Succeed in Medicine: Practical Knowledge for Busy Physicians

Dr. Errin Weisman is a family physician in rural, southwest Indiana, and a life coach, speaker, blogger, and a podcaster.  We talk about three ideas she wishes she could teach her younger self and each has its own actionable step to help us all live more fulfilling lives.  We also flipped the script on an old formula. On previous episodes, we’ve had specialists discuss what they think all physicia...

If you’ve ever counseled a patient (or yourself!) on how to improve their diet, quit smoking, or exercise more, you are basically saying that they need to improve their habits.  Should you be telling them to go Paleo?  Keto? Crypto? CrossFit?  Yoga?  Tai Chi?   Dr. Tello gets into the evidence behind the science of habit development.  Her recommendation?  Just do one push-up a day.  Or eat one pie...

Dr. David Draghinas was an active duty anesthesiologist in the US navy before going into private practice in the Dallas area.  He made his first foray onto the world wide web with the anesthesia myths website, as a way to help patients tell fact from fiction with anesthesia.  We talk about what he wants all physicians, especially those writing surgical clearance letters, to know about anesthesia. ...

Dr. Rand Diab is a board-certified, comprehensive ophthalmologist in the Chicago suburbs of Northwest Indiana, practicing for over 15 years.  We discuss what she thinks all physicians should know about ophthalmology, which starts with how to spell it.  We discuss acute eye injuries and why every pink eye doesn’t get treated with antibiotics drops.  She also really deflates my balloon when she disp...

Sonal Patel is a neonatologist who recognized a gap in the transition of care from a hospital delivery to discharge to the first pediatrician visit, so she created a practice that fills that gap from the ground up.  We discuss how she went about doing that and what she thinks every physician, from pathologists to trauma surgeons, need to know about breastfeeding.  Through residency, fellowship, pr...

As the former National Executive Director (CEO) of the Permanente Federation of Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Jack Cochran is the penultimate physician leader.  He shares his advice on why physicians need to become leaders of change in healthcare (in short, because if we won’t, who will).  He uses his experience mixed with evidence to teach us how in his new book, Healer, Leader, Partner: Optimizing Phys...

Dr. Christopher Burton is a physiatrist, speaker, and prolific author, writing about physician finance, home buying, practice marketing, and finds physician burnout to be such a critical issue, that this is his SECOND book on the topic.  In our interview, we discuss the specialties that are most commonly affected, how to recognize it and how to address it.  This is not a woo-woo talk about breathi...

Lynn Marie Morski, MD, has played every instrument, every sport, run for every office and she quit them all to lie on the beach.  OK, none of that is true except the lie on the beach part since she lives in San Diego, but she is a quitting evangelist.  We discuss when to quit and more importantly, when NOT to quit, the psychology of quitting and what prevents us from following through.  She has a...

Given the recent push from the progressive arm of the Democratic party for Medicare for all, it is useful to look at nations that already have that model.  Dr Hussain Gandhi is a General Practitioner (GP) in Nottingham, England.  We discuss the UK health system and the pros and cons of universal state-funded healthcare for populations and individuals.    Aside from his practice, he is the represen...

Alison Escalante, MD is a practicing pediatrician who has developed a way of thinking and breathing through what she calls, "The Shouldstorm."  As physicians, we face similar storms with our patients, colleagues, administrators, and ourselves.  She walks us through the ideas she presented in a TEDx talk and applies it to doctoring.     She can be found at  shouldstorm.com   And her TEDx...

Dr. Sanj Katyal is a radiologist and a student of positive psychology.  He wrote the book that he wished he had read 20 years ago and he in order to share what he has learned with us.  He combines the philosophy of the ancient stoics and Bhagavad Gita with the relatively new, science-backed positive psychology to help us live our best lives.  We cover the trap of hedonic adaptation and how this ap...

We discuss what every physician should know about the management of acute orthopaedic injuries that any of us may encounter in our lives and when to worry and when to reassure.  And how to reduce a dislocated shoulder.  We also discuss what sports she wouldn't let her son play and the answer certainly surprised me.   Dr. Nancy Yen Shipley is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon, with additional f...

