You searched for chronic illness - CLOSLER

October 24, 2024 | 2 min read

The heat is on: How to keep patients cool and safe

Rising temperatures due to climate change affect patients of all ages, particularly those with chronic health conditions. Counsel patients on strategies to prevent heat-related medical complications.

September 23, 2019 | 3 min read

How to Manage Chronic Pain and Opioids

By Ryan Graddy, MD, AbsoluteCARE Medical Center, Atlanta, Georgia

Safe opioid stewardship is a key objective when managing chronic pain. Combining evidence-based strategies and compassionate care can help you to realize these goals.

July 11, 2024 | 2 min read

Protecting the most vulnerable from heat-related illnesses

By Joanna Cohen, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

When caring for patients during heat waves, healthcare professionals should be aware of social determinants of health—like no air conditioning at home. Clinicians should know the available resources to recommend, such as cooling centers within the communities they serve.

August 27, 2018 | 1 min read

Practicing the Golden Rule

By Scott Newsome, DO, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

A key element in treating people with chronic illness is partnering with their family to develop an individualized management plan.

January 18, 2024 | 1 min read

“Please pray for me”

By Youngjee Choi, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

When my longtime patient with chronic illness asked me to pray for her, I told her I would. Whether prayer is something one can offer, responding to emotional and spiritual requests can be an important part of care.

January 18, 2023 | 2 min read

Finding a PCP

By Laura Hanyok, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Finding a primary care physician can take time, but it’s worth it to find a personal physician for longitudinal care. Suggest patients ask their family and friends for PCP recommendations.

"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.

May 7, 2018 | 2 min read

The 5 Core Beliefs of a Hospitalist

By Daniel Brotman, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

As a hospitalist, I'm in a position to establish intense relationships with patients. Here are my five core beliefs, values, and premises that govern my approach to clinical care in this setting.

October 19, 2023 | 2 min read

Healthcare for every body

By Stephanie Pham Van, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

To make healthcare more welcoming, be sensitive to how patients prefer to be described. Also, find out what tools they might need to access information, for example, voice to text transcriptions.

November 3, 2021 | 2 min read

Diagnosing And Treating Pain

By Rebekah Fenton, MD, Northwestern University

Always listen to your patients and make sure that they understand that you believe their experience of pain.

August 30, 2019 | 1 min read

The Gatekeepers of “Fairness”

By Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Excellent clinicians spend time listening to patients, acknowledging concerns, and empathizing with feelings that life is not fair.

June 5, 2024 | 2 min read

Near death

By Aurora Grutman, medical student, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Overcoming anxiety about the end of life allows one to explore concerns with empathy and openness. A willingness to learn about patients’ spiritual beliefs can help clinicians provide compassionate and holistic care.

November 9, 2021 | 3 min read

Giving Exceptional Care Without Exception

A one-liner works in comedy but leads to biases in medicine. Listening, getting to know, and learning from each patient will allow you to serve them best.

April 5, 2022 | 1 min read

Playing “Out of Book”

By Jeffrey Millstein, MD, Penn Medicine

Unexpected statements from patients can force clinicians to improvise. As in chess, it helps to view these as challenges with potential rewards.

March 1, 2018 | 2 min read

Individualized Medicine Calls Me Back to Patient Stories

By Tom Laskow, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

New thinking mirrors old wisdom: to understand this manifestation of disease, understand this patient.

May 28, 2019 | 3 min read

Supporting my Patients who Smoke

By Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

It's important to make sure that the responsibility for addressing tobacco dependence is placed on the shoulders of clinicians, and off of the shoulders of the afflicted.

June 25, 2018 | 2 min read

Identity Part II: Knowing Your Own Past

By Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

I’m not a doctor who engages with the community; rather, I’m a community member who became a doctor. This identity has helped me strengthen and maintain my relationships with my patients.

January 8, 2025 | 2 min read

Beyond the inhaler

By Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Effective and equitable asthma management requires a holistic approach that addresses the social determinants of health, including air quality, housing conditions, and environmental factors.

