“Winding Back The Harms Of Too Much Care”
I just returned from a thought-provoking conference at Dartmouth. Entitled Preventing Overdiagnosis: Winding Back the Harms of Too Much Care, and co-sponsored by Dartmouth University, British Medical Journal, Consumer Reports, and Australia’s Bond University, the conference...
What is a Balanced Physician?
When I started the balanced physician program in 2004, I did it with the goal in mind to help physicians have more work life balance. At that time I offered the program to the market place but it wasn’t ready for it except the physicians who felt burned out and had the strong...
The Low-Tech Revolution To Healthcare Reform
Steve is a 52-year old father of four. Soon after losing his job as a carpenter, he begins to have sharp stomach pains. His primary doctor examines him for a few minutes and then sends him to specialists: a GI doctor, who performs an endoscopy, and a cardiologist, who performs...
“I’m Almost Done With My Training-Now What?”
Now the fun begins: finding ways to get your CV out to hospitals and practices all over the country. There are LOTS of opportunities, so before giving your CV to anyone, examine what your ideal practice would be. An indecisive answer can cause employers to question whether you...
PHYSICIAN CONTRACT REVIEW TIPS: NOT-SO-OBVIOUS POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND
When I am hired to do a physician employment contract review, I regularly uncover a multitude of different contract provisions that can be made more favorable to my clients. In some instances the employment contract is relatively balanced with regard to many contract terms, but...
First-Person Perspective: MDs Explain Why They Chose the Non-Clinical Path
If you’ve considered a non-clinical career or you are trying to learn more about what you could do in a non-clinical career, it’s nice to read stories about what other doctors have done. When I coach and mentor other doctors, I tell them they can literally do anything in their...
Rebranding “Patients” as “Healthcare Consumers”: Tread with Extreme Caution
On Monday, I had the privilege of serving as the keynote speaker for an excellent conference in Boston.Empowering Healthcare Consumers: a Community Conversation brought together an impressive array of people to discuss how to improve healthcare through empowerment. In...
General Surgeon Shortage
Many rural hospitals are receiving notices or are anticipating retirement plans from their general surgeon(s). This has been expected, yet has been overshadowed by the struggle to recruit and keep primary care providers. All areas of the United States will suffer a shortage of...
How early should I look for the perfect job?
As a physician you have invested years of your life and money you did not have focusing on one goal- to practice medicine. How early in residency should you start to look? If you have an idea of where you would like to live start now! If you don’t know where you want to live,...
Healthcare Reform and Your Interview
One of the new initiatives in healthcare reform is called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which requires that all participating hospitals and clinics be reimbursed by Medicare based on the quality of care they provide. This initiative, called Value Based Purchasing (VBP) gathers...
