Coffee: Black Medicine

A story retrieved from the WebMD archives declares, “Doctors and Nurses are Fueled by Coffee.” In 2010, Harris Interactive, a market research agency, orchestrated a survey on coffee consumption. It included more than 3,600 coffee-drinking workers representing 12 professions.1 Nurses achieved the top honor (?). It didn’t take a survey to figure that out. Whether a rare cup – hot and fresh, or cold swill from last night, they drink what they’ve got to get the job done.

Physicians ranked second in coffee consumption from among the 12 professions…

Pursuit of Happiness and a Healthy Lifestyle as a Resident Physician

Physician well-being has become high priority and high visibility. Concern about well-being is almost invariably coupled with concern for physician burnout. We see these concerns in almost every issue of every reputable medical journal. The attention is appropriate, essential, and long overdue. We preach the importance of prevention and risk management to our patients, but we are oblivious to our own needs for the same…

Therapeutic Presence

Research shows that attitude and communication skills of the person delivering the bad news are important in determining the nature of a family’s grieving process, and in their ability to cope and recover.

Managing Patients with Big Shot Syndrome

Self-restraint is one of the most-practiced and valuable skills in my repertoire. I stood in the exam room with her, hands in the pockets of my white coat. I was expressionless and silent while she ranted. I did not, (almost-irresistibly) tell her that this was not the behavior of a woman who was ready for motherhood.

Preparing Your Medical Practice for a Disaster

The year 2017 is remembered in infamy for its disasters: hurricanes, wildfires, blizzards, floods, heat waves, tornados, mudslides, mass shootings, school violence, terrorism, and more. What are the roles of physicians and their practices in disasters? What are their obligations? If a natural or man-made disaster shut down your office and wiped out your office records, would you know how to piece your practice back together and quickly start seeing patients again?

Why Is EHR Interoperability So Difficult?

The point of the blame game isn’t to persecute the players, but to understand the dynamics of interoperability issues, in order to create solutions. Of the stakeholders, only policymakers have a clear, strong interest in promoting interoperability. They should ensure that cross-vendor interoperability isn’t prohibitively costly for EHR vendors and providers. Once the business case for interoperability outweighs the business case against it, both vendors and providers can pursue it without great harm to their bottom lines.

AMA Guidelines for Gifts to Doctors

Companies in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and medical equipment industries often give physicians gifts. These gifts serve socially beneficial functions, such as funding for educational seminars and conferences. There has been growing concern, however, that some gifts may be costly […]

Dear Resident Physicians

Soon you’ll finish residency and you may be wondering, “What’s next?” Some of you will start fellowships, but most of you will practice your specialty. You may be looking for opportunities that are a good match with your needs and wants. Virtually all of you are looking forward to greater income. I hope that this ending is also a beginning – renew your commitment to the life-long learning that is medicine.

Electronic Health Records: The Scourge

The consensus among users is that what is needed most in EHRs is interoperability. The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has defined interoperability as “the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged.” Interoperability opens the way for many new digital tools — such as apps for both physicians and patients — to make data-sharing among EHRs a priceless asset, not a source of frustration.

We need access to patient records in EHRs from different systems. This type of communication was one of the fundamental lacks that the transition from paper was meant to remedy. The issue, unfortunately, is commercially driven lack of cooperation, not lack of technology….

Choosing Your Medical Specialty: Family Medicine

Sometimes (most of the time?) a career path chooses its “owner,” rather than the owner planning and executing the carefully laid out elements of a career. When I was putting together a map for my specialty-to-be, family practice (renamed family […]