Thank you to CLOSLER for allowing me to contribute my essay of a “day in the life” reflection on rural oncology practice. “With the broken healthcare system crumbling, rural outpatient pharmacies shutting down, and labs and urgent cares intermittently closed due to staffing shortages, it’s easy to feel that the dwindling resources mean even our best is too little…
Leave a CommentIt is 4:15 p.m. in my clinic, and I’m running an hour behind. One of my morning patients arrived acutely ill and thus required more of my time and attention than the schedule allotted for. Accordingly, every patient after that has ended up waiting for me. And, as I’m a cancer physician, each of them…
Comments closedI haven’t done one of these year-end round-ups before, but given 2022 marked the five year anniversary of the blog, it seemed a good year to start. For each post, I’ve selected a favorite passage to highlight (different from the preview passage you’ll see on the home page). First, the top five most read blog…
Comments closedMy patient is older and hard of hearing, and masks aren’t helping the situation. I raise my voice so he can hear me, which means I lose a lot of nuance and expression in my tone. Within a few minutes, he allows his mask to droop below his nose, as if trying to show me…
Comments closed“We only want to hear positive information.” “Don’t tell him about his prognosis.” “We don’t want to hear any doom or gloom.” This is what it’s like to be a cancer physician in America. As a medical oncologist, I spend much of my time helping people navigate the (for many) uncharted waters of uncertainty and…
Comments closedSome years ago, I noted a trend in my practice. More and more patients requested to switch their care to me for a single reason: They wanted a doctor who would answer their emails. To my surprise, that was how I learned some of the other doctors — all male — in the practice did…
Comments closedI have a secret. It’s one I think many physicians and nurses share. Sometimes, when I’m stretched too thin — overbooked, hungry, tired, fielding yet another appeal to an insurance company in the middle of a clinic day — I find myself momentarily resenting the patients on my schedule. As soon as this happens, I…
Comments closedOn my way to work, I drive by an abundance of water — a bay that changes with the seasons’ moods. Some mornings, the wind whips up tall waves, and I grip my steering wheel against the gusts that shake my car. Other mornings, the wind is absent, and the water placid and smooth. On…
Comments closed(I recently posted a Twitter thread that seemed to resonate with people, so thought I’d turn it into a blog post here as well): What is happening in the airline industry is happening in healthcare, too, only, unfortunately (for reasons that go back hundreds of years and are complex), physicians don’t have unions. Imagine if…
1 CommentAs a medical oncologist of almost 20 years, I’ve seen my share of patient-blaming stigma. People are indicted for their cancers in various ways: “They ate too much sugar.” “They were obese.” “They were a smoker.” “It runs in their family.” I find the current culture of attributing severe COVID-19 illness and deaths to “preexisting conditions”…
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