2016 Physician Writing Contest Winners

Physicians face many ongoing challenges that eat away the hours of their day, from technology intended to streamline practice operations that derails them instead, to spending time on the phone justifying treatment strategies to a payer. So it’s not surprising that physicians are eager to reclaim time lost on these tasks to focus on their most important goal: improving patients’ well-being.

For this year’s Physician Writing Contest, Medical Economics asked readers how they are overcoming everyday distractions while still preserving one-on-one connections with their patients to truly address their care needs. 

The result is a series of personal and professional best practices, culled from years of experience, that add up to a helping hand to fellow physicians.. All of this year’s submissions off ered the same “If I can do it, so can you” theme of making more time for patients each day.

In this issue, we present our contest winners for 2016, selected by our editorial team and our physician advisors. In future issues, we’ll present honorable mention submissions off ering additional peer-to-peer solutions. We hope you enjoy these words of wisdom and fi nd them useful. 

First Place: 5 proactive strategies to make more time for patients

By Arvind Cavale, MD, FACE, is a clinical endocrinologist and co-founder of The Endocrine & Metabolic Institute of Greater Philadelphia, LLC, in Feasterville, Pennsylvania.

Second Place: How to stay engaged with patients-in spite of your EHR

By Lori E. Rousche, MD, is a primary care physician with Trivalley Primary Care, the Indian Valley Offi ce, in Souderton, Pennsylvania. She has been in private practice for 25 years. She is also hospice medical director for Grand View Health in Sellersville, Pennsylvania.

Third Place: Time and agenda

By Gregory Akinbowale Lawson, MD, MPH, is a family physician practicing at Sparrow Medical Group (SMG) Ionia, in Ionia, Michigan, and a clinical assistant professor in the department of family medicine at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine.