I'm working on creating a little social media presence for medical communication and education, and that includes a little substack where I've been posting some essays on my experiences in medicine. I would really appreciate any feedback folks have to offer or suggestions for topics that might be interesting to read about.

(I'm holding off on posting some of my spicier opinion pieces until I've graduated from medical school and gotten into residency, but I do try to be candid in my writing.)

I'm currently on my pediatrics rotation and on my first day in clinic, I had about 40% of families decline vaccinations. For the last visit of the day, the patient was a 3 week old coming in for her newborn followup and her parents said that they were against all vaccinations.

I asked them to tell me what their concerns were and spent an hour debunking conspiracy theories and answering all the questions they had. By the end of the discussion, they agreed to look at the CDC fact sheets for the recommended childhood vaccinations for the first year of life and said they would look at doing a delayed vaccination schedule at least. They wanted specific numbers and data about complication rates, but I didn't have that on hand. They seemed okay with my explanation that the data is everyone walking around that got all their childhood vaccinations and are doing fine.

Now, as a medical student, my time is basically worthless and I can absolutely sit there for an hour and answer questions, but I won't be able to do that in practice. I'd love any suggestions on how to compress that discussion (or confirmation that I'd just have to schedule those appointments at the end of the day and spend the hour.)

I have some previous experience fighting with the mass-murderers...I mean...insurance companies from the role of a clinic assistant, but I want to hear perspectives from physicians or other providers about your approaches to dealing with them.

I plan on being very familiar with the ICD-10's and CPT's and how to match those up as advantageously as possible, but I know that won't be enough on it's own. Do you think having someone in the office with medical training whose job it is to deal with insurance companies as their primary/only job is necessary?

"The Adjuster" has definitely captured the collective consciousness and kicked off some serious discussions, but I'm afraid that the mainstream media, corporations, and corporate-owned politicians are going to stamp this out or defy the will of the people so vehemently that it won't matter what we do short of full-on revolution.

This is a great article written by Robert Evans of 'Behind the Bastards' fame that goes into Luigi's background, social media presence, and apparent ideologies.

We all have had patients with chronic pain, we all know someone with chronic pain, and some of us unfortunately have chronic pain. We know how horrible it can make someone's life, and how much worse life can be if your insurance just keeps denying anything that could help.

Edit: Here’s a link to what is most likely the real manifesto: https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/luigis-manifesto

Ken Klippenstein is a very reliable journalist and this version of the manifesto contains the snippets that have been released by law enforcement. Also, considering the thing was hand-written, that very long version involving his mom is dubious. (And there’s not any good evidence that his mom is in anything besides decent/good health)

I'm still a medical student, but I'm about to start planning out my 4th year, and I'm hoping to structure my electives to get the best education I can to help as many people as possible. I'm also planning on moonlighting somewhere like Planned Parenthood while I'm in residency to do a bit more in the way of direct assistance. (I'm pretty sure my state is just blue enough that PP will continue to exist in some capacity.)

Having just completed my surgery clerkship, this is surprisingly accurate.

Let's hope Cigna catches some real consequences this time. (Not likely, but we can hope.)