During the winter months, it’s common for many families to spend more time indoors due to colder weather and fewer daylight hours. Unfortunately, children may also end up spending an increased amount of time using electronics to entertain or dive…
Category: KevinMD
Both physicians and patients need to stop viewing technological tools as threats
A recent study published in Science, one of the world’s leading academic journals, found that a predictive health care algorithm discriminated against black patients. The tool, created by Optum, was designed to identify high-risk patients with untreate…
Why intangible skills are so important for surgeons
As a fourth-year orthopaedic surgery resident, we had some surgical autonomy. Always at arm’s length from the attending oversight, this was just enough to push us past our comfort zones. My problem was I loved my comfort zone. The single most influent…
To err is human, to empathize is to heal
Empathizing with others’ suffering is one of the most human expressions in life. For empathy to nurture, like any other emotion, it needs time and space, and in none other professions, this maxim is codified as profoundly as in medicine. Even in …
Why gratitude is a superpower
I found this note waiting for me this morning in the kitchen. It was from my daughter, who is home for the holiday week from New York. I made her a cup of coffee yesterday morning, and it was waiting for her on the table when she woke up and meandered …
Medicine is for the birds, or it should be
Medicine is for the birds, or it should be. Hear me out. A day before I wrote this, I was on the trail in northwest Ohio, binoculars in hand, trying to tell one warbler from another. This was the final weekend of the biggest week of birding in Magee …
A physician’s story of addiction, depression, hope, and recovery
An excerpt from Long Walk Out of the Woods: A Physician’s Story of Addiction, Depression, Hope, and Recovery. As a young child’s heart rhythm faded to a stop, I walked off the hospital floor and got in my car with a plan to end my own life. For w…
A physician’s story of addiction, depression, hope, and recovery
An excerpt from Long Walk Out of the Woods: A Physician’s Story of Addiction, Depression, Hope, and Recovery. As a young child’s heart rhythm faded to a stop, I walked off the hospital floor and got in my car with a plan to end my own life. For w…
The sad demise of an idealistic family physician
Graduation from my residency program was a bittersweet experience. At the time, my specialty was suffering from a crippling job shortage, so our futures were uncertain, and a dark mood had come to permeate my radiology residency. We were disgruntled wi…
What’s the hardest part of a physician’s job?
I work in the ER. It’s not an easy job. Not glamorous either. At least not as glamorous as my mother-in-law used to think. Years ago, when I declared I was going into emergency, she looked at me askance. She didn’t ask why. She looked at me with her wi…
