Health care workers are heroes
I spent the last week working in a large community hospital in a state with a soaring number of coronavirus cases. I previously had a few days off while this whole situation was escalating, and heard...
View ArticleHow the coronavirus pandemic can save lives in the future
Infectious diseases have been a scourge of mankind since time immemorial. I am a keen reader of history, and anyone who does so, knows that infections have not only caused billions of deaths and untold...
View ArticleDo not underestimate the power of spending an extra minute with a patient and...
One aspect of medicine that anyone who reads my work knows I’m most passionate about is keeping excellent communication at the core of health care. It’s a vastly under-taught skill, and although...
View ArticleThe key to physician job security
It’s something we are taught from when we are very young and is a core middle class belief: work hard, get a qualification, and then you’ll be able to find a good employer who will send you a nice...
View ArticleDoctors: Never pass judgment on the human being in front of you needing help
Oh, how we all learn and change with our experiences. It’s one of the greatest things in life that most of us (hopefully) are not the same person now that we were a few years ago. Looking back to when...
View ArticleThis is the most important skill you can have in life
I was 16 years old and being given a car ride to a cricket match by one of my teammates. He was our opening batsman and a good cricket player—I’m guessing around 40 to 50 years old. He started asking...
View ArticleWhy this physician became a personal trainer
As many readers of my work know, I have a huge passion for preventive medicine, and balance my acute care hospital work with an outpatient wellness clinic. I have always been into exercise and outdoor...
View ArticleHow to be an empathetic and compassionate communicator
One of the most annoying things for any professional, is to be face-to-face with the person you are serving—whether it be your customer, client, or patient—in the limited time available to you, and...
View ArticleThe Greatest Generation is dying out. It’ll really be our loss once they...
As a physician working in acute care medicine, one of the biggest delights of my job is regularly still having patients from the Greatest Generation. In the United Kingdom, I really enjoyed sitting...
View ArticleDoctors already are actors, whether they want to be ones or not
The era of the empowered patient and patient-centered health care has been upon us for some time. Only a generation ago, there was a much more paternalistic approach to medicine. This has changed for...
View ArticleCould an ancient way of thinking save the U.S.?
You may be familiar with the words stoicism and have an idea about what it means to be stoic (there’s actually a lot of confusion and misconceptions out there about exactly what they mean). Let’s take...
View ArticleThe blunt truth on why stopping COVID is impossible
COVID-19 has turned the world on its head. A major problem we have faced since the beginning is that it had already been spreading like wildfire for a few months since the end of 2019 — before most of...
View Article3 reasons why patients are unhappy
When I’m working in the hospital, I always find it interesting talking to patients about their medical history and experiences with outpatient physicians. I recently wrote about our broken primary care...
View ArticleWhen the family wants to speak to the doctor
Being a doctor is often more about talking to people and communicating than it is about the scientific practice of medicine. This is something that is unfortunately not taught enough in medical school,...
View ArticleThe dream patient that makes a doctor very happy
Mr. Williams is a 52-year old male who has been following me for some time. He has just been started on metformin for newly diagnosed diabetes. Lisinopril is his only other medication for high blood...
View ArticleHow physicians can deal with stress
Stress is one of the epidemics of modern-day living—especially work-related stress. At a basic fundamental level, it’s just simply a chemical reaction. Your adrenaline and cortisol levels shoot up in...
View ArticleHealth care is like lions for lambs
I just watched the movie 1917 at the theatre. Shot in a unique way giving an immersive experience, showing the frontline reality of war through an unforgettable human story, it has to be one of the...
View Article3 reasons why some physicians aren’t burned out
I have gotten to the stage where I take a more philosophical approach to the issue of physician burnout and job dissatisfaction. I see it all around me, and it’s impossible to miss some of the sobering...
View ArticleWhat Chernobyl can teach physicians about avoiding medical errors
I recently started watching the HBO series Chernobyl, chronicling the events surrounding the 1986 disaster. For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet—I’d highly recommend this excellent production (It’s...
View ArticleThe best teacher of medicine I ever had
The best teacher of medicine I ever had was during my medical residency. He was a tough, old-school physician, trained at one of the premier institutions in the country, and specialized in pulmonology...
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