An excerpt from The Medical Jungle: A Pioneering Surgeon’s Battle to Revolutionize Vascular Care and Challenge the Medical Mafia. Still no matter what anyone said, I knew in my heart that endovascular grafts and endovascular aneurysm repair were …
Category: surgery
Beyond the physical: How hand injuries affect identity and expression [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, we’re joined by Peter T. Hetzler, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, to discuss the importance of the hand in human identity and expression. In the U.S. private se…
Navigating the gray area: a doctor’s perspective on treating a colleague
“Musta been the ham sandwich,” he said as he leaned onto the operating table and belched a couple of times. We were halfway through an operation, and Doug, my partner, didn’t look all that good. I’d been in practice for all of a…
The hidden costs of teaching surgery: an academic surgeon’s perspective
I ran across one of those bordering-on-sappy Facebook posts that always pull me in, asking people to describe their job poorly and make it comically accurate. The photographer admitted she would flash clients, shoot someone, and then frame someone else…
The hidden link between soft skills and patient safety
The skill Patient safety, patient experience, workforce health, and cost-effectiveness are critical outcomes with an important common root. They’re all impacted by our ability to communicate effectively and respectfully. Additional terms to describe th…
The hidden link between soft skills and patient safety
The skill Patient safety, patient experience, workforce health, and cost-effectiveness are critical outcomes with an important common root. They’re all impacted by our ability to communicate effectively and respectfully. Additional terms to describe th…
The abusive surgeon and the sleep-deprived intern: a novel
An excerpt from Doctor Zhulik. Christmas Eve “You know, you’re the worst f*cking intern I have ever seen.” How can he make such a declarative judgment when I’m just holding retraction? You coulda used one of those metal retracto…
Shame as an unethical teaching tool
The senior medical student is hours into her on-call shift on her surgical rotation. She’s been up since four, exhausted, and can’t remember if she had eaten anything since breakfast. The staff surgeon on call “pimps” her on sur…
How accelerated learning platforms are pushing surgical education forward
Surgical training has long been confined to traditional models of Halstedian apprenticeship, where trainees are guided—but also potentially limited—by their superiors. Within this dynamic, the transfer of knowledge from expert to learner is dependent o…
Coaching or mentorship: What is the solution for physicians? [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “Over the years, I have mentored a lot of trainees. After discovering coaching and seeing my career transform after I started working with a coach, I have become a coach myself. I def…
