EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 10/24/19

I enjoy mentoring students and I am always excited when one of them is admitted to medical school. There is a lot of buzz around the schools that are offering free tuition or that are subsidizing a large amount of tuition, but most people in medicine don’t realize the financial barriers that occur upstream.

My student has to pay a $1,500 deposit in the next two weeks. Although he’s working full time in our office as a clinical tech, that’s a hefty amount of money after he’s already paid for the application process, travel and lodging for interviews, the MCAT exam, test preparation, and of course an undergraduate degree.

This is a timely topic that was recently covered in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article looked beyond the shocking costs to explore how they impact the types of people that apply. Not surprisingly, few applicants come from lower-income households and minorities continue to be underrepresented in the applicant pool.

Some schools are trying to reduce application costs by having students host applicants. Other programs may reduce the cost of the MCAT and applications or offer guaranteed admissions for students at a certain level of performance at affiliated undergraduate institutions. Schools are starting to look at virtual interviews as a way of lowering costs. It’s been suggested that schools should revisit their supplemental “secondary application” processes as a way of increasing the diversity of the applicant pool while reducing the cost burden.

All of us would benefit from a more diverse physician workforce, rather than having a full quarter of applicants coming from households with greater than $250,000 in annual income as the current statistics demonstrate. Still, it illustrates the pressures that clinicians have already been under before they ever enter practice. For those of us that look closely at clinician burnout, these are contributing factors that have already raised the stress game for those who haven’t even begun to stress around government regulations or burdensome technology.

Score one for AI. A recent study by researchers in NYU School of Medicine shows that an AI tool that uses machine learning can identify breast cancer with 90% accuracy. The tool was trained on over a million images and 14 radiologists reviewing 720 images were included in the study. The tool was able to identify “pixel-level changes” in breast tissue, but radiologists were able to use logical reasoning that the AI could not. The authors conclude that AI can augment radiologists.

It remains to be seen whether this can be extrapolated to other data sets and whether it can be brought into clinical practice, but for those of us in high-risk situations, such AI augmentation is welcome. I don’t personally read mammograms, but for those of us in age brackets where eyeglasses start appearing in our pockets, it’s a nice idea to have a set of extra “digital eyes” on radiology images.

I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but apparently Senator Rand Paul has introduced a bill to overturn what he considers the “dangerous provision” of legislation allowing the US to institute a unique patient identifier. He claims his physician creds make him an expert. Clearly he’s not an informaticist and has never had to disentangle the merged records of premature twin siblings Andrea and Andre, that were combined due to a faulty matching algorithm. He cites breaches as another reason. I’m pretty sure most data breaches that would reveal a universal patient ID would also reveal name, address, DOB, phone number, and often SSN, which are the current keys to your data.

Jenn clued me in on this article answering the question of, “What’s the best shoe for the busy physician?” Physicians were surveyed with 255 responses received, including 172 men and 81 women. The idea that shoe choice is important was nearly unanimous, with 40% expressing a fondness for casual shoes or loafers, 29% choosing dress shoes or heels, 20% wearing sneakers, and 11% wearing clogs or similar.

I was initially surprised to see that more younger physicians are choosing dress shoes since that demographic is often accused of being overly casual. However, it would make sense as they have less overall mileage on their feet compared to the rest of us.

According to the article, physicians suffer from flat feet, plantar fasciitis, pain, and bunions. Physicians are sometimes self-conscious about their shoes. One of my mentees started wearing what she considers “ugly” shoes because she had too many patient comments about her “cute” shoes and felt patients weren’t taking her seriously because of her choice of footwear. My personal favorite shoe, pictured above, is the Medimex Plogs line. They’re vented for breathability, have massaging nubs on the footbed, and are also autoclavable, perfect for whatever might be on the floor of a medical environment.

Speaking of people having opinions on how people dress, I was unsurprised to see this report about women at Ernst & Young being coached on how to dress. Even if a fraction of the allegations in the piece are true, it’s a fairly horrifying read. Unfortunately, I continue to see companies who have different expectations for employees based on sex and/or gender, and also those that have no idea what to do with non-binary employees.

I have been in a position where two executives debated another’s competence while making comments about her lack of artificial hair coloring, including comments on how “all that gray makes her look old.” From that conversation, I learned that apparently men with gray hair are distinguished, but women who go natural look old.

I worked for another client that required female employees to wear at least a two-inch heel and skirts, with no slacks allowed. They didn’t last long on my roster. I’ve seen assertive women labeled as “shrill” when their male counterparts are revered as “go-getters” in the last several months, regardless of publicity around discrimination and lack of equity or parity.

I recently attended a retreat hosted at a facility owned by a traditionally male-dominated company that had a large number of female participants. The company has made many public statements about its deliberate actions to increase female participation and empowerment. Interestingly, a visit to the newly created female showers at the athletic facility revealed a urinal in one of the two stalls. At least they created some individual showers rather than the group / open showers I had heard were in the male locker room area, but it’s hard to believe that organizations still think that group showers are OK for anyone in this day and age, regardless of whether they’re separated by sex or gender.

All the restrooms were clearly marked male or female, with no availability of non-gendered, family-friendly, or separate accommodations for those who might need additional assistance even though the facility is open to families. Nothing rolls out the not-so-welcome mat like inadequate restroom facilities, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to encounter challenges in recruiting women or people outside their historical demographic.

Does your company have a corporate dress policy? Is it equitable regardless of sex or gender? What do you think about the current climate? Leave a comment or email me.

Email Dr. Jayne.