Recently, I was sitting in the DFW airport after my son’s soccer tournament witnessing multiple flight cancellations. Travelers became upset because their plans were ruined due to “staff shortages.” I felt lucky as my flight was just …
Category: primary care
What is the narrative that you hear when faced with uncertainty?
The first week of my big attending job, I saw a patient with fever, sore throat, no cough, and tonsillar exudates. Well-trained to manage septic shock, but having no idea how to practice in a primary care clinic, I crafted a vast array of infectious an…
How to tackle the physician shortage [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. “The national physician shortage is an urgent issue that requires immediate attention. Otherwise, the next time you seek medical care, you might be treated by a non-physician for a condition that requires phys…
A hard lesson for new attending physicians
It is the time of the year in which freshly graduated residents and fellows finally enter the health care systems as an attending after years of hard work and training. A time of celebrating and reflection, and a time to stop and think of what you have…
NLP and AI technologies streamline tedious health care processes to enable faster care
Two years after the global pandemic totally rewrote the health care playbook, hospitals, health systems, facilities, and providers are still striving to find some semblance of normalcy. Challenges present before the pandemic weren’t solved during the a…
A doctor for LGBTQ+ health needs
As a queer, nonbinary, poly, and kinky person, medicine has been a challenging field to fit into, both as a patient and a physician. While a first-year med student, I was misdiagnosed and inaccurately treated for an STI due to my physician’s bias…
Allow yourself a moment to focus on yourself, not the next patient
No, hearing that child screaming in the patient care room is not “normal.” My best friend’s son was throwing a tantrum the other night while we were having dinner. He did not want the Chinese food I had picked up, even though I got hi…
The forgotten crisis: a shortage of geriatric doctors in the U.S.
The scarcity of geriatricians in the United States is a severe problem in the public health sphere due to the increased number of older adults and the lack of health care professionals who specialize in this demographic. Approximately 7,000 geriatricia…
How you can donate effectively after tragedy
Gun violence, war, pandemic, natural disasters — listening to the news or doom scrolling on social media during times of tragedy can leave us feeling devastated, discouraged, and angry. Tragedy can also make us feel like helping. We’re motivated …
Getting an appointment with primary care is the Achilles’ heel of medicine
“Doctor, it’s taken so long to get this appointment with you!” This is the opening line of so many medical visits, and I find myself constantly apologizing to my patients on behalf of our system. After the pandemic-induced lull in rou…
