I’m not going to be a doctor. It feels more like a confession than a statement — like I’m disappointing someone. Each time I say, or even think, those words, I feel as if I need to atone for it. Survey a hundred scribes. Ask them of their goal in becoming a scribe, and all of them will tell you about higher aspirations. They want to be surgeons, cardiologists, intensivists, or neurologists. They dream of practicing primary care, infectious disease, …
Some doctors choose medicine because of the medicine, and some doctors choose medicine because of the people. I veer towards the latter: Medicine is my tool to help the person sitting across from me. However, I am finding more and more stuff getting in between me and my patients, primarily my computer. The increasing burden of gathering coded health data in the EMR, especially in light of the impending MACRA, MIPS regulations and the various private insurance compliance requirements, has …