Every day, as we care for our patients, we are placed in a unique position, where we are armed with the world of literature, randomized controlled trials, society recommendations, national screening and practice guidelines, and more, working to prompt …
Death is an inevitable part of the journey of life. We all have experienced its effects: the death of a family member, the death of a friend or those special individuals who we might have barely known but who left an indelible mark upon our consciousne…
As a family physician in the trenches, I routinely see blatantly poor medical care in the history of my new patients. Far too many people get unwarranted medications and tests, while important things go unrecognized or unaddressed. This paradox is madd…
I have three kids — all with very different temperaments and different personalities. Sometimes I use the term superpower to identify and cultivate their strengths and greatest attributes. I have always believed that my superpower is connection. It is …
“Hi, Doctor Kamajian! I finally got health insurance that I can use to come to see you with my son.” I looked at the chart and realized it had been three years since I had seen her very familiar face. So, before the exam, we chatted and got reacq…
1. Cover your patients It was my first year of practice. One day I saw a new patient, a 25-year-old man with hemorrhoidal pain. My nurse told him to disrobe and put on a lap sheet. When I entered the room, I was surprised to see that the young man was …
Recently the CEO of a large health care network stated: “Market forces don’t apply to health care.” Of course, economic and political forces apply to health care. Big Medicine’s most powerful entities (insurers, hospitals, medical schools, pharmaceuti…
As someone who has been in the medical field for nearly ten years, I have had the opportunity to follow many physicians. I started off shadowing physicians, standing behind them as they would speak to patients in their rooms. Now, as a resident physici…
“The patient-clinician relationship is dead.” Those of us in health care hear this refrain constantly these days, coming at us from all angles. We feel it in the wall that goes up when we turn from our patients to our computer screens. We infer it in a…
My late father often repeated the adage, “Any man who serves as his own lawyer has a fool for a client.” We physicians may not represent ourselves in court, but we often try to treat ourselves or neglect our own medical care — and end up with a fool fo…
