One of a physician’s most underrated skills is the ability to communicate effectively and compassionately with patients. While most physicians have valuable experience from years of clinical work, few receive formal communication training after medical school. A rapidly changing healthcare … Read More
Making better use of the physician workforce
In a recent article, we discussed the physician workforce’s historic shortages. Analysts estimate that U.S. healthcare is short tens of thousands of doctors, with rural and low-income populations most affected. But what if the physician shortage isn’t a supply problem? … Read More
Tips to guarantee patient satisfaction in short office visits
Physicians realize the importance of interpersonal communication skills for delivering effective care and ensuring patient satisfaction. Yet changes in healthcare are pushing doctors to care for patients in shorter visits while juggling more administrative tasks. What can you do, as … Read More
Doctors: use your vacation time
There’s growing awareness of a counterintuitive healthcare problem: many doctors don’t use their vacation time. About half of doctors experience burnout, citing long hours and too many bureaucratic tasks as key reasons. Most physicians get three to four weeks of … Read More
How to use ChatGPT as a doctor
OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence chatbot launched nearly two years ago. Have you used it? This article will explain ChatGPT in simple terms and provide five examples of how you could use ChatGPT as a doctor. What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is … Read More
Solutions to rural healthcare access
Americans living in rural areas tend to have worse health than people in cities. Why is this, and what can providers and policymakers do to improve rural healthcare access? Rural health disparities The 20% of Americans living in rural areas … Read More
9 Tips and Tricks to Streamline Your Patient Visit Workflow
Clinics and departments with high morale foster a culture of continuous improvement. Your employees want opportunities to improve, and even small changes to the patient visit workflow can eliminate unnecessary tasks and headaches for busy staff. In turn, workflow improvements … Read More
How accurate are AI-generated clinical notes?
More physicians are turning to AI-generated clinical notes to assist with documentation. AI scribes can save providers significant time and improve practice efficiency. But are clinical notes produced by large language models like ChatGPT-4 accurate enough to be trusted? A … Read More
The state of physician burnout in 2024
Physician burnout is a significant problem that harms providers, patients, families, and healthcare systems. But exactly how many physicians are burned out? How many are depressed? Which physicians are most affected? And what causes physician burnout? This article will answer … Read More
Is COVID endemic?
Most public health experts agree that infection from SARS-CoV-2 is now at endemic, rather than pandemic, levels. However, calling COVID “endemic” risks encouraging a lackadaisical public response to a disease that still has serious consequences. Let’s review the state of … Read More