The Podcast by KevinMD

"We must continue to work to create gender equity as here is where we stand today: A significant gender pay gap still exists in medicine where women doctors earn up to 33% less than their male counterparts. Even though women make up 36% of practicing doctors in the country, only 15% of women doctors are department chairs. Among women doctors who are also mothers, 78% felt discrimination. All of this is leading to 48% of women doctors reporting burnout, and 22% of female physicians admitted thoughts of suicide this year right before the pandemic hit our shores. As a nation, we cannot afford to lose doctors to professional burnout and suicide, especially in the midst of a global pandemic worsening and hitting record numbers throughout our country in recent weeks." Archana Reddy Shrestha is a physician life coach, author, and co-founder, Women in White Coats. She can be reached on Instagram @womeninwhitecoatsblog. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "What Kamala Harris means for women doctors." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/11/what-kamala-harris-means-for-women-doctors.html)

"I recently represented a physician in a noteworthy peer review case at an academic medical center. The medical staff president initiated a complaint against a surgeon, who would later become my client. The complaint was that the surgeon inappropriately collected cash payment from an uninsured patient at the hospital's point of service instead of having his office invoice and collect payment from the patient. The medical staff felt this was unorthodox and highly inappropriate and contra to the medical center's values. It is important to note that neither the medical staff bylaws nor any hospital rules addressed the collection of payment at the hospital's point of service. The medical staff president quickly appointed a three-member ad hoc investigation committee, which included one of the surgeon's competitors, an obvious conflict of interest. The ad hoc investigation committee recommended that the surgeon be disciplined, i.e., lose his medical staff privileges." Barney Cohen is a health care law attorney. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "How this surgeon beat a medical staff disciplinary action." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/12/how-this-surgeon-beat-a-medical-staff-disciplinary-action.html)

"The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated factors that cause violence in the workplace. At no time in recent history will you find clinical health care workers under this degree of stress. Physicians and nurses are operating under high alert in hospitals and clinics while facing COVID deniers and abusive treatment (name-calling such as "disease spreaders") in their day-to-day life. Due to social distancing measures, shutdowns, and resultant economic fallout, patients are experiencing significant psychological and financial burdens. The politicization of the pandemic has elevated the level of difficulty for all parties. This combination of clinical and societal strain increases the likelihood of overly (and overtly) aggressive or unpredictable reactions to day to day encounters." Mercy Udoji is an anesthesiologist. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "When an epidemic of violence against health care workers meets a pandemic." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/09/when-an-epidemic-of-violence-against-health-care-workers-meets-a-pandemic.html)

"As soon as I realized we had so few Black residents, I began to ask around to find out if there were reasons why. One person brought up the fact that we happen to be the smaller institution between 3 other larger universities within an hour away and even bigger world-class institutions just 6 hours away. So, there is always a chance that Black residents may be choosing to go to more urban and populous cities for more job opportunities and networking. Another attending explained that the county we are in is in the top ten most populous counties in all of the United States, but Black or African Americans make up only 1.7% of the demographics. There are some odds that black applicants may not have family close enough for support and choose to go elsewhere. But despite these potential reasons, even though our county's demographic makeup is admittedly small, it's still better than our institution's hiring rate." Karen Tran-Harding is a radiologist who blogs at How the Other Side Thinks. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "When your institution has a less than 1% hiring rate for Black residents." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/12/when-your-institution-has-a-less-than-1-hiring-rate-for-black-residents.html)

"Researchers should make clinical trials more accessible by providing patients with simple explanations of studies at a variety of locations, including community clinics and medical centers. Increased flexibility regarding transportation and visit timing is essential. Researchers should also allow the participation of people who do not speak English and those living with chronic conditions whenever it is safe to do so. If the treatment will be approved to use on these populations, it is unethical to exclude them. These are considerations that researchers must think about not only when designing COVID-19 studies, but all clinical trials, as this is essential to reducing health care disparities overall. Moving forward, we must put fairness and our patients' safety above increased cost or administrative burden; perhaps this is how we begin to make amends for the atrocities of the past." Amelia Trant is a medical student. Andrea Silber is an oncologist. They share their stories and discuss their KevinMD article, "Medicine must create inclusive clinical trials." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/09/medicine-must-create-inclusive-clinical-trials.html)

