This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com. “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.” So go the famous lyrics from the theme song for “Cheers,” the iconic sitcom of the 1980s. The name thing can get re…
Category: primary care
The fallacy of patient-centered care
I often wonder what it was like before patient-centered care became a mainstream catchphrase. Was there a poor relationship between the patient and physician in the outpatient setting? Were hospitalized patients’ feelings, desires, goals, and therapy o…
How Tom Brady and Lebron James can change your patients’ health
As medical professionals, one of the most challenging things to do is to motivate a patient to make changes in their lives. We passionately want the best for our patients, and it is sometimes so difficult for us to be able to connect with and inspire t…
Physicians can choose not to be powerless against opioid addiction
I didn’t become a primary care doctor to treat opioid addiction. I wasn’t trained for it. To be honest, it scared me. But when you work, like I do, at a clinic that serves a lot of people who have little money or who struggle with mental health and sub…
What if EMRs can never capture the clinical experience?
Apocryphal story from residency: On morning rounds in the critical care unit, the post-call resident starts to present a complicated patient admitted overnight with chest pain, and after the first bits of the history have been presented, the wise old c…
An oncologist explains how to get your loved ones tested for cancer
I see several patients daily with cancer. Some days can be tough, but nothing compares to what they are going through. I know that. The physical anguish and toll that chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery can take on the body. The burden that the diseas…
Have bad news for your patients? Mind your metaphors.
First, the cancer diagnosis. Then, the barrage of trite encouragements: You can beat this! Don’t give up. Keep fighting! It’s not only friends and family members who utter these clichés — usually at a loss of what else to say. Health care providers als…
The commodification of health care is destroying the doctor-patient relationship
My elderly patients miss the days when, in an emergency, they could call their family doctor at home, and they’d be cared for. Retired doctors reminisce about the “good old days” when they were in charge of their own schedules and could prescribe whate…
Become more than a clinician. Be a healer.
When a patient goes to the doctor, they usually have a specific health problem in mind. Sometimes, the treatment is straightforward; a urinary tract infection warrants antibiotics. A laceration can be sutured. Other issues, however, are more complex. F…
How telemedicine can help patients and solve physician burnout
I have been practicing telemedicine successfully for four years. In 2015, I had to beg doctors to work in telemedicine. Because so many doctors were wary of it, I started to get licensed in multiple states, and now, I have 15 state licenses. Well, what…
