Articles related to PRACTICE PEARLS

In an editorial published in KevinMD.com, a neurosurgeon discusses the myriad reasons she chooses to stay in clinical practice when many of her colleagues are leaving. The reasons range from job satisfaction from treating patients to family and financial considerations.

The finding of a soft tissue mass on the trunk or limbs can be the source of anxiety and distress for patients, and a diagnostic challenge for physicians. In most cases the masses are benign. But when the mass is soft tissue sarcoma, the benefit of skilled early detection by the astute primary care clinician is enormous.

Admit or treat them on an outpatient basis? Too often it is the health plan that makes the decision, leaving the medical team and patient to bear the burden.

At what point is it appropriate to stop responding to patient inquiries? This editorial piece argues that taking patient calls at all hours is leading to physician burnout, and that it is time to realize that taking patient calls at home is an antiquated practice that needs to go the way of the doctor’s house call.

MedPage Today has published a rebuttal to an article published in The Washington Post newspaper where a pair of economists criticize physicians and the expense of medical care in the US. The rebuttal takes issue with the assertion that doctors are “muggers” and co-conspirators in “taking money away from the rest of us,” as well as the ways in which healthcare costs are quantified in The Washington Post article. The author of the rebuttal stresses that there is a lack of respect towards physicians today that is driving many people from medicine.

Is there a link between climate change and poverty? Does hate affect the risk for chronic health conditions? Is telehealth the model for medicine’s future? Or will something much more ancient be reestablished? How will the Millennial worldview affect how medicine is practiced? This archive of top physician TED talks is worth your while.