Leah Houston, MD had her physician identity used for billing after her employment concluded.  This led to the epiphany that caused her to start HPEC.IO, an organization that is trying to give physician's back control of their identities using blockchain technology.  This could be useful for doctors that want to switch jobs or states without having to have every bit of information independently ver...

Dr. Percy Francisco Morales is a fellowship-trained electrophysiologic cardiologist who felt that he could help more people by developing an alter ego and creating online content.  As physicians, we tend to answer the same questions again and again, so he thought it would be helpful for patients if he made an atrial fibrillation FAQ and thus Dr. A Fib was born.  We discuss the risks associated wit...

Dr. Dianne Ansari-Winn had her own battles with burnout until she turned to a physician coach, then became a coach and now teaches coaches.  There are executive coaches, sales coaches, tennis coaches, but until recently, not many physician coaches.  With the increase in physicians dissatisfied and unfulfilled by their careers, the "physician coach" is responding.  Dr. Dianne and I discuss why our...

A few months ago, there was a HuffPost article entitled "Everything You Know About Obesity is Wrong," by Michael Hobbes.  It discussed the struggles of people who have obesity and how the medical system has failed them.  It quoted Stephanie Sogg, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Weight Center at MGH (notice how it isn't called the "weight loss center").  In it, Dr. Sogg describes her approach a...

Dr. Dana Corriel is known to some as the godmother of doctors on social media.  This all started with her personal blog, which she created for creative catharsis and to help inform patients on a larger scale than the 1:1 office visits.  She now manages a multiple facebook communities and has a presence on almost all social media platforms.  We discuss the hows and whys of being a doctor on social...

Dr. Ramey had a pretty negative experience buying his first home as a med student, so he took matters into his own hands.  His wife got her real estate license, he got his, and how he helps med students, residents, and attendings around the country buy homes.  He walks us through the entire process from tip to tail, and we discuss for whom a physician loan would be appropriate, the advantages and...

Dr. Cherry Chen, the Real Estate Physician discusses this potential source of stable, predictable, passive-income as an alternative to investing in the stock market.  We discuss how she made her foray into this field, the tax advantages of real estate investment, why she chooses multi-family commercial real estate via syndication over crowdfunding or individual units, and how picking a syndication...

In residency, we have to live with less.  Less money.  Less time.  Less dignity.  And after finishing, we are rewarded for our herculean efforts with higher income.  Sometimes the time and dignity come back, too.  In today's episode, the Frugal Physician and I discuss the pitfalls that can come with that increased income and how falling into the materialistic abyss brings with it more financial st...

Acute Flaccid Myelitis is a polio-like illness that tends to start with symptoms of an upper respiratory tract illness and leads to flaccid paralysis.  There are more questions than there are answers, but Dr. Uzma Hasan, pediatric infectious disease specialist, walks us through what we do know so we can all be better prepared if we encounter this illness.   This medical podcast is your physician m...

Seth Grossman, MD, a fellowship-trained orthopedic spine surgeon, discusses his most common consults; how to differentiate emergent spine injuries from less emergent issues, and why both patients and practitioners alike should be doing yoga, Pilates, and trying to fly like Superman.   This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education. We cover physician soft...

Michael Graffeo is a 20 year veteran of the medical device industry.  He discusses how to put your best foot forward, prevent reproducing the mistakes of the past, and why it isn't just important to just present why your idea is so great, but possibly even more important to discuss why it isn't a risky idea. This medical podcast is your physician mentor to fill the gaps in your medical education....

As an otolaryngologist, if I had a patient who mentioned pelvic pain, I'd send them to an OB-GYN, or urologist.  I'd never think to send them to a physiatrist, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation.  This is why Dr. Tayyaba Ahmed is on the show today.  She treats the muscoloskeletal causes of pelvic pain and patients that she often sees have been refractory to multiple other treatme...

Dr. Shikha Jain has amassed 1000 twitter followers in a year by making breakthroughs in oncologic research accessible to non-physicians and colleagues alike on twitter.  She is also the moderator of two physician Facebook groups.  We discuss the importance of having an online presence in order to build your practice and why physicians in particular need an online presence in order to combat the sp...