When I first turned to writing as a method to cope with the stresses of my practice, I had no knowledge of the field of narrative medicine. In fact, I had been through 4 years of medical school, 3 years of residency, 3 years of subspecialty fellowship, and over a decade in the practice of…
Comments closedAs 2018 draws to a close, I want to end on a hopeful note. In this post I share how the era of immunotherapy, specifically immune-checkpoint-inhibitors, has changed the landscape of community oncology practice, by significantly extending survival rates in stage 4 (metastatic) non-small-cell lung cancer. I want to tell you the story of Joe.…
2 Commentsupdate 9/30/2019 – Honorable mention, Online/Print Article, Writer’s Digest 88th Annual Writing Competition! I recently came across an eye-opening passage on gender bias by the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The excerpt from her book is as follows: Theresa May is the British prime minister and here is how a progressive British newspaper described her husband:…
2 CommentsAn oncologist colleague once said to me at a funeral, “People assume that as oncologists, we understand more about death than other people. But we really don’t.” He then faced a church filled with mourners and delivered a heartrending eulogy. I’ve thought of his words often since. Every time I counsel a patient and family…
Comments closedIs the duty of the physician to capture the patient stories, or capture a billing code? In July 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed revamping Medicare payments for office visits. CMS plans to collapse Medicare fees for levels 2 through 5 office visits into a single price beginning in 2019, as…
Comments closedHello Readers. This week I am pleased to share a link to my latest narrative essay that I am privileged to have published in JAMA, in their popular “A Piece of My Mind” series. Entitled Making Room, it is a very personal piece for me, in which I have tried to write about doctor work life balance,…
Comments closed(warning: minor movie spoiler alert) As a working mom physician with a husband who is a stay at home dad, I was intrigued by the opening premise of the movie The Incredibles 2. Helen (Elastigirl) is tapped to return to work as a Superhero over her husband, Bob (Mr. Incredible). I looked forward to seeing…
Comments closedDid any of you other physician working moms out there get the dreaded made-at-school mother’s day card this year? You know, the one your kid makes in class, where they trace a flower (or some variation), and on each petal writes a word to describe you, their cherished mother? Why does the sight of this…
Comments closedPost updated 3/13/19 Welcome to Episode 3 of The Prior Authorization Games: Where the Odds are Never in Your Favor. In which I chronicle more examples of how to fight insurance company denial of services. My latest and most flabbergasting interactions with the insurance companies when requesting “prior authorization” for necessary medical care for my…
2 CommentsUpdated 03/14/2019 In my first year of oncology fellowship, our program director asked us an eye-opening question: what percentage of people with cancer survived 5 years or more? At that time, in 2003, the little-known answer was 60%. Fewer than half of us fellows, physicians in a subspecialty training program to devote our careers to…
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