“Telehealth has come into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic as physicians face an immediate need to reduce exposure by providing care—or at least triage—remotely when appropriate. Under usual circumstances, telemedicine is comparatively low risk…
Category: primary care
Put nutrition counseling in primary care
The United Nations designated 2016 to 2025 the “Decade of Action on Nutrition” in recognition of the growing importance of food and diet as it relates to all aspects of human health. We’re almost halfway through, and we’re not making the progress we ne…
Primary care pearls from trending CME/CE courses on Pri-Med.com
This article is sponsored by Pri-Med.com. As a clinician during this challenging time, it’s critical to have access to timely, reliable information. Pri-Med, a leading medical education provider, has developed new courses on COVID-19 and other relevant…
One physician’s journey from burnout to bliss reveals the creative muse in all of us
An excerpt from Right Brain Rescue: One physician’s journey from burnout to bliss reveals the creative muse in all of us. I was about to perform reconstructive surgery, to change someone’s life forever. My hands were posed above the body, and my …
How to be an empathetic and compassionate communicator
One of the most annoying things for any professional, is to be face-to-face with the person you are serving—whether it be your customer, client, or patient—in the limited time available to you, and feel that your attention is being diverted from the ma…
What we define as “right” in primary care matters
“Your numbers are horrible!” I was a resident physician in internal medicine seeing patients in primary care clinic. These words, from an attending physician, were meant as off-the-cuff feedback, and their impact surprised me. I suddenly felt exhausted…
Where’s Waldo: Finding what’s important in the medical record
I did a peer review once of an office note about an elderly man with a low-grade fever. The past medical history was all there, several prior laboratory and imaging tests were imported, and there was a long narrative section that blended active medical…
We need to give more thought to informed consent
Using a treatment without having any understanding of how it works is often thought of as unscientific, and suggesting that a placebo can help a sick patient has until now been viewed as unethical. The New England Journal of Medicine just published an …
Why this physician became a personal trainer
As many readers of my work know, I have a huge passion for preventive medicine, and balance my acute care hospital work with an outpatient wellness clinic. I have always been into exercise and outdoor activities since a young age but only became a regu…
How the Google algorithm update helps doctor-written content rank higher
If you’re not intricately involved daily with SEO, let me explain what happened in May 2020 and why it will be a huge boost for content created by physicians. First, what is SEO? In short, it is the process of optimizing content found online in o…
