Articles
Plagues, Comets and Volcanoes
The sixth century AD was a tumultuous period of human history. It marked the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Empires fell and new ones rose up to take their place. It was in this period that the legendary King Arthur is said to have...
I Wish I Had Heard This Advice Before Applying For An Emergency Medicine Training Post
I was not always interested in Emergency Medicine. Unsurprisingly, I used to be interested in surgery. I completed my medical school education in Pakistan, and did an elective placement in surgery at a Harvard hospital whilst still a medical student. It doesn’t get...
Imhotep – The First Physician
The ancient Egyptian civilisation was the first of the recorded great world civilisations. Little is known about the prehistoric societies that came before Egypt but it is assumed that they were steeped in superstition and that their ability to treat disease was...
Cardiovascular Insights 2
In our first post on cardiovascular insights, Dr. Hicks looked at the structure and function of the heart, understanding atrial fibrillation and congestive cardiac failure. We return again to his helpful site, to gain a deeper understanding of heart attacks and...
Spanish Flu: The Deadliest Pandemic in History
In the Spring of 2009 a new strain of influenza began to infect people in Mexico. Reports suggested that the outbreak had started in February due to farming practices at a pig farm and it was henceforth given the name ‘swine flu’. By April, cases had started to spread...
Physician Burnout Part 4: Increasing Our Re-charge at Home
Our lives are often frenetic both at home and at work. The last person that we look after is usually our self. If we step back and consider this for a minute, or if we look at it from the standpoint of us giving a patient advice, then our advice would be that in order...
Physician Burnout Part 3: Increasing Your Recharge at Work and at Home
Working as medics we are often rushed off our feet with barely time to take a comfort break or breathe. There are competing demands on our attention from patients and colleagues as well as the endless list of ‘must-do’ tasks. So, how can we possibly find the time to...
Physician Burnout Part 2: Reducing Stress at Work
In my last post, I mentioned Dr Dike Drummond’s “Burnout prevention matrix”. For me this provides a great way to dissect burnout prevention by looking at strategies to reduce stress at home and work and to increase our recharge in both. In this post, I want to focus...
Physician Burnout Part 1: Preventing Burnout
I am a doctor, a GP. I have worked in the NHS for over 20 years. I have always loved my job. Then, stress and anxiety completely crippled me. I no longer enjoyed working as a GP. In fact, I dreaded it. I was exhausted and burnt out. I am not alone in this. Over the...
Cardiovascular Insights
Dr. Hicks is the founding physician of Veritas Cardiovascular in South Carolina. He noticed that patients were often confused by their diagnoses and why they were supposed to be taking certain medications. Medical staff can all feel the pressures of time during...
