April 4, 2024 | 2 min read A plug for the EHR By Amy Knight, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinicians can make EHRs work better by keeping patient records up-to-date and utilizing features like customization and search. Impressive new features are coming—hang in there!
October 3, 2019 | 4 min read The Fault in our EHRs By Jeffrey Millstein, MD, Penn Medicine The clinically excellent clinician makes an effort to know each patient’s unique story, moving beyond the confines of the content within the EHR.
August 29, 2019 | 2 min read Mindful Doctoring in the EHR Era By Irene Estores, MD, University of Florida College of Medicine Mindfulness is essential in clinical excellence. Consider these five tips while working with the EHR.
Operationalizing basic systems like a phone call home following a hospitalization can make a meaningful difference for patients. March 25, 2025 | 3 min read Operationalizing empathy By Steve Meth, JD, MS, Johns Hopkins Medicine Small systemic adjustments can have a significant impact on care quality. Examples that have been impactful recently include post-discharge phone calls, AI scribing, and better integration of bedside EHR.
Boundary Waters Wilderness, Minnesota. October 3, 2022 | 4 min read Setting Boundaries in Medicine By Laura Hanyok, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine Key to mitigating burnout is managing expectations of yourself and others, while still fulfilling our duties to patients.
March 30, 2018 | 4 min read An EPIC Tale By Wilma Ferthler, MD, Rural Country Doctor, Northeast Kingdom, Vermont A warm welcome to our new regular contributor, Dr. Wilma Ferthler, a rural country doc from the Northeast Kingdom, Vermont.
August 1, 2024 | 3 min read Prescribing art By Anna Krotinger, MBE, medical student, Harvard Medical School I’ve taught dance to patients with Parkinson’s and have seen great impact. By integrating the arts into clinical care, healthcare professionals can better support patients navigating their journey.
March 1, 2022 | 1 min read What to Expect When You’re Expecting (to See The Doctor) By Jeffrey Millstein, MD, Penn Medicine A journey through a doctor’s office visit is all too familiar to clinicians and staff, but patients may not know what to expect. Managing expectations provides reassurance and may improve the patient experience.
December 16, 2019 | 4 min read Top 10 Tips to be a Great Consultant By Aline Charabaty, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine Read these 10 tips so that next time your pager goes off, you can be an outstanding consultant!
April 5, 2018 | 5 min read Remaking Medicine Whole By Gregory Frichionne, MD, Harvard Medical School A review of "Whole Person Care: Transforming Healthcare" by Tom Hutchinson, MB, McGill University.
July 1, 2024 | 3 min read The power of honesty By Keshav Khanijow, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine Prioritizing clear communication with patients and using plain language to explain clinical information helps to build trust.
October 11, 2023 | 3 min read Sharing Decisions By Eric Last, DO, Northwell Health, Wantagh, New York The term “shared decision making” is often misunderstood and misused. What this phrase really means is respecting the autonomy of patients to make their decisions based on the information and counsel their clinicians provide.
February 22, 2023 | 1 min read “Doctors Are From Mars, Patients Are From Venus” By Jeffrey Millstein, MD, Penn Medicine Physicians and patients need to work on their relationship. If doctors work on their listening skills and patients learn to be better self-advocates, we can build trust and become better healthcare partners.
June 27, 2022 | 3 min read Caring for people and their gender stories By Hailey Haffey, PhD, University of Utah To care for people is to care for the stories that shape them. Clinicians can enhance patients’ confidence in the healthcare system by skillfully engaging with their stories of gender and sexual orientation.
October 4, 2021 | 1 min read Words Matter By Leslie Miller, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine When serving as an advocate for a family member, I noted judgmental language in the EHR. This reminds me as a clinician to consider how patients (and their families) will feel when they read my notes.
August 16, 2021 | 3 min read The Heart of Clinical Reasoning By Susrutha “Sus” Kotwal, MBBS, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine Making a diagnostic error reminded me that connecting with patients on a personal level is necessary for optimal clinical reasoning.
November 5, 2020 | 3 min read Cultivating Compassion By Aidan Crowley, Medical Student, University of Pennsylvania Compassion—acting on the desire to relieve suffering—is central to giving clinically excellent care to those in need.
September 9, 2019 | 6 min read Patient Interviewing Gems By Thomas Gracie, Medical Student, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Excellent clinicians make the time to learn about their patients as people and connect on a personal level, building relationships that can last years, decades, or even a lifetime.
June 4, 2019 | 3 min read Haiku on Phone By Crystal Jing Jing Yeo, MD, PhD, MassGeneral, Brigham and Women Hospital, Harvard Medical School To be a true healer is to heal not just in life, but also through dying and death.
March 12, 2019 | 2 min read Physician Burnout: The Pressure Continues to Grow By Colin West, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic Support for physician mental health must be made more widely available. We must remove the stigma associated with accessing this support.
December 26, 2018 | 1 min read How to Ensure Patient Access During the Holidays By Michael Crocetti, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Community Physicians The holidays can be a stressful time for both patients and clinicians. Here are a few ideas to ensure stress-free access to care for patients, and tips for everyone to stay healthy and rested.
June 28, 2019 | 1 min read How to Improve Outpatient Handoffs By Laura Hanyok, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine Consider performing outpatient handoffs and preparing patients when you will be away. This will make your time away easier for your covering colleagues and for your patients.
"Primary Colors Ascending," by Janice Greenberg. December 17, 2024 | 5 min read The portal paradox By Megan Gerber, MD, MPH, Albany Medical College Communicating with patients electronically presents both benefits and challenges. I’ve cherished when patients have shared creative works with me—both in person and via the portal—although I recognize this may add to my message count.
Anchoring bias occurs when we rely too heavily on information received up front and too little on information received later when making a judgement about the most likely diagnosis. November 26, 2024 | 4 min read Lessening the chances of making diagnostic errors By Elizabeth Fracica, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Medicine To minimize common mistakes in diagnoses, clinicians must be mindful of cognitive and anchoring biases. Regularly seeking alternative explanations is one way to accomplish this.
