"Have you ever wondered how much time we spend worrying about call, versus the amount of time that we actually spend being on call? What about the Monday after a long weekend, returning from vacation, or an overnight shift? Is it as bad as we think it’s going to be,…
"I was admitted to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation and stabilization just after my third year of medical school. Leading up to my episode, I thought I was fine – stressed, sure, overworked, definitely, but I thought that was normal for someone just finishing a year of clinical rotations. I…
"When I was regularly working 80+ hours a week, and was on call almost every day, I had to admit that something needed to change. I stepped back and did significant research to find a strategy to help coach myself out of constant exhaustion and put myself first. Today, I’m…
"I write in my book, 'I know from experience that nothing positive comes from directing blame at yourself.' When it comes to chronic illness (which includes chronic pain), it’s crucial to remember that you are not the enemy. Anyone can get sick, physically or mentally, and anybody can develop chronic…
"Ultimately, our job is a difficult one. It’s hard to take usual comfort in heartwarming statistics or hollow promises of prosperity when you find yourself loving and grieving your patients. I have found there is comfort and an impenetrable hope that comes from this; this is the life-hack for training:…
"If we are serious about supporting the optimal health and well being of our nations’ patients and physicians, we need to start believing and implementing the science across the public and private sectors. We need to recognize that at its core, the practice of medicine is a human science. We…
"Recently, a fellow physician mom ended her life. While outwardly, a very vibrant, lively, and happy woman, she fought her own internal demons for some time. From what we know, she struggled with depression but was still committed to being a good mom, physician, and wife. Sadly, a few days…
"In medicine, the guise of 'professionalism' is an example of how an oppressive system has led us to believe that we ought not to advocate for our rights. It would be 'unprofessional' to organize for a better health care system for both patients and workers. To work towards personal liberation,…
This episode is brought to you by Doc2Doc Lending (https://www.doc2doclending.com/), a novel lending platform created for doctors, by doctors, with the aim of facilitating fast access to personal loans at rates that make sense. "For the vast majority of us doctors, a career in medicine will also mean spending a…
"I’m now CMO at a private biotech company focused on developing therapies for patients with rare endocrine diseases. We are conducting a trial in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. I mention this to raise the possibility of travel in pharma/biotech roles. In most companies, roles are both 'functional' (i.e., clinical…
"My sister called me. I answered. And, then, I lost it: 'He died. He died,' I repeated. 'Our patient died. I literally did CPR on this guy. We tried to save his life, and he died,' I repeated over and over. The tears streaming down my cheeks were cathartic. More…
"The dictionary definition of learning is 'the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, study, or by being taught.' For leaders, the most crucial and common way of learning happens through experience, and as we often say, leadership is flying the plane while building it. Moreover, the onus of making…
"Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely road. Everyone dreams of life after a successful round of funds being raised, staff being hired, and plunging headfirst into the making and shipping of widgets. But there are many days which no one talks about, where a budding entrepreneur must find a…
"I’m exhausted. As the pandemic rages on, the mental toll of dealing with COVID-19 has started to wear on me. As a practicing hospitalist in the Midwest impacted by one of the many hotspots caused by the meatpacking industry, I have spent a fair bit of time with this virus…
"Now, in her afterlife, she occasionally accompanied Maggie on excursions into my head, usually at night. Make that a double vodka. I thought I had finally learned in sobriety how to put them in the past, encased in a box, and keep them there. Still, sometimes they found a way…
"You have made difficult choices about your family’s health and safety already. Pediatricians help parents make these kinds of decisions all the time. The shared- decision model for practicing medicine encourages doctors like me to help provide information and counseling to empower you to make decisions. You’ve already made decisions…
"These strategies on how the rich get richer do not only apply to the wealthy. These same opportunities and strategies are open to us as well. If we want to accumulate wealth, or simply keep more of the money we currently have without paying a large portion in taxes, then…
"A majority of physicians see between 11 and 20 patients per day, and among all practices, the majority of doctors spend between 17 and 24 minutes with each patient. Assuming a five-day workweek, this translates to more than 900 patient interactions per year and over 1,066 minutes spent communicating with…
"Around the time of the coronavirus outbreak, 2019 also marked a full century since the death of Sir William Osler, who revolutionized medical training. Despite some lingering debate over whether Dr. Osler’s pneumonia-related death should be counted among the 50 million lost to the 1918 influenza pandemic, his notes suggest…
"Our country, and the world, is beyond exhausted by COVID-19 and the utter chaos and destruction of lives it has caused. All people, including physicians, are being pushed beyond capacity. What do we mean, collateral damage? Originally related to war: the unintended result of a terrible, unprecedented event or action.…
"Antiracism requires action-oriented work and calls us to ask, how will we work to become antiracist? How will we change our institutional culture and systems to become antiracist? As Latina medical students, we have seen and experienced racism in many aspects of society and have felt the need to change…
"In medicine, empiric therapy is treatment that is administered based on the probability of success because we don’t have all of the information. We make our 'best guess.' Actually, empiric decision-making exists in our everyday lives — running the garbage disposal when the sink is clogged, jiggling the key in…
"While there is a myriad of expert opinions on what long term effects this pandemic will have on our children and their physical and mental health, we must also remember the age-old idiom: this too shall pass. We must also be sensitive to not add to parents’ already full plates.…
"Appreciation in the personal finance world has two different components to it: Quantitative: increasing value of net worth and financial assets Qualitative: feeling of gratitude for one’s finances, resources, and circumstance. This is not dependent on the dollar amount. These are both important, but the qualitative is the best predictor…