A young clinician notices that every patient she refers to one cardiologist gets cardiac catheterizations--whether they need them or not. How should she deal with this? The podcast features Shiphra Ginsburg, MD, MEd, PhD, from Mount Sinai Hospital and University of Toronto Medicine.

Article discussed in this episode: Is There a Conflict of Interest?

Making the decision about when to retire is never easy. Cognitive and technical skills may decline with age, but judgment and the ability to interact with patients improve as physicians gain experience. Physicians also tend to pay little attention to financial concerns and also find themselves unprepared for retirement when the get older. This article addresses concerns regarding self-assessment of clinical skills as well as facilitating action when a clinician observes a colleague whose clinical skills are faltering.

The podcast features Barbara Schneidman, MD, MPH, from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology; Bob Hyland, MD, from St Michael's Hospital in Toronto, and Christopher Muth, MD, Fishbein Fellow at JAMA.

Learning Objectives: To understand the appropriate longevity of a physician’s career and how they should approach assessing their clinical skills as they age.

Article discussed in this episode: Is It Time to Retire?

Health care spending in the United States is excessive, yet when resources are wasted there are few ramifications. This JAMA Professionalism article proposes that excessive resource utilization be approached with the same seriousness as are treatment complications. The podcast features Andrew R. Lai, MD, MPH, from UCSF Medical Center.

Article discussed in this episode: Is Excessive Resource Utilization an Adverse Event?