Physician burnout is increasing faster than any other profession in the U.S. Compared with the general U.S. population, physicians experience a much higher rate of burnout (54.4% vs 28.4%)1 and the risk of suicide is 1.4 and 2.3 times higher for male and female physicians, respectively.2 The fact that burnout has increased across all medical specialties, while the general population remained stable, suggests that this is a workplace issue. Anything that interferes with patient care, whether it is systemic or environmental, should be the focus of change. Physician burnout provides an early indication, a warning sign, of our dysfunctional healthcare system's impending failure. With physician burnout at 54%, decision-makers need to change course and offer solutions now to avoid a healthcare catastrophe. To Read More CLICK HERE
In 1849, the first woman in America to earn a M.D. degree was Elizabeth Blackwell. She paved the way to support medical education for women and many other women in their careers. Since this time the number of women enrolled in medicine has significantly increased. A 2017 survey, from the Association of American Medical Colleges, reports the number of women enrolled in U.S. medical schools represented 50.7%.1 This is a significant step towards physicians being more representative of the total population in the U.S. which accounts for 50.8% of women.
KODA: National Breakthrough Year for Lives Saved Through Organ Donation
Each year, April marks National Donate Life Month to celebrate transplant recipients, remember heroic donors and families, and honor those waiting for the gift of organ, cornea, and tissue donation.
2017 was a national and local breakthrough year for the mission of donation and transplantation. Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates (KODA) reached the second highest number of lives saved through organ transplantation ever in its 30-year history - 361 organ transplanted organs.
I was originally a pharmacist and then a graduate student in a research tract in pharmacology. I became more intellectually curious about disease states and the use of drugs to alter the pathology and to improve quality of life. I knew that I needed to become a physician to use this knowledge for diagnostic and treatment purposes which I could not do as a pharmacist. So I applied the medical school and was fortunate to be accepted.
