@stefankertesz.bsky.social
4/In our podcast, Saul Weiner and I ask how the medical profession became "addicted" to discussing opioids (mostly, not prescribing) and lost track of how to help someone with pain
"On Becoming a Healer" is on
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2mU6...
3/The ACP's "thumbs up" is 100% opposition to the CDC's current guidance. The CDC knows these measures harmed patients.
Please note ACP gave a big "red thumbs down" to measuring if patients experience their pain care as helpful.
A horrific message:
"The patient isn't your partner in pain care"
2/Example: American College of Physicians endorsed quality measures for pain care.
They gave a big "thumbs up" for profiling "use of opioids at high dose" (lower is better).
This has been tried, and led to patient harms as they were cut off of medication.
www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
1/🔊 Our latest podcast focuses on the hollowed-out state of pain care in America. It asks "Why are we addicted to talking about opioids rather than helping people with chronic pain?"
"On Becoming a Healer" is on
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...
Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/2mU6...
I'm looking forward for this lively discourse on the utility, or lack of such, on Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs this November at AMERSA's conference in Portland, Oregon!
18.06.2025 18:51 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
2/We interviewed Dr. Anne Walling, a physician of that generation who has published a book based on interviewing 37 of her peers, published by CRC Press
Find us (On Becoming a Healer) on Apple podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/d...
Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/0qYH...
1/Women entering med school in the 50s & 60s faced a "Mad Men" like world:
Being pinched & prodded
Playboy photos in lectures
And yet when our podcast guest interviewed them decades later, they were upbeat about their careers
Our latest On Becoming a Healer podcast tells their stories
After Dr Smith’s patient died, her husband brought him her diary.
What he read shocked him. He had failed at responding to a woman in the worst moment of her short life.
Dr. Smith is the guest on our latest podcast from “On Becoming a Healer”. That story is in this post
pod.link/healer/episo...
Georgia
Film: Ilford HP4
Pentax Super Program
50 mm
f/5.6
A week ago a limited bronchopneumonia hit
my temp spiked to 102 while my O2 sat hovered at 90%. The X-ray showed some odd and small infiltrates.
Antibiotics were given. I am not back to normal, but I am getting close.
Fencing on the left. I was breathless but in a week, I will be good !
6/You can find our conversation with Dr. Iezzoni in the "On Becoming a Healer" podcast wherever you get your podcasts, including:
Apple podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...
Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/59rc...
Youtube
youtu.be/y5aokUxvYBw?...
5/One very hard question to answer is "why are doctors and health systems not ready for disability?"
Is it just lack of equipment?
Fears about patients who "slow the clinic down"?
Or is there something in doctors, in US, that makes us fear disability?
We explore all of it in On Becoming a Healer
4/Dr. Lisa Iezzoni began research to capture disabled patients' experiences. She got even more attention when she asked questions of the doctors.
Doctors said patients with disability are a "disruption to clinic flow"
Just 56% "welcomed" disabled patients into their practices
3/Dr. Iezzoni's work focused on developing methods to measure health care quality. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
But as she wheeled all over the country, people came up and talked to her about their terrible experiences in health care
2/While a med student in the 1980s, Harvard's admins & faculty discouraged Lisa Iezzoni from proceeding to clinical training.
This was before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed (it passed in 1990)
So, after that rejection, Lisa became a leading health service researcher
Image of Dr. Lisa Iezzoni in a speeding electric wheelchair with the name of this new episode from On Becoming a Healer podcast "Disability is part of the human experience: so why not treat it that way?"
1/Are doctors ready to serve patients with disabilities? Only 41% say they are
--Our latest On Becoming a Healer podcast explores this with Lisa Iezzoni, MD.
--She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis while at Harvard Medical School.
--She's a Harvard professor of medicine
This is a great paper and @maxjordan.bsky.social is a superb scholar
“under-prescribing—or more precisely, ignoring a patient’s pain treatment preferences—can also lead to harmful outcomes, especially when patients are dissatisfied with their care” - Dr Max Jordan Nguemi
I'm looking forward for this lively discourse on the utility, or lack of such, on Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs this November at AMERSA's conference in Portland, Oregon!
18.06.2025 18:51 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Delighted to be selected for the 1st cohort of trainees at Grayken Center for Addiction’s Nurse Care Manager Training with our nurse champion, Marsha. Nurses are essential to expanding access to care in AL and rural US, and we’re so glad to have some of the best at UAB @uabcappi.bsky.social
16.06.2025 12:46 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Did you know that cytisinocline has trial-quality evidence for helping people quit vaping?
We're hard at work preparing for Friday afternoon's Clinical Update in Addiction Medicine at 445pm at #sgim25 (with Drs. Morford, Mullins and Chan) @societygim.bsky.social
A terrific discussion by @stefankertesz.bsky.social and @saulweiner.bsky.social on the administration coming after #meded
#medsky
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...
3 docs found a calling in trying to be of use to folks who are homeless or
At right : SGIM plenary speaker Jim Withers of the Street Medicine Institute
Left Travis Baggett @MGHMedicine and @BHCHP
(Middle) Stefan Kertesz @VABIRMINGHAM & UAB
#SGIM25
A great audience at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council has come to hear summaries from
#HCH25
“What's new in homeless health care? A no-jargon summary of the latest research”
I will share a PDF of our summaries below later today
Dr Travis Baggett presenting up front!
Former Acting US Attorney Ed Martin concluded 2 months of star power by sending intimidating letters to medical journals
Is that an embarrassing aberration or a sign of things to come?
That’s in the 2nd half in this On Becoming a Healer podcast
open.spotify.com/episode/3Hzt...
Careful detailed reporting @propublica.org
www.propublica.org/article/trum...
4/This “On Becoming a Healer” podcast dives into the complaints & the arguments, & how they fit into a popular “playbook” for governments aiming to take down institutions
Streaming everywhere
Apple
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...
Spotify
open.spotify.com/episode/3Hzt...
3/Simultaneously, medical journals like @NEJM and @journal_CHEST have been targeted with letters from a US Attorney asking if they are biased
(reports in @medpagetoday & @statnews )
Are these legit concerns? Why would a US Attorney go after medical journals?
2/The Liaison Committee for Med Education (LCME) credentials med schools and @acgme for residencies.
The White House order accuses them of “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives as basis for investigation & termination as accreditors. @politico.com reported www.politico.com/news/2025/04...
1/The groups accrediting US medical schools & residencies are under new pressure
In a new “On Becoming a Healer” podcast, we look at a 4/23 White House order to investigate & terminate accreditors of US medical education, and curious attacks on med journals from a US Attorney
This is the 1st podcast that became more timely in 7 days since we posted it.
I detail the concerns of many who objected to what they saw in recent years. Can what’s happening now be justified?
But the question remains: Can physicians stand up to authoritarianism?
youtu.be/x1iwqRgUPpo?...
