Articles matching the ‘Medical Education’ Category

February 20th, 2024

Variability in Consult Volume Is a Major Contributor to Trainee Stress — What’s the Solution?

Back when he was program director of our ID fellowship, Dr. David Hooper would give the applicants a description of our program. One of the key parts was his estimating the workload — in particular, the number of new consults per day. “We average three to four consults a day,” he said. “But there’s a high […]


January 25th, 2024

Printed Medical Textbooks — Going, Going, but Not Quite Gone

Take a look at the things behind my desk at work: cute photos of family and dog a bunch of sentimental objects, gifts from grateful patients or colleagues a smattering of miscellaneous plaques and clocks pictures of our current (awesome) first-year ID fellows and other stuff a bunch of books, several of them many inches thick […]


January 2nd, 2024

Reflections on Working in the Hospital During the Holidays

For the zillionth year in a row, I spent the Christmas holiday working in the hospital. For me, it’s not much of a sacrifice — we don’t celebrate Christmas, and my kids are long out of school so the strict limits on when we can take vacation are a thing of the past. But it […]


November 23rd, 2023

Giving Thanks — This Time to You, Readers of This Thing

Most years around this time I post some ID-related things to be grateful for — a research advance, a nice shift in epidemiology showing fewer people are sick and more are living longer, a new drug approval we’ve been eagerly awaiting. That kind of thing. Last year, for example, it was gratitude that mpox had come […]


November 16th, 2023

Being a Good Doctor — Why Are the Simple Things So Hard?

The simple things that make someone not just a doctor — but a good doctor — can slip away from us when we’re too busy, or tired, or preoccupied, or hungry. That’s why it’s wise periodically to be reminded of the “soft skills” that, while individually not tricky, together make a huge difference in how […]


September 8th, 2023

Endless Recertification in Medicine — Some Thoughts About the Tests We Take

The tests issued by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) for credentialing physicians are much in the news again. There’s even a petition circulating to eliminate the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process entirely, signed by nearly 20,000 physicians. I have a bunch of memories, thoughts, and feelings about ABIM and the tests they issue. They’re […]


June 15th, 2023

Clinical Teaching at the 99.9th Percentile: Dr. Martin (Marty) Samuels

One of the true joys of practicing at academic medical centers is working alongside great clinical teachers. No one exemplified this talented group better than Dr. Martin (Marty) Samuels, former chief of neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (where I work), and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. He was quite simply the best clinical […]


February 6th, 2023

New Ways with Language — Some to Adopt, Some to Question

Back in my second year of medical school, my classmate and good friend John and I had a memorable teacher in our Introduction to Clinical Medicine course, someone we still talk about today. A general internist with a specialty in addiction, he was a big bear of a guy sporting a ponytail, beard, open-necked shirts […]


November 29th, 2022

#IDTwitter — Still a Wonderful and Entertaining Place to Learn

Twitter is much in the news recently, mostly for not-good reasons. Rather than rehash-tag (see what I did there?) its various struggles and controversies since the new owner took over, I’m going to let others cover that territory. Instead, I’d like to go in a different direction, and share how this site remains one of the […]


November 21st, 2022

Five ID Things to Be Grateful For, 2022 Edition

In what’s something of a holiday tradition on this site, I hereby present 5 ID things we can be grateful for as we prepare for the best holiday of the year. Why the best? Family and friends. A nice big meal, with something for everyone. (My family of four has two vegetarians — they have plenty […]


HIV Information: Author Paul Sax, M.D.

Paul E. Sax, MD

Contributing Editor

NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases

Biography | Disclosures | Summaries

Learn more about HIV and ID Observations.