Recently I wrote about how to handle things when patients try to engage doctors in the social media space. If you missed it you can read it here. If you want to save yourself 5 minutes consider the bottom line: Doctors and patients shouldn’t be discussing patient-specific issues in the social space. I heard from Ted Eytan regarding my post: The question is ... Continue Reading about Doctor-Patient Dialog on Social Media: A Bad Idea?
3 Questions That Complete a Medical Interview
I can spend 20 minutes interviewing a parent about their child and still not really understand them. During a consult, my interview centers on the objective elements in a child’s history. When evaluating a child for abdominal pain, for example, I have a panel of questions that cover what I need to know to generate a starting hypothesis. But none of it helps me ... Continue Reading about 3 Questions That Complete a Medical Interview
When Doing Nothing is the Hardest Decision
'Why I Ration Care' is an important essay published in this week's Newsweek. Christopher Moore, a father and emergency physician, talks about his recent care of a teen who presented with mild head trauma sustained during a soccer game. The piece details the decision to manage this low-risk child expectantly. The reflexive head CT was forgone in favor of ... Continue Reading about When Doing Nothing is the Hardest Decision
When Patients Contact You via Social Media – 9 Pointers
It happened again last week. A patient contacted me via Twitter with a clinical question about her child. As always, I never engage patients in the social media space. When they try to initiate an online encounter I track ‘em down immediately to let them know the safe of social media and our relationship. Here are a few things I think about when discussing the matter ... Continue Reading about When Patients Contact You via Social Media – 9 Pointers
Direct Red – A Direct Look
I think the world has reached its quota of medical memoirs.If you’ve read one, you’ve read them all.Formulaic stories of quirky patients, crises of conscience, awkward med students coming-of-age and overbearing superiors are all too much for me at this stage of my medical career. So why I might have been drawn to Gabriel Weston’s Direct Red – A Surgeon’s View of Her ... Continue Reading about Direct Red – A Direct Look
When Doctors Think Out Loud
I recently had dry erase boards installed in my office exam rooms.I didn’t give it much thought but felt on a whim that it might help with diagrams and things.As it turns out, the result has been dramatic.Parents are crazy about them. Here’s how I use them: After my history and physical I summarize the 4-5 key points of a child’s story in the upper right part of the ... Continue Reading about When Doctors Think Out Loud