October 5th, 2011 by Lucy Hornstein, M.D. in Opinion
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I get mail, this from a healthy 20-something reader who’s just moved to a new city:
What’s the difference between doctors listed as Family Practice, Internal Medicine, and General Practice? Also, what are some things I should consider (that I might not already be considering) when finding a primary care physician?
That’s a bit of a loaded question, not because of any bias of mine (perish the thought!) but because each of those terms is used in different ways, by different people, at different times, for different purposes. So here’s the rundown on each of them in turn.
Family Practice
What it’s supposed to mean: Designates a physician who has completed a three-year postgraduate training program in Family Medicine, trained to provide primary care to patients of all ages, presenting with conditions of any organ system, including care of acute conditions and ongoing management of chronic diseases.
What doctors hope people think it means: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Musings of a Dinosaur*
September 22nd, 2011 by Elaine Schattner, M.D. in Opinion
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Last week I wrote a simple post on eating yogurt with fresh fruit for lunch. It wasn’t until later that I realized why it’s a medical lesson.
It happens that yesterday morning I was up and out early. I saw a former colleague walking along the street. He’d gained weight, and walked slowly. I thought about how hard he works, and what a good doctor I know him to be. And yet any citizen or patient might size him up as heavy, maybe even unhealthy.
The problem is not that he’s uneducated or can’t afford nutritious foods. He knows fully about the health benefits of losing weight and exercise. The problem is the stress and long hours of a busy, conscientious physician’s lifestyle.
When I worked as a practicing doctor and researcher at the hospital, I rarely ate a nutritious breakfast or lunch. My morning meal, too often, consisted of Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medical Lessons*
August 13th, 2011 by DrWes in Health Policy, Opinion
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You could see the frustration in his eyes as he spoke to his fellow resident.
“I had to fork over eight hundred and thirty five dollars,” he said slowly in a disgusted tone, “… and that doesn’t even include the $300 state license fee we have to pay later….”
So much for starting our EKG conference on time.
The comments continued. No one could understand why medical school licensure has become so expensive in the US. I thought I’d look into what medical students can expect to pay these days for licensure since it had been a while since I had gone through the gauntlet. Here’s what I found out: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
August 11th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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The American College of Graduate Medical Education has enacted further restrictions on resident work hours. No more than 80 hours per week of work for resident physicians, averaged over one month. And no more than 16 hours of continuous work for first year residents (24 after that), which includes patient care, academic lectures, etc.
Whenever they do this sort of thing, everyone seems excited that it will make everyone safer. After all, residents won’t be working as much, so they’ll be more rested and make much better decisions. It’s all ‘win-win,’ as physicians in training and patients alike are safer.
I guess. The problem of course is that after training, work hours aren’t restricted. There is no set limit on the amount of work a physician can be expected to do, especially in small solo practices, or practices in busy community hospitals.
I understand the imperative to let them rest. I understand that fatigue leads to mistakes. I get it! But does the ACGME get it? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
July 17th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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The old joke in medicine goes, ‘don’t get sick on July 1st.’ That’s because it’s the day when new resident physicians, freshly graduated from medical schools across the land, begin their training programs. Although they have spent four years in undergraduate school and four years in medical school, it’s residency where physicians are made from the raw material of knowledge-rich, experience poor high achievers.
However, even in residency physicians are seldom told the entire story of how the practice of medicine, and their lives, will look and feel as their careers evolve and they enter the medical work-force.
Since our profession changes from year to year and administration to administration, it seems a good time to mention some of the things upcoming young physicians will face. Sadly, these are things seldom mentioned by pre-med advisors or academic medical educators.
You see, physicians are struggling. Due to falling reimbursements and the ongoing federal mandate to see non-paying patients on call, it is increasingly difficult for physicians to cover costs like malpractice insurance, licensure, professional memberships and office overhead. (Well, if they want to have a house, family and food, that is.)
Many physicians are Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
