Heartfelt with Dr Melissa Walton-Shirley

 
 

Heartfelt with Dr Melissa Walton-Shirley

  • Why Legal Pot Makes This Physician Sick There's nothing natural about the rise in cannabis-related hospitalizations writes this cardiologist who is sick of the smell and the medical consequences of legal pot.
  • The Surgeon Who Swapped Scalpel for Paintbrush If medicine is not your true passion, should you quit? The life of a friend from medical school left this cardiologist questioning his choices but grateful to have known him.
  • In Defense of Artificial Sweeteners Artificial sweeteners have recently been accused of causing DNA damage and not helping with weight control, but a closer look at the data gives this physician pause.
  • Human Health in Space: One Small Step for Manikin-kind As NASA plans a return to the Moon, Dr Walton-Shirley explores how space travel affects the body , medical emergencies, and what we will learn from Commander Moonikin Campos and the Artemis mission.
  • ABIM or NBPAS Recredentialing: Do We Really Have a Choice? A cardiologist thought she had an easier path to reaccreditation but found herself back doing ABIM MOC because the easier NBPAS pathway is not accepted by a lot of hospitals.
  • Like Texting and Driving: The Human Cost of AI Enthusiastic presentations on the use of AI in medicine at a recent conference left this cardiologist concerned about the potential loss of human interaction.
  • What Will It Take to Cure EHR Note Bloat? Stop typing the equivalent of War and Peace and embrace click parsimony are among the tips from Epic's CMO and others for cutting the time spent on electronic health records.
  • Organ Transplantation: Unvaccinated Need Not Apply Outrage over the denial of transplant organs to the unvaccinated is an opportunity to educate people on the complexities of organ allocation, writes Melissa Walton-Shirley, channeling her inner Ted Lasso.
  • Artificial Hearts: One Size Does Not Fit All The story of the first woman to receive an Aeson, an investigational, implantable artificial heart, prompted this cardiologist to reflect on the low use of bridging devices and heart transplants in women.
  • USPSTF Statement on Aspirin: Poor Messaging at Best Could the messaging around the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force's draft aspirin recommendations put some patients who likely benefit at risk?
  • Physicians Need to Unionize Now Complaining about the loss of physician autonomy isn't going to change anything. We need to unionize, argues this doctor.
  • Losing Both Parents During COVID: A Physician's 'Unwitnessed Grief' Melissa Walton-Shirley quit full-time practice to help care for her elderly parents. That they would both die during a pandemic when close comfort and mourning rituals were not allowed magnified her loss.
  • Fired for Good Judgment a Sign of Physicians' Lost Respect The firing of a physician who made use of soon-to-expire COVID vaccine doses rather than flush them epitomizes the loss of physician autonomy and respect, warns Melissa Walton-Shirley.
  • AHA 2020 The Duty to Inform: Be Galileo on COVID-19 Melissa Walton-Shirley sees parallels between the 16th-century mathematician and the work of modern-day healthcare workers to rebut COVID denialism.
  • An Avatar Is Not a Human: Virtual Meetings Have Their Limitations Having virtually attended three cardiology conferences, Melissa Walton-Shirley, MD, found the science on par with their live equivalents, but even an avatar is no substitute for human interaction.
  • Does Less Medical Care Mean Better Care? A fellow cardiologist comes to the defense of New York Times contributor Sandeep Jauhar, who was castigated on social media for suggesting that most people were fine with fewer doctor visits.
  • Traveling in the Shadow of a Pandemic Despite a feeling that this could be bad, Melissa Walton-Shirley took a long-planned trip to Israel, hoping to be stay ahead of the coronavirus spread -- a decision she now realizes was an unnecessary gamble.
  • Smalltown Practice: Even a Bathroom Stall Is No Escape Melissa Walton-Shirley recalls the joys and stresses of 24 years in smalltown private practice, where even an encounter in a public bathroom can turn into an office visit.
  • Cardiologist by Day, Rock Singer at Night: Music Is My Polypill A dying request from a cantankerous patient reignites Melissa Walton-Shirley’s love of singing after a 15-year hiatus.
  • ESC 2019 Millennial Mentoring: Is it Time to Soften Our Rough Edges? Melissa Walton-Shirley attended a talk on workplace challenges from a millennial physician, which made her rethink her assessment of a former intern as 'smart but lazy.'