Life Hacks For Doctors
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- Slide 1: Life Hacks for Doctors:
An Introduction
Joshua Schwimmer,
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-
MD, FACP, FASN
Noncommercial-No Derivative Works
www.efficientmd.com
3.0 United States License.
- Slide 2: What are Life Hacks?
Productivity strategies that
solve everyday problems —
especially problems caused by
information overload.
Adapted from Wikipedia
- Slide 3: Life Hacks Are Often
Simple
Discrete
Nonintuitive
Clever
Surprisingly Effective
- Slide 6: Have you ever heard a
lecture on...?
Image: D’Arcy Norman, Flickr
- Slide 7: Pheochromocytomas?
Image: Wikipedia
- Slide 8: Lectures on
Pheochromocytomas
100% of Doctors.
Tumor incidence =
approx. 5 per million
population per year.
Image: Wikipedia
- Slide 9: Have you ever heard a
lecture on efficiency?
Image: D’Arcy Norman, Flickr
- Slide 10: Lectures on
Efficiency
Only 20% of doctors,
and most paid for the
lecture themselves.
Source: Sermo
- Slide 11: Is there a misalignment
of priorities in medical
education?
Image: Caro Wallis, Flickr
- Slide 12: Being a good doctor
depends not only on
who you are and what
you know — but on the
systems you use.
- Slide 13: HDR Image: Aurorus Reflectus Colosseo, Stuck in Customs, Flickr
- Slide 14: Q. Should you
write “No Scleral
Icterus?”
- Slide 15: If it takes you
3 seconds to write
these words on every
patient...
- Slide 16: You will spend
3 hours each
year writing
“No Scleral Icterus.”
- Slide 17: Is this really the
best way to spend
your time?
- Slide 18: Principles of
Productivity
- Slide 19: Reflective
Questions
- Slide 20: Who is the best
person to perform a
task?
- Slide 21: Probably not you.
(Don’t be offended.)
- Slide 22: How much is your
time worth?
- Slide 23: Example:
$150,000 per year /
60 hours per week *
50 weeks per year =
$50 / hour.
A useful oversimplification.
- Slide 24: (Writing “No Scleral
Icterus” is costing
you $150 a year.)
- Slide 25: Who should perform a
task?
Someone who can do it well whose
time is worth less than your own.
Always delegate when appropriate.
Don’t make other people do work that’s
rightfully yours.
- Slide 26: Create filters or
rules so you never
see tasks that you
should never perform.
- Slide 27: HDR Image: Fireworks Over Lake Austin, Stuck in Customs, Flickr
- Slide 28: What should you do?
- Slide 29: (One option.)
- Slide 30: A Better Option
Become comfortable with “to do lists”:
Write them
Rewrite them
Cross items off
Review them often
- Slide 31: To Do Lists
Organize different lists by location
Office
Hospital
Phone
Errands
Home
- Slide 32: Group similar tasks
together to save time
lost in “task switching.”
- Slide 33: Keep a
“mission critical” list
of tasks that must be
performed that day.
- Slide 34: The 80-20 Rule:
80% of the effects come
from 20% of the causes.
- Slide 35: Concentrate on your
most important tasks.
- Slide 36: When should you
perform a task?
- Slide 37: If it’s simple and quick,
do it now.
- Slide 38: The Calendar
If a task should be performed at a
particular time or on a particular day,
put it on your calendar.
Your calendar is not your to do list.
- Slide 39: Parkinson’s Law:
“Work expands to fill the
time available.”
- Slide 40: Where should a task be
performed?
- Slide 41: Where should a task be
performed?
First, perform tasks that are particular to a
place.
See hospitalized patients in the hospital.
File charts in the office.
If tasks are “mobile,” consider performing
them elsewhere.
Make calls while commuting.
Take paperwork home to review.
- Slide 42: Why perform a task?
- Slide 43: Rediscover your
motivation.
- Slide 44: Why?
Why are you performing this task?
Why are you doing it this way?
Why are you practicing medicine?
- Slide 45: Ideas
- Slide 46: Most doctors’ desks are
organizational
disasters.
- Slide 47: The solution?
Inboxes.
(You went to medical
school for this?)
- Slide 48: Inboxes 101
All new labs and mail go in the inbox.
Pick up the top item and deal with it.
Sign and file labs, recycle junk mail,
write down a “to do,” etc.
Never put any item back in the inbox.
Empty your inbox regularly.
- Slide 49: HDR Image: Hong Kong, Stuck in Customs, Flickr
- Slide 50: An Open Secret:
Most doctors never learn
how to document
properly.
- Slide 51: Many doctors live with
constant anxiety that they
are over-coding or
under-coding.
- Slide 52: The Solution:
Craft Individualized
Note Templates
New Patient or Consult Notes
Follow Up Notes
Include all the items you need to bill at
the highest level when appropriate.
See wiki.efficientmd.com for more
details.
- Slide 53: The Hospital
Routine
Image: Fractal Hospital, Gualtiero, Flickr
- Slide 54: Group Your Tasks
Check Labs
Examine Patients
Write Notes
- Slide 55: An Example of
Grouping Tasks
Six patients on a hospital floor.
15 seconds to walk to each room.
5 seconds to walk from room to room.
- Slide 56: Grouping Tasks
Strategy 1: Examine patient, write note,
repeat.
(15 + 15) * 6 = 180 seconds.
Strategy 2: Group Tasks. Examine all
patients, then write all notes.
(15 * 2) + (5 * 5) = 55 seconds.
Strategy 2 (grouping tasks) saves 8.7
hours a year ($434).
- Slide 57: Learn Efficiently
- Slide 58: Choose one textbook
for your specialty and
read a few pages
every day.
- Slide 59: Keep a list of clinical
questions.
Regularly look up the
answers and cross
them off your list.
- Slide 60: Fill an iPod with
medical lectures and
podcasts.
Listen while you
commute.
- Slide 61: Sources of Free
Podcasts and Lectures
New England Journal of Medicine
JAMA
Archives of Internal Medicine
HDCN.com
Google on [medical podcasts] and
[grand rounds podcasts]
- Slide 62: Refresh Your
Information Sources
Medical Blogs
Google Scholar
Google Book Search
Google Alerts & Google News
UpToDate
- Slide 63: For More Information
on Life Hacks for
Doctors
www.efficientmd.com
wiki.efficientmd.com
casesblog.blogspot.com
- Slide 64: Thanks.