Lifestyle

Traveling like a resident instead of a tourist has long been a goal for many vacationers. Now there are apps for that, creating ways for you to meet locals as tour guides so you accumulate experiences rather than just check things off your bucket list.

As physicians, we may not have been taught certain leadership skills during our training, but we can learn them. There have been some great historical examples of leaders that we can use today to help us grow into the kind of leaders that we need to be in order to affect positive change.

In less than one week, Pokémon Go has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon. While Nintendo may be the one laughing all the way to the bank, here are some lessons we, in medicine, should learn from Pokémon Go.

Ask most doctors and they will tell you that EMRs and other digital health products, like telemedicine platforms, are more of a problem than a solution and that they fail to see the benefits.

I thought that I had a ridiculously high savings rate, allowing me to retire by 2023, within 2.8 years of finishing fellowship. Most (soon-to-be) radiologists look at me like I'm some sort of weirdo who derives pleasure from “beneath-average-physician-standard-of-living” and obsessed with saving.

Telemedicine might be getting more traction in the business community and offer an improved patient experience, but many docs are not using it in their daily practice. A simple explanation is that, given present offerings, it does not improve the doctor experience. We have seen this movie before and we know how it ends.

When it comes to treating patients, most doctors get to see the snap shot, not the movie. Periodic visits, whether they are face-to-face or remote are usually “just in time” events. What happens between the visits is usually a mystery.

Years ago, “Greatest Generation” employees would spend their entire careers with the same company, because at retirement they would get a lifetime pension.

It appears that doctors are treating way too many patients for what is considered reasonable. That story tops this week’s PMD Critical List. Also making the list: An African American surgeon who responded to the police shootings in Dallas weighs in on gun and racial issues, and female physicians in even the most prominent schools are being paid significantly less than males.

My back of the envelope observation is that about 1% of doctors, engineers, and scientists have an entrepreneurial mindset and the six habits that define it.

Sick care is many years behind other industries when it comes to making lasting change in patients and doctors.