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 …
Category: primary care
The burden of the documentation and administrative tasks on physicians needs to be lightened significantly
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…
A holistic approach to health and wellness requires openness and vulnerability
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 …
A resignation letter to my patients: How do I leave you well?
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?” &…
Stop blaming others. You need to own your actions.
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…
The unfair blame on primary care physicians
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…
A Black physician’s exhortation to new Black interns
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…
Why do patients hate going to the doctor?
“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…
COVID-19 can be an opportunity to eliminate low-value health care
The COVID-19 pandemic has stretched health care systems across Canada beyond capacity. Surges of COVID-19 have strained available beds, exhausted health care workers and resources. Some regional and provincial health systems delayed all non-essential p…
How to keep your optimism in medicine [PODCAST]
“Interviewing for medical schools was intense, excruciating, and terrifying. Despite the difficult questions, there are three that stand out to me. The first was to differentiate sympathy from empathy, where I spent 30 minutes defending my answer…
