The Podcast by KevinMD

"I think back to the first time I ever brought Natalie to an emergency room. It was my fault. It was an odd accident. I had lifted her out of her car seat, grabbing my purse and a bag of groceries at the same time while turning and closing the car door and in doing this I also closed Natalie's foot in the door. I didn't know that I had done it until I pulled away and couldn't go any further because she was caught. I actually had to open the door with the handle to release her foot. For me, it was horrific. For Natalie, less so, because while she fussed, she wasn't nearly as hysterical as I was. I immediately put her back in the car seat and headed to the hospital. All my arrivals at the emergency room are frantic, and this one was as well. But I guess that's common. Which is why they have to weed people out according to severity and even have signs explaining that this is not a first-come first-serve establishment. After I explained the reason we were there and frantically waving Natalie's chubby little foot at everyone who would look or listen, I was escorted back pretty quickly." Christine Naman is a writer and author of About Natalie: A Daughter's Addiction. A Mother's Love. Finding Their Way Back to Each Other. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "A daughter's addiction. A mother's love." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/05/a-daughters-addiction-a-mothers-love.html)

"If you don't ask for something you want, then you have already accepted the answer of no. Go ahead and ask for what you want and need. You may not get it this time but ask again in the future. We will change health care eventually. In the meantime, you can change your thoughts today. Reach out if I can help. Reach out to many resources on the internet, Facebook, your community. You are not alone." Dawn Sears is a gastroenterologist and can be reached on Twitter @GutGirlMD, YouTube, and at GutGirlMD Consulting. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "10 replaceable thoughts (and 15 books) to help you survive burnout." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/05/10-replaceable-thoughts-and-15-books-to-help-you-survive-burnout.html)

"A few weeks ago, a white physical therapy colleague of mine unconsciously committed a racial microaggression. She was interviewing her patient, a middle-aged Black male, about his living environment. She asked him if his daughter was at home with him all day or if she went to work. He asked her why she would even assume that his daughter did not work. The patient was so upset that a third party intervened to help the therapist finish the assessment. How did this incident impact his care? How did their dismantled communication impair information exchange and shared decision-making? How might this encounter affect his physical therapy outcomes?" Jerenda Bond is a physical therapist and postgraduate student. She can be reached on Twitter @jerendabond. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "The white guys vs. the janitors: How racial microaggressions lead to poor care outcomes." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/06/the-white-guys-vs-the-janitors-how-racial-microaggressions-lead-to-poor-care-outcomes.html)

"When harnessing easy-to-use technology to provide answers to frequently asked questions such as the ER wait time, or the ER's address, for instance, patients and their families are properly informed, and clinical staff are given the time to focus on their most important job: caring for patients. The use of a secure, encrypted, and HIPAA-compliant application allows registration staff to complete their clerical work, patients can obtain the answers they need through an easy-to-use app on their phone, and triage nurses can efficiently and quickly conduct their work without interruption—it's a win, win for all. Technology helps patients feel connected to their health care journeys. Prioritizing patient-centric care with AI-tools enables a better experience for patients, clinicians, and care teams. Focusing on improving a patient's journey starting from the ER creates a supported and more manageable experience for all involved, not to mention increasing patient loyalty and hospital satisfaction rates." Justin Schrager is an emergency physician. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "3 ways technology in the ER boosts the patient experience." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/04/3-ways-technology-in-the-er-boosts-the-patient-experience.html)

"In the Spring semester of my final year as a football player, my college team faced necessary coaching, staff, and player position changes. At this point in my college career, we had yet to have a winning season. These changes were made to shift our program's culture and give us new life going into the upcoming Fall season. My new position coach, our team's former linebacker coach, greeted us all in the defensive line room during our very first Spring position meeting with a stark message that, to this day, has changed my way of thinking about the hardships, especially now as a medical student during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his message, he put up the Japanese symbol kiki (危機) on the overhead screen and questioned if any of us in the meeting room knew its meaning. As my teammates and I looked at each other thinking, what the heck is this guy up to … our coach informed us the symbol is written in kanji and translates to 'crisis.' (We thought he was only foreshadowing the imminent torture we were about to face that Spring as we prepared to change the trajectory of our program.)" Casey Paul Schukow is a medical student. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "In crisis, danger and opportunity are present." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/06/in-crisis-danger-and-opportunity-are-present.html)