April 26, 2022 | 1 min read

The Power of Beliefs

By Stephanie Trudeau, PhD, The Thrive Center For Human Development

Explore your patient’s beliefs that invite healing, as well as those that are causing them to suffer. By understanding this, you can guide them to do more of the former and less of the latter.

June 12, 2024 | 3 min read

Getting serious about citrus

By Maureen Flood, NP, Johns Hopkins Medicine

In patients with chronic conditions and socially determined health risks, remember to consider vitamin C deficiency.

November 1, 2018 | 2 min read

Lessons From ‘The Giving Body’

By Adam P. Stern, MD, Harvard Medical School

Little by little, chronic disease can eat away at a patient’s sense of self. The best antidote can be a doctor who empathizes with the patient’s subjective experience.

December 2, 2024 | 4 min read

An intriguing paradox

By Ghida Kassir, MD, University of Toronto, Canada

Because anorexia is not uncommon, it is likely that we will all encounter a patient who is suffering from this life-threatening condition. Although it may be difficult to understand self-starvation, empathy and compassion must be prioritized to establish a trusting patient-clinician relationship.

July 2, 2024 | 4 min read

Seeing

By Kamna Balhara, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

When patients present frequently to the ED, clinicians must make an effort to validate them as individuals. It's also important to be aware of and work to change the underlying social determinants that may drive their visits.

August 20, 2020 | 2 min read

2 Minutes of Presence

By Zara Latif, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

When talking with your patient, dedicate at least two minutes to pure listening. During that time, try to not think about the next question you want to ask and just hear your patient’s perspective.

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.

"The Starry Night," Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, Museum of Modern Art.

May 16, 2019 | 5 min read

Starry, Starry Night

By Juliette Perzhinsky, MD, MSc, Central Michigan University

There are times that as clinicians we become patients ourselves, needing compassionate care for injuries entirely unrelated to our chief complaint.

April 16, 2019 | 2 min read

4 Lessons From 12 Years as a Patient-Doctor

By Julia Michie Bruckner, MD, MPH, Children\'s Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado School of Medicine

Our white coats are not shields; they could be traded in for a flimsy hospital gown at any moment. Keeping this in mind, we can think of how we want to be cared for when our time comes, and then give this level of care to others. We can honor our shared humanity and vulnerability in our practice.

July 9, 2024 | 3 min read

Takeaways from the book “Progress Notes”

By Abraham Nussbaum, MD, Denver Health

Excellent clinicians understand patients not just as bodies, but also as individuals within a community. Healthcare professionals should be trained in both for a more holistic approach to patient care.

March 12, 2020 | 4 min read

What I learned from my primary care mentors

By Colleen Farrell, MD, New York University

All of us can learn from primary care clinicians, who know that listening, compassion, and connection are the foundations of clinical excellence.

January 16, 2020 | 2 min read

The Danger of Reinforcing Negative Biases

By Yolonda Wilson, PhD, 2019-2020 Fellow at the National Humanities Center and 2019-2020 Encore Public Voices Fellow

The way clinicians talk about patients publicly reinforces biases about race, gender, class, etc.

October 23, 2019 | 4 min read

A Tale of Two Stents

By Frank Cacace, MD, North Shore University Hospital

We are all vulnerable to cognitive biases. The clinically excellent clinician takes time to slow down and steps back when working toward the definitive diagnosis.

July 30, 2018 | 2 min read

Stepping Forward

By Dorianne Feldman, MD, MS, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

There is no greater reward than the gratitude of a patient you've helped to heal.

April 18, 2023 | 2 min read

Caring for patients who are Muslim during Ramadan (archived 2023)

By Zaina Siraj, medical student, Albany Medical College

Learn the basics about this important holiday. Ask your patients if they are fasting and how you can support their practice if medically possible.

March 20, 2019 | 4 min read

Social History as Story

By Colleen Farrell, MD, New York University

We cannot understand our patients’ bodies if we do not understand something about who they are as human beings,

November 11, 2021 | 3 min read

Dying Alone

By Eric Last, DO, Northwell Health, Wantagh, New York

Caring for a patient dying of AIDS reminded me that—while it's necessary to be fully present and listen attentively to all patients—those who are alone need even more of our time.

