When it comes to running, I am 100 percent pure-bred, authentically average. I love to run, but I don’t ever expect any record-breaking times. Did that woman in a hot-dog costume just pass me on the course? Sure did! As the Olympic games are upon us an…
Caring for patients is not only a clinical endeavor, it is also an ethical one. Patient care and ethics are woven together as an integral part of every doctor-patient encounter. Medical schools have traditionally taught students the principle-based eth…
Let’s face it, what’s getting most physicians down is not their patients. No, ask any group of physicians what the hardest part of the job is, and you’ll like get a pretty consistent response: It’s the EMR! With studies showing …
It takes a special person to care for people during their most vulnerable states, to keep intimate details about people while remaining compassionate even toward the seemingly vilest of persons. The white color of a physicians’ coat can be a metaphor f…
The health care crisis is a difficult one to face. Health care budgets have skyrocketed, and rates of chronic illnesses have increased much faster than before. As physician leaders, what if we each took personal responsibility for the crisis? Perhaps …
Before I walk into clinic, I already know their response if I submitted my resignation letter today. I hear it monthly from multiple patients who have no reason to believe I’m leaving: “You aren’t going to leave too, are you?” &…
Own it. People sometimes say, “Own it.” Own your mistake. We use it less frequently to say own reactions or actions instead of blaming others and external forces for our actions. Life coaches call it being in a state of “emotional chi…
When plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Pearl published his Los Angeles Times op-ed, “How Doctor Culture Sinks U.S. Healthcare,” a polemic essay critical of primary care physicians like me, he set off a firestorm. While he made some valid points, Dr. Pearl als…
There are some things I wanted to say to you as you officially commence your training that I wish I had been told. Take your training with you. Take the love and support of your family with you. Take the ancestors—their prayers, their struggles, the…
“No offense to you, Doc, but I hate coming to the doctor.” I hear these words at least once a week when I walk into a patient’s room. In 15 years of practice, that means about a thousand times. And that does not include my training ye…