"As a former hospitalist who transitioned out of clinical practice in 2015, I've been deep in the physician wellness space for years. Far and away, the most effective way I've supported health care professionals during this time (often in my role as a founding board member of the mindful health care collective) is with a tool called tapping, otherwise known as the emotional freedom technique or EFT. Tapping is a powerful, evidence-based stress-reduction and healing technique that uses the same meridians as acupuncture (without the needles). By tapping on these meridians, you can induce profound changes in the brain and nervous system, which send calming signals to the stress center of the brain (the amygdala and hippocampus) in the face of stress. The results are astonishing." Jill Wener is an internal medicine physician and can be reached at her self-titled site, Jill Wener, MD. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Tap — yes, tap — to relieve stress." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/06/tap-yes-tap-to-relieve-stress.html)

"The primary benefits for mobile care units are the fact that they decrease patient travel times by arriving at their residences and ensuring that appointments are never missed. It also relieves the stress of finding transportation for dialysis patients, outright eliminating the need for the CMS to find alternative transport methods for patients. By utilizing mobile care units alongside health IT solutions for preventive care services, the CMS can finally do the impossible and establish a basic health care standard for rural citizens." Thanh Tran is a health IT executive. He shares his story and discusses the KevinMD article, "Will U.S. health care match Native Americans' treatment of chronic kidney disease?" (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/05/will-u-s-health-care-match-native-americans-treatment-of-chronic-kidney-disease.html)

"While physicians provide a vital service to the U.S., they often have blind spots when it comes to maintaining their own financial health. Many in the medical field believe that financial planning is as simple as having an IRA account and that estate planning will be taken care of by a will. Unfortunately, particularly for those in this profession, financial planning is more important than ever, and President Biden's proposed tax changes could have a profound effect on physicians' financial planning in particular. Working with a fiduciary financial advisor to understand how the new laws affect physicians and implementing strategies that can lessen the impact is key to navigating these changes." Syed Nishat and Aadil Zaman are partners, Wall Street Alliance Group. They are regularly quoted and interviewed in media outlets like Medical Economics, Forbes, US News, Bloomberg, and Yahoo Finance. This special episode is the audio version of the webinar, "President Biden's tax proposal and its effects on estate and income tax planning for physicians," sponsored by Wall Street Alliance Group. (http://www.wallstreetag.com/) Watch the full webinar. (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/07/president-bidens-tax-proposal-and-its-effects-on-estate-and-income-tax-planning-for-physicians.html)

"President Joe Biden recently signaled that a multi-trillion-dollar spending plan for our country should be paid for by the rich corporations and wealthy individual Americans who make over $400,000. Doctors fit the latter category and should tune in. Beyond the government, the unique qualities of doctors make us a target for many who want to access our high income and our business revenue. Our passivity to these poachers places us at great risk because they recognize that we lack the time and proficiency to avoid them. Add our financial illiteracy to this, and you have a recipe for stakeholders reaching into our paycheck every pay period and inconspicuously taking their share from us. Let's take a look at the stakeholders who are targeting us." Tod Stillson is a rural family physician who does surgical obstetrics and teaches residents and medical students. He is also founder, SimpliMD, Doctor Incorporated, and The Employed Physician's World Facebook group. He is also the author of You Are a Target Strategies For Doctors to Keep More of Their Money. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "Doctors beware: There's a $400,000 target on your back." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/06/doctors-beware-theres-a-400000-target-on-your-back.html)

"What if I had access to real solutions? What if I had resources to provide to a person to help them overcome their problem? As a primary care provider with over 20 years of experience, I know viscerally that I will never "fix" anyone. I can teach, I can guide, I can comfort; but I'm never going to fix a single person. Still, I wish I had more to offer. In my current iteration, I take care of people experiencing homelessness. Having spent much of my career taking care of people with homes, I'm currently grant-funded to care for people experiencing homelessness. The problems, I find, are not fundamentally different, but the phenotype, the manifestation of common, universal problems, such as social isolation, poor nutrition, insecurity, addiction, comes with sharper edges." Nancy Connolly is an internal medicine physician. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "What if this physician had access to real solutions?" (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2021/05/what-if-this-physician-had-access-to-real-solutions.html)