October 30, 2018 | 1 min read

The Joy of Patient Volunteers

By Steve Kravet, MD, MBA, Johns Hopkins Community Physicians

Ask a patient to volunteer in your clinic or office - I guarantee it will add to the joy of medicine and the joy of life!

Clinician self-disclosure must be done thoughtfully if it is to strengthen the root of the patient-doctor relationship.

January 18, 2021 | 5 min read

The Pros and Cons of Clinician Self-disclosure

By Howard Chang, Medical Student, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Clinician self-disclosure, if done thoughtfully, may help some patients feel better understood and strengthen the patient-doctor relationship.

October 21, 2019 | 4 min read

Stepping Up to Climate Change

By Evans Brown, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

The climate crisis is directly relevant to our work in healthcare. Healthcare professionals must step up and get involved.

October 14, 2019 | 4 min read

The Struggle Between Occam’s Razor and Hickam’s Dictum

By Kittane "Vishnu" Vishnupriya, MBBS, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Occam's razor and Hickam's dictum are both helpful tools when engaging in diagnostic reasoning.

Can I have some?

March 28, 2023 | 2 min read

A Prevention Partnership

By Eliana Perrin, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Obesity is a complex disease that can be hard to treat. Promoting healthy lifestyles while preserving and honoring cultural and family traditions can start with newborns.

May 6, 2019 | 3 min read

When I Could not Hear my Patient

By Erin Snyder, MD, University of Alabama School of Medicine

Listening and understanding is what leads to true patient partnership, which is what is going to lead to true health.

March 28, 2019 | 6 min read

Integrating Psychology and Primary Care

By Benjamin Bensadon, PhD, University of Florida College of Medicine

Person-centeredness holds great potential to maximize healing in the way Osler envisioned more than a century ago. But to translate this concept clinically, psychology and medicine must come closer together. The closer we can come together, the closer we can come to Osler.

February 13, 2019 | 2 min read

Disparities in New Treatments

By Utibe Essien, MD, MPH, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

When beginning new treatments, it's important to ask patients what they understand about the medication, what their expectations are, what barriers might exist to remaining on this agent, and what they value most out of their treatment plan.

Asking about stress levels, mood, sleep quality, and coping strategies in routine medical discussions can provide insight into a patient’s emotional well-being and open the door for further discussion.

March 31, 2025 | 2 min read

Care of the mind

By Paige Seegan, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

By proactively discussing mental health, using non-stigmatizing language, and having a list of resources on hand, healthcare professionals can help patients get the support they need.

October 19, 2021 | 2 min read

Asking About Your Patient’s Pet

By Elizabeth Steuber, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Todd Brenner, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Ask patients about their pets. This can build a bridge to talking about topics like functional status, home life, and family dynamics.

May 3, 2018 | 5 min read

Challenges, Choices, and Changes

By Catherine Parrish, MD, Johns Hopkins Community Physicians

CHALLENGE yourself to be a lifelong learner—make CHOICES in your career that make you HAPPY, and use the CHANGES in your personal life to inform and enrich your work.

May 29, 2024 | 1 min read

Unstable housing, unstable health

By Stasia Reynolds, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Routinely asking patients about housing insecurity can help identify those who are at-risk of poor health outcomes. Understanding a patient's living situation can help you provide realistic guidance.

March 23, 2023 | 2 min read

5 questions I ask every patient

By Lillie Shockney, RN, MS, Johns Hopkins Medicine

I talk with patients who have metastatic breast cancer about their hopes and worries at every visit. This allows me to give better, whole-person care.

December 8, 2023 | 1 min read

Supporting those with AUD through the holidays

By Megan Gerber, MD, MPH, Albany Medical College

Find a way to celebrate this holiday season that includes and validates those who may be in recovery.

October 31, 2022 | 2 min read

Dinner Table Wisdom

By Elizabeth Reynolds, PhD, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Our mealtime companions can be a source of strength, support, and motivation. My childhood dinner table provided the roots for my compassion and dedication to serving patients.