week ago. Laboratory studie…

The coronavirus cost that no one can count

On December 31, 2019, the world changed as we knew it, but the future implications for the United States were not apparent at the time. On that day, the World Health Organization (WHO) China Country Office was informed of new cases of “pneumonia …

COVID-19: Test medical students, accelerate the Match, and let us graduate early to join the fight

As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) makes its way across the country and globe, I have been thinking about how we fourth-year medical students fit into the picture.  Not quite out one door, yet not quite in the other, our liminal perspective is liable …

It’s time to stop treating suffering like a necessary rite of passage

Once, when I was a senior resident covering a busy trauma service at a county hospital, I was on call for nine days in a row while my co-chief had an uncovered vacation. It was July, and we were all — interns, junior residents, and me — new…

A plea from an emergency physician on the front lines

Our lives are quickly changing. Schools are closing; sports are being canceled; people are working from home, Disneyland is closing, toilet paper is in short supply. We are about to hit a real struggle with our health care system. We are about to hit a…

Proper endings like this feel right

He was a logical man. A northeast Ohio man. Who worked all his life and worked hard. I can see it in his hands. They are entirely calloused with traces of grease impervious even to pumice soap. A family man. His wife and sons and daughters are at bedsi…