When I wear a mask over my face, I am protecting both of us. When I wear a mask over my feelings, I am protecting both of us, too. When you ask me, “How are you doing?” this is why I have no answer. Four days a week, I have a (currently mos…
Category: primary care
3 steps to changing your EHR system
If you are a physician unhappy with your current EHR system (surveys suggest 2 out of 3 are), and you do have the ability to switch, this article is for you. Our COVID-19 pandemic may place you in a bad financial time for this, but it’s also plac…
3 steps to changing your EHR system
If you are a physician unhappy with your current EHR system (surveys suggest 2 out of 3 are), and you do have the ability to switch, this article is for you. Our COVID-19 pandemic may place you in a bad financial time for this, but it’s also plac…
The superpower of being present
I turned to my 2-year old daughter with a simple ask: “Can you worry about tomorrow for me?” Blank stare. “All I am asking is that you worry about tomorrow. Just follow the lead of us adults who make it look easy. Now, can you do that for daddy? (Don’t…
What can patients do to lower the risk of errors in their electronic medical records?
In a perfect world, an electronic medical record would aggregate a patient’s medical information from all health care providers into a single, comprehensive record that could be easily accessed by any provider with the patient’s permission. This inform…
During COVID-19, not everyone can get with the digital program
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, hospital edicts issued to protect patients would expose institutional frailties. The drastic implementation of nationwide telehealth measures would detrimentally affect patients who lacked access to health…
When chlamydia became TMI
“Would an STI cause abdominal pain?” someone in a class discussion asked. “Well, when I had chlamydia, I didn’t have abdominal pain,” I responded truthfully. Instantly, the group went silent. “OK, Jay. That’s … TMI,” someone else in the group quickly r…
When learning medicine is not enough
“Hey, doc,” our new patient grinned at me without teeth. He wears his teeth to eat peanuts, he explained, but today was hankering for a ham sandwich, so left the teeth at home. Here in the clinic straight from the logging job that he had worked for the…
What do you want from health care after COVID?
In the last six weeks or so, the practice of medicine has been turned topsy-turvy by the COVID pandemic. Those weeks seem like an eternity. We have been so consumed with testing and treatment coronavirus, flattening the curve, and figuring out how to …
After COVID-19, there’s no turning back from a digital clinical workforce
Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has challenged our health care industry in profound and irreversible ways, creating massive pressure that has exposed system-wide inefficiencies and inequalities. It has also fundamentally shifted the way first responders, …
