Category: primary care

What’s the future of the physician assistant?

Currently, in America, there are only three legal groups of prescribers, the physicians (which include MDs, DOs, DPMs), the nurse practitioner (NPs), and the physician assistant (PAs). The first class of physician assistants, in 1965, was also the year…

A dam about the burst: The job of “doctor” places too much stress on one person

“I wish this were not the case, but I am concerned that your disease is getting worse, and your time may be very short.” “I know you are angry and upset at how you were treated — I will do my best to make sure that does not happen again.” “I am s…

System failure: We need a reboot to better handle intersectionality

In medical school, physicians learn how to diagnose and treat medical conditions. We learn about all the different presentations and revel in catching a complex or rare diagnosis. In essence, we learn to categorize disorders based on a cluster of sympt…

Doctor, how do you define your days?

During a particularly long stretch of being on call, of spending my days caring for patients, documenting in the EMR, and sleeping – I was spent. I felt like a horrible doctor. The blooper reel of my medical misadventures ran through my mind – th…

Working as a digital nomad physician practicing telemedicine while travelling the world

This is not the career path I set out to practice when I left medical school; in fact, it’s a career path that didn’t even exist. But after making a number of lifestyle choices this is where I find myself today. I am sitting writing this ar…

Welcome to prior-authorization hell

“What diagnosis do you want to use for those ear drops you sent on Mr. Johnson,” Jenn texted me. “ICD-L21.8 for seborrheic dermatitis?” Sigh. Welcome to prior-authorization hell. These are generic ear drops I ordered for presumed fungal infection of th…

Healer: Heal thyself; forgive thyself

It is a special group, a mish-mash of medical professionals all with a common purpose: Honing the ability to practice medicine in a more empathetic and compassionate manner, which will benefit both the patient and the professional alike. All meet to sh…

If we don’t support doctors, they will go away

Family medicine — something I devoted my life to and believe in — is being undermined by local doctors and hospital administrators. And I would move, but it seems to be a national trend as well. It’s more cost-effective to hire NPs and turn a bli…

I wanted to care for people, so I became a direct primary care doctor

For whatever reason, being 35,000 feet in the air makes me reflective. During one flight, I had a flurry of thoughts, and the reason I decided to get into this whole mess of direct primary care spilled out of me. I want to share it here because if you …

Why I love caring for geriatric patients

As I enter the exam room, I hear, “Don’t get old honey!” As a physician caring for a large population of geriatric patients in Florida, I hear this approximately five times a day. To this statement, I always reply, “There’s no alternative, though!”  I …