I've held the hands of my patients. I've been the one whose hand has been held. I've received trust and given trust, and the therapeutic decisions my patients and I reach were not subject to the interdiction of a third party. I do not want to have my life's role…
"With regard to health care in the USA, the quote from Dickens is twice correct. We are in the best of times for knowledge, capability, and potential. We also are in the worst of times with regard to the application of our knowledge and the outcomes achieved, especially when compared…
Numerous studies have shown that patient experience does matter. Patients are more likely to fill their prescriptions, follow up on their follow-up care guidelines, and return to the doctor if their doctor was nice to them, listened to them, and treated them respectfully. Anecdotally, I see it in my dad.…
It was arrogance. I think that allowed the physicians to not even consider that something could go wrong during a procedure in which they participated, and it was arrogance. I think that allowed the young physician to stand at the foot of my sister's bed and simply say, “She has…
"Yes, the opioid crisis in this country has caused a reckoning in the medical field about how to treat patient pain. Ignoring the pain will not make it go away. Options are available beyond opioids, and policymakers and health care providers need to be aware that attention to effective health…
“One of the things that you wrote in your article is that no job is too tough if they pay you enough. That was what you were told. So tell me about your mindset as you were considering this transition.” You know, that's certainly what I was told. And you…
For those other surgical residents or fellows just encountering the attending job market and they're considering various offers, what kind of advice do you have for them? Money is important, but it's not the only thing. Culture's important. There's a lot more wellness and well-being and burnout, and you gotta…
"It has now been almost four years since I transitioned to academia. I see fewer patients per day and take fewer call. I also have more time with each patient, more time to recharge, more time for other academic pursuits, and more time for creative outlets. My compensation has decreased,…
If you enjoy medicine in general, if it was exciting to you to be in medical school, if you want to learn about all kinds of various aspects of medicine and really help people in a way that they weren't afforded this help in the past, and be able to…
f you follow trends in other industries in a few years, healthcare's gonna catch up to that industry. So I looked at how other industries would use social media and use platforms to get their voice across, and I thought that we, as physicians, also need to get our voices…
"Doing medical-legal consulting is a great way to use your medical training in a non-clinical field that really helps people. One of the many things we can do is help attorneys refute the question of a pre-existing medical condition. Often opposing counsel will try to lay off accident injuries as…
I think every health care professional is responsible for the mental wellness of their patients. I know it's an unfair statement because there's so much more going on. I'm in these doctor's offices all the time. There's not a lot of time to spare people around, and they're ultimately trying…
Someone getting screened for behavioral health or substance abuse should be the same as taking their blood pressure. Blood pressure became a preventative measure because the number of people with cardiac issues became too costly. We're on the same path when it comes to mental health, and we have to…
In this special sponsored episode, I’m joined by Ernie Wallerstein, CEO of Mental Health Technologies, or MHT. MHT is a cloud-based platform that enables health care clinicians to identify patients that may be suffering from undiagnosed or inadequately treated mental health and substance abuse disorders. As a primary care physician,…
“How did you make this patient the protagonist in her own story?” I have this magic wand question, which sometimes I ask patients when I'm confused trying to figure out what's going on or how it can meet their needs. And the magic wand question is: “If I had a…
“How do you maintain the focus on each patient's story in the emergency department?” Curiosity. I feel like one of the first impulses that we have as clinicians, and I think it's a good impulse, is like we want to do something. We want to help. And there are so…
Jay Baruch is an emergency physician and author of Tornado of Life: A Doctor’s Journey Through Constraints and Creativity in the ER. We discuss his emergency medicine journey, poignant cases, the importance of stories in the doctor-patient relationship, why writing is so important, and how physicians can be creative. The…
“We do live in a polar society where we only see things in binary terms. Right or wrong, yes or no. You talk about living in the gray. Sometimes that means you may have to listen to perspectives that you don't necessarily agree with and understand someone from across the…
I clearly understand how unproductive it is to see things in black and white. I believe swimming around in the gray is where the real work happens, and it helps us to really unpack history systems that cause harm. Policies that are unhelpful and living in the gray can also…
"It is impossible to fix a system with an unwillingness to bend. It means working together to accomplish a goal. Living in the gray requires a commitment to growth and discomfort. In the gray, it is possible to hold on to deeply held convictions while bending just enough, leading toward…
People for whatever reason, and many are legit, some are questionable, whatever. It doesn't really matter anymore. I think this horse is way out of the barn. I wish people were a little more nuanced and could ramp up if things got worse, which I suspect they will in the…
I think every physician can look back on their career, and they'll remember a patient not because of some miraculous cure but because they think there was something they could have done differently, something they could have done better, or something they did not do that they should have done.…
"If any of those people get infected, their illness will potentially impact dozens more. COVID infection may now be 'just a cold,' at least for the vaccinated. But no one should think this 'you do you, I’ll do me' approach to the pandemic affects only them. Not by a long…
Like all physical or sensory pleasures, maybe go outside and be in nature and really enjoy that. Regarding intellectual pleasures, maybe instead of just listening to the news that you don't actually really enjoy, maybe put on a podcast like ours and get some intellectual stimulation and enjoyment from that.…