"I am thankful to you SARS-CoV-2 virus as you allowed me to be human again, to make mistakes, and learn from them. You taught me to slow down so that I could reset and redefine my goals. You allowed me to have time for myself, to dream again, and plan my future. You pushed me out of my comfort zone and re-explore what I thought was possible or impossible. You helped me re-embrace my imperfections and love myself just the way I am! You showed me that this pandemic is a circumstance beyond my control and that there will many more circumstances, such as this one in life. However, what will always remain within my control or reach is my own thoughts about, and reaction to, such times. It is up to me now how I want to re-shape them to get to the results I want to see. Thank you, COVID-19, for being a great teacher. I respect you. I am not afraid of you but will always be cautious of you." Annie Nawab is a pulmonary and critical care physician. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Beyond the medical lessons learned from COVID." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/09/beyond-the-medical-lessons-learned-from-covid.html)

"To care for dependents, the carer must be cared for, both for the sake of her charge and for her own sake. Without such basic infrastructure, we have anxiety, confusion, and chaos. Contagion knows no independent individuals. Its boundaries are not the boundaries of our skin. It relies on the inevitable sociality of human beings. But our vulnerability is also our defense: bonds of care minimize, and can even defeat, the power and reach of COVID-19. Care must move out of the private domain, out of the recesses of hospital rooms and nurseries, nursing homes, and day-care centers. We seem to recognize now that a leader of a nation is entrusted with its care. Care is no longer personal. It never was. Care is political." Eva Kittay is a philosopher and author of Love's Labor: Essays on Women, Equality, and Dependency (Routledge) and Learning from My Daughter. (https://amzn.to/38rxEb5) She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Care is no longer personal. Care is political." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/09/care-is-no-longer-personal-care-is-political.html)

"The first 100 days of COVID made me confront and reflect on a lot of aspects of myself and life, as philosophical as that sounds. Often times, I'm exhausted talking about COVID every single day and frustrated because we should be in a much better place right now as a nation. The wound is still fresh, and it deeply hurts to see more people suffering due to a lack of proper health care infrastructure and guidance as an underlying cause rather than the virus itself. I remind myself to be mindful, be kind to myself, allow myself to feel whatever I want without holding back emotions, and stay present. Emotional ups and downs are a part of life, but how you process them matters. It has also given me a glaring reminder that life is not guaranteed. It has reminded me that medical school is only a facet of my life, and the rest of my life is happening now. So why do we say, I'll do that after I've reached 'X' stage in my life? Within reason, just do it, and you won't regret it. Writing this has given me a lot of peace and clarity, and I hope whoever is reading this can reflect on their experience to gain some level of calm." Priyanka Shindgikar is a medical student. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "A medical student's 100 days of COVID." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/08/a-medical-students-100-days-of-covid.html)

"The flu vaccine can strengthen your immune system, prevent the disease spread among those closest to you, protect your children, and reduce the health care system's burden. Protecting ourselves and others as we traverse a pandemic is paramount in saving lives and keeping our communities safe and healthy. Along with our ongoing initiatives through Covid Rapid Response Team Chicago to maintain an adequate supply of PPE, host blood drives, and perform screenings in homeless shelters, increasing the rate of flu vaccinations is essential to protect the community. Our country has suffered more than enough during this COVID-19 pandemic – do your part and protect yourself, your loved ones, and our health care heroes this fall by getting your flu shot." Marina Lentskevich is a medical student. She shares her story and discusses the KevinMD article that she co-wrote, "Why flu vaccines are more important than ever in this pandemic." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/10/why-flu-vaccines-are-more-important-than-ever-in-this-pandemic.html)

"We have to start understanding these as the real costs of climate change. We are paying these costs now. In my state of Oregon, people are going to start getting sick and dying in the next few days of the wildfire smoke choking the air. When they show up to the hospital with a severe heart attack, or stroke, or respiratory exacerbation, maybe it will be attributed to the wildfires, but probably everyone will just be focusing on getting through their shift, and the context of this one death, this one illness, will be missed. But make no mistake, the coming wave of hospitalizations, ER visits, and deaths is not random; it is due to climate change." Erika Maria Moseson is a practicing, board-certified pulmonary and critical care physician. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Apocalypse now: climate change, cardiac arrest, and the price of inaction." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/09/apocalypse-now-climate-change-cardiac-arrest-and-the-price-of-inaction.html)