The Match is broken. Can it be fixed?
Every summer medical school seniors are faced with the daunting task of completing applications for residency programs. This requires completion of the “common application” through the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS), among other things. This ultimately becomes a compilation of medical school and USMLE transcripts, letters of recommendation, personal and biographic information, a personal statement, and a resume composed of work, volunteering, and research experiences.
Countless hours are spent on its completion prior to submission to residency programs in early September. Over the ensuing months,...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 2, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mitch-obey" rel="tag" > Mitch Obey < /a > Tags: Education Residency Source Type: blogs
Medical students are more than test scores
Virtually every med school hopeful writes a personal statement with some variation of “I want to help people.” Three years into medical school, helping people seems to be the last thing on any medical students’ mind. At every stage of medical training, there seems to be a competition designed to consume us. Just getting into medical school can feel like an obstacle course with barriers at every step. First-year medical students are quickly socialized into a culture in which USMLE Step scores and honors are the currency, and prestigious residency programs are the goal.
Our sense of self-worth becomes inextricably boun...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 1, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/asaad-traina-and-devvrat-malhotra" rel="tag" > Asaad Traina and Devvrat Malhotra < /a > Tags: Education Medical school Source Type: blogs
How social media can advance the practice of medicine
Nirmal Gosalia at DocThoughts interviews Dr. Vineet Arora about how doctors and medical students can leverage social media platforms to advance their practice of medicine.
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 1, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/admin" rel="tag" > Admin < /a > Tags: Video Primary care Source Type: blogs
Medical specialties should create a list of legitimate journals
There would be few of us who have not received an email praising our contributions to our chosen medical specialty and with an invitation to either submit a manuscript or to join the editorial board for a new open access on line journal. If you are an academic, expect to receive several of these emails on a daily basis. This is the world of predatory publishing.
For those in academic practice or for those who are building their academic credentials to help appointment to a particular position or promotion, there is a pressure to publish. With this publish or perish environment, it creates a need for publications and of...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 1, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/dr-henry-woo" rel="tag" > Dr. Henry Woo < /a > Tags: Physician Specialist Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 52-year-old man with sudden onset of erectile dysfunction
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 52-year-old man is evaluated for the sudden onset of erectile dysfunction that has persisted for 6 months. He reports having erections that are inadequate for vaginal penetration. He feels guilty about not being able to satisfy his wife’s requests for sexual intercourse, although he still has sexual desires. He has been sleeping poorly and feeling fatigued throughout the day. He reports no snoring or daytime somnolence, and his review of systems is otherwise negative. His wife does not report that the p...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 1, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Primary care Source Type: blogs
Letting Go
You can let go now!As Hannah's granddaughter clutched at her skeletal fingers, the blanket fell to the side revealing the faded serial numbers on her forearm. The family gathered, yet again, to say goodbye. This time her acrid breath had lost humidity, her respirations dry and raspy, the extremities mottled with a bluish tinge.Death had visited the neighborhood before. Lounged in the parlor. Nibbled on crackers and tea. But letting go was not so easy. Sure the signs were there. There were the bouts of unconsciousness lasting days. The hours of irregular breathing with long gaps. The ...
Source: In My Humble Opinion - April 1, 2017 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jordan Grumet Source Type: blogs
A physician was the victim of malpractice. Here ’s her story.
I’m not here to tattle. No siree, Bob. I’ll save that for my kids. But what I am here to do is spell out a story in which I ended up down in the dumps.
A medical mistake happened. To me. On me.
I’ll never forget it. I can’t because I carry it with me forever.
Here’s the short of the long:
My obstetrician messed up. She took care of my pregnancy during one of the most difficult periods of my life, medical residency. She missed a shot that should have been given. RhoGam, to be exact.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Fi...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 31, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/dana-corriel" rel="tag" > Dana Corriel, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Malpractice OB/GYN Source Type: blogs
National Coordinator 6.0: A Blueprint for Success
1.0 Brailer
2.0 Kolodner
3.0 Blumenthal
4.0 Mostashari
4.1 me
5.0 DeSalvo
5.1 Washington
5.2 White
6.0 Rucker
Now that it’s public, I’ll offer my thoughts on the next steps for Don and ONC. Don Rucker is a good pick for the nation, and will be a great National Coordinator. I’ve gone on record as saying that some others are not qualified, and as many of you know – I don’t mince words. Don is smart, focused, thoughtful, intentional, and will make good decisions for ONC and HHS. I have known Don for 20 years. He’s got a long track record of integrity, he’s a nice person, he...
