I once thought that having made a diagnosis and recommended its treatment that I could now move to the next patient. Experience has taught me however, that it is now that the crucial work begins.
Ready or not artificial intelligence is here. Does this mean that physicians are soon to be out of a job? On this episode I explain why our positions are secure, at least for now....
After a month to process my emergency appendectomy, on this episode I describe my "take aways" from my encounter, or should I say collision, with modern American medicine.
I have had little experience being a patient... until now. On this episode I share what it was like on the other end of the stethoscope, or in my case the scalpel.
Can insights inspired by butterflies help us avoid the chaos that too often reigns in our emergency departments? On this episode I discuss "the butterfly effect" and why respecting it can help protect emergency physicians and patients alike.
An emergency physician must know what to do under trying circumstances. But before this can be done , he must first know what is happening and when to do something must be done. On this episode, I relate how I began to learn these skills working a part time job in medical school.
As I struggled to become an effective emergency physician, I realized that my only hope was to put into practice the many lessons I had learned along the way. I now realize that everything I needed to know, I did not learn in medical school alone. On this episode I discuss other experiences that gave me the tools that I now use every day in my practice, and for that matter, my life.
On this episode I kick off the fifth year of the podcast by reflecting upon what has made spending my adult life practicing emergency medicine a satisfying endeavor. After several offerings recounting concerns about my specialty, it is time to celebrate some of the reasons I go to work.
Hospital administration continually reminds me that emergency medicine is a business. If so, this begs the question - what are we selling? On this episode I describe why my recent experience suggests that what we are selling is not really what our patients are looking to buy.
Enormous pressure is being applied to turn emergency departments and the specialists who run them into something the were not meant to be. This shift in focus threatens both our medical system and our patients. On this episode I describe these changes and their origins.
On this episode I present an epitaph for the Coronavirus pandemic. I describe how and why it ended and discuss how we were convinced to make sacrifices and fight in a war that never existed.
After two episodes spent defining the problem, on this offering I outline a prescription to treat our sick society. We have the tools, do we have the will to try something new?
If recent events reflect an American society that has become sick, what is the illness affecting us and how did it arise? On this episode I argue that our attempts to engineer a " Great Society" have collided with human nature and the results have not been those expected.
Do recent events prove that our society is sick? I believe that they do. Does 40 years of experience caring for sick individuals justify my comentary discussing why it is sick and what can be done to cure it? Decide for yourself.
Emergency physicians report the highest levels of burnout among medical specialities. So how am I still tolerating and even enjoying (sometimes) going off to work after forty years? On this episode I explain why I've been lucky.
Things seem to go more smoothly when the "voice of authority" can be trusted to guide us along. But can it? Not if opposing viewpoints are ignored or repressed.
What percentage of the patients that we admit to the hospital do we harm? On this episode I reveal why when those charged with making the decision to admit forget the answer to this question, our specialty and our whole medical system pay the price.
The hypothesis: Emergency physicians are providing less effective care now than twenty years ago. The Proof: longer wait times, more overcrowding, more cost, less job satisfaction. Who's to blame: us (among others) In this episode I take a hard look inward and discuss where emergency medicine has sabotaged itself.
Covid 19 has exposed a dirty little secret that emergency physicians have helped keep for decades- there is not enough to go around. Unfortunately the way things are headed, those best equipped to deal with the reality of limited medical resources are being pushed aside - with predictable consequences.
The specialty of Emergency Medicine sprang into being in order to fill a need. I'm concerned that we've lost sight of that need as we train those to whom we will pass the torch. On this episode I begin a discussion of how and why our specialty developed and why keeping our fragile medical system afloat rests on our shoulders.