Category: primary care

My left foot is fine. My left arm? Well, maybe not so much.

It began simply enough. There were 12 of us at the spacious table, gathered for a tasty, albeit unconventional Christmas meal of soup and salad. My adult son was seated to my immediate left. Meal completed, compliments and gratitude expressed to the pr…

I’m a burned out family doctor and racism is part of the problem

Stories of overworked and burned out, front line health care workers have been in the news since early in the pandemic. Job vacancies in health care and social assistance are at a record high, according to Statistics Canada data published in March of 2…

Is direct primary care the answer to insurance-based problems? [PODCAST]

“Virtually everyone understands the importance of major medical insurance as it relates to unexpected high-dollar care for severe injuries and significant medical conditions, but the value equation for health insurance is quite different when app…

You are standing on holy ground

One of my favorite passages from sacred writings is the story of Moses, still tending his father-in-law’s sheep, an ordinary day in an ordinary place, suddenly encountering God, the ground he stood on now consecrated into holy ground, admonished …

Professional courtesy means being a “doctor’s doctor”

I recently had an email exchange with a friend and psychiatric colleague, Dr. Michael Myers, on the topic of professional courtesy. It’s a topic I’ve written about before. However, one of my essays stirred considerable controversy, so much …

6 major disadvantages of insurance involvement in primary care

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor. Virtually everyone understands the importance of major medical insurance as it relates to unexpected high-dollar care for severe injuries and significa…

The patient who just wanted to be heard

I was two months into my first year of medical school when I experienced it for the first time. “Room 214 … oh yeah, she’s a real pain. She will probably talk your ear off and come up with a new self-diagnosis that she will want to get a fu…

Depression is a notification that the old patterns are not working

My energy level was plummeting as Mrs. Jones explained how much her shoulder, her knees, her back, her belly, her head, hurt. She was worn out. “And I don’t ever think I’ll feel better. I’ve felt like this for so long and I thin…

How to convert medical knowledge into digital assets that work for you

Over 12 months, I rebuilt my practice workflow to solve the problem of inefficient knowledge transfer between me and my patients. Now with a new system incorporating a library of leveraged digital assets I’m saving time and improving patient expe…

Hasan Minhaj’s joke at the expense of DOs

In September 2021, Hasan Minhaj appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and touted a purported “a war … between MDs and DOs.” In it, he compared osteopathic physicians, DOs, to RC Cola as opposed to the Coca-Cola of MDs, claiming that DOs ar…