A family physician re-invents herself.
The little girl–I will call her “Jenny”–looked about five years old, and her curly brown hair and one-piece swimsuit were still wet. A few minutes ago she’d been screaming, but now an oxygen mask covered half of her small face,…
Read more
(This post was previously published in a 2004 issue of Perspectives, the newsletter of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians.) The doctor is never off duty. I learned this firsthand the summer after graduating from medical school. The…
Read more
There was a sudden crackle of static from the radio. “Rescue Squad to hospital. Pick up please, hospital.” One of the emergency room doctors got up and went to the device. He unclipped a small microphone that resembled a walkie-talkie…
Read more
(This post was previously published in 2005 in Perspectives, the newsletter of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians.) Sometimes I think I’m pretty smart. Of course, whenever I start to believe that, something always brings me back to…
Read more
I’m a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings movies. I attribute this mainly to the brilliant story, beautiful cinematography, and the brooding sexiness of Viggo Mortensen. I loved the movies so much, in fact, that I sometimes brought…
Read more
(This post was previously published on KevinMD.com.) Some doctors love to do procedures. Stitching, skin biopsies, removal of ingrown toenails—you name it, they’ll do it, and then they’ll ask for more. In fact, I used to have a senior…
Read more
Once you know something, it’s impossible to un-know it. This can be problematic for everyone, but it’s especially bad for doctors, who have knowledge of a vast number of conditions that can potentially kill people. About 10 years ago, as…
Read more
(This post is part of a series meant to educate patients and clear up misconceptions that occur in the doctor’s office.) Dear Patient: There are some things I think you should know to improve your experience at your…
Read more
In many ways, medicine has prepared me to be a productive and upstanding member of society. So it’s interesting that the practice of medicine also violates every rule of etiquette my mother taught me in childhood. Some examples follow. 1)…
Read more
A number of years ago, in my first outpatient position, I treated a patient who suffered from anxiety and depression. Medication helped her, but only to a point. Together we’d identified her job as the chief source of her unhappiness….
Read more