Source: Docnotes - March 31, 2017 Category: Primary Care Authors: Jacobr Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
The physicians who are not called “doctor”
You graduate from medical school and get your MD degree. At first, when someone calls you “doctor,” you look around and wonder who they’re talking to, but after years of hard work and sleepless nights, you realize you really are a card-carrying “doctor.”
If you’re a woman, however, you start to realize that a lot fewer people call you “doctor” than your male colleagues. At first, it’s subtle. And you shrug it off. Then you wonder if you’re just being hypersensitive, or imagining things, or worse, somehow inadvertently sending off some “informal” vibe that signals you “prefer” that colleagues an...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 31, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/julia-a-files-anita-p-mayer-and-sharonne-n-hayes" rel="tag" > Sharonne N. Hayes, MD, Anita P. Mayer, MD, and Julia A. Files, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
Amid chaos and desperation, this floored me
As I sat in a crowded inner-city emergency room at 4 a.m. evaluating a poorly kempt woman who told me in one breath that she’d been prostituting herself to multiple men over the last few days on a crack cocaine binge, and in the next that she had a devoted scientist husband — I kept my gaze steady and my expression bland.
I didn’t flinch because it seemed so clearly absurd. I had gotten to the point where I assumed everyone was lying to me. Patients vehemently deny doing drugs that come up positive on their urine screens and give me phone numbers for their families that connect me to gyms or hair salons or, most freq...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 31, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/lisa-jacobs" rel="tag" > Lisa Jacobs, MD, MBA < /a > Tags: Physician Source Type: blogs
The cultural and spiritual aspects of aging
An excerpt from Life after the Diagnosis: Expert Advice on Living Well with Serious Illness for Patients and Caregivers.
Serious illness doesn’t discriminate; it strikes patients of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Members of particular groups frequently have traditions that govern how they deal with serious illness, dying, and death.
In today’s Western cultures, the wishes of seriously ill people are paramount. Our laws and institutions are geared to see that their directives are carried out. In other cultures, decisions are based on what’s best for the family and the individual’s interests are less important...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 31, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/steven-pantilat" rel="tag" > Steven Pantilat, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Palliative care Source Type: blogs
This is what foreign doctors have to deal with
“Can you make Moana sing,” my four-year-old daughter begs as she widens her dark brown eyes. (My husband insists those are my eyes.)
Apparently, the Disney toy was involved in an accident. A button on the wrist that makes the doll loudly blurt out “See the line where the sky meets the sea!” has become separated from her plastic body. Pink wires stick out instead of forearm bones. I’m a doctor. I should be able to fix this.
It’s 8:15 p.m. 45 minutes are left to change my certified rank order list. My hand is twitching. Is my list long enough? Is it good enough? Am I good enough? 44 minutes.
Continue reading ... ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 31, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/anonymous" rel="tag" > Anonymous < /a > Tags: Education Residency Source Type: blogs
The best anesthetic I never gave
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Sometimes our best decisions as physician anesthesiologists are when we decide to call off a surgery or procedure. The “best anesthetic I never gave” was for 18-year-old Hunter Jones and her case really demonstrates the importance of talking with patients before surgery.
Hunter was an active, normal high school student enjoying her senior year when she received a colon cancer diagnosis. Both Hunter and her mother were shocked at the diagnosis and surprised again when I had to call off her surgery to remove the cancer after conducti...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 31, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mary-herman" rel="tag" > Mary Herman, MD, PhD < /a > Tags: Physician Surgery Source Type: blogs
What patients want to know about their prognosis
Everyone immersed in the culture of medicine knows that physicians sometimes defer the discussion about prognosis to patients who are battling a life-threatening illness. Everyone, that is, except the patient. We arrive on your doorstep believing that our presence indicates the obvious. So, how are we to know that we have to ask for something as life altering and important as a prognosis? Deferring to the patient for prognostic discussion occurs among health care professionals so much so that it has become lost on the most important person of all. The one who has the illness. The one who may lose his or her l...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 30, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/linda-haller" rel="tag" > Linda Haller < /a > Tags: Patient Primary care Source Type: blogs
Physicians are born to do what they do
I am always fascinated by my colleagues’ stories about why they became physicians and when they knew medicine was the path for them. Some describe a longing to heal, some a love of science, and others a desire for respect. For me, medicine was a calling that revealed itself in my sophomore year of undergraduate studies and was the perfect culmination of my personal passions for teaching, service, and community involvement.
I grew up in Mountain Grove, Missouri, which has a population of about 5,000 people. I graduated from the local high school and went off to college with the expectation of becoming a math teacher. But ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 30, 2017 Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/david-o-barbe" rel="tag" > David O. Barbe, MD < /a > Tags: Physician Primary care Source Type: blogs
