Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1398595
40 PATIENT & CAREGIVER EXPERIENCE Dr. Fauci gets 2K emails per day — here's how he reads almost all of them By Hannah Mitchell A nthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and In- fectious Diseases, gets around 2,000 emails per day — and he tries to read and respond to each email, according to a June 9 report by CNBC. e release of thousands of Dr. Fauci's emails, first obtained by Buzzfeed News via a Freedom of Information Act request, offers a glimpse into the busy life of the White House's chief medical adviser. Dr. Fauci told a friend in late March 2020 that he was getting more than 2,000 emails a day. He believes he should read and respond to each email because a lot of people rely on his feedback, Dr. Fauci told e Wall Street Journal at its health tech event June 9. "I am the type of person, I get asked a lot of questions that are medical questions [from] people who need help," Dr. Fauci said. "I've never been able to lose that feeling of re- sponsibility of when people reach out to you and ask for help that you respond to them. So, I do that, [and] that takes a lot of time." To get through the vast number of emails he is receiving, he responds to emails on the go with his iPhone. He also works late into the night. In the early days of the pandemic, he said he was only getting four hours of sleep each night. "I spend a lot of time doing emails and sometimes late into the night," Dr. Fauci said, adding that he occasionally responds to emails until 1 or 2 a.m. Another trick he uses to respond to most emails is by replying with brief messages, such as "ank you for your note. AS Fauci." Despite the number of emails streaming through his inbox, he said he cannot delete them. "People tell me that, 'Why don't you just wipe the screen clean?'" Dr. Fauci said. "You can't do that. You just can't." n Physician compensation grew most for these 6 specialties By Kelly Gooch C ompensation for most physicians has remained steady, despite financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic such as lower patient volumes, caps on elective procedures and increased medical practice closures, according to data released May 26 by the Medical Group Management Association. Primary care physician median total compensation increased 2.6 percent from 2019 to 2020, and compensation for most physician specialties re- mained flat or saw a moderate increase. Surgical specialist median total compensation decreased 0.89 percent year over year, and nonsurgical specialist median total compensation decreased 1.29 percent. Here are the six specialties that experienced the biggest increase in median total compensation in 2020: 1. Pediatrics (general): 6 percent increase in median total compensation 2. Family medicine (without OB): 3.94 percent increase 3. Internal medicine (general): 2.73 percent increase 4. Cardiology (invasive): 2.61 percent increase 5. Orthopedic surgery (general): 1.67 percent increase 6. Neurology: 1.44 percent increase Data is based on a voluntary survey of more than 185,000 physicians and nonphysician providers across more than 6,700 physician-owned and hospital-owned organizations. n Dartmouth-Hitchcock stops using lead aprons for X-rays By Mackenzie Bean D artmouth-Hitchcock Health ended the use of routine lead apron shield- ing for X-rays, the Lebanon, N.H.- based health system said May 10. The change, which has taken effect at all Dart- mouth-Hitchcock facilities, coincides with a shift in guidelines first championed by the American Association of Physicists in Medi- cine and the American College of Radiology. "Studies have shown that shielding patients provides very little to no benefit," Michael Timmerman, radiation safety officer at Dart- mouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said in a news release. "When a patient receives an X-ray, we take care to only irradiate the area necessary for the exam." Advancements in imaging equipment now allow X-rays to produce high-quality imag- es by using very small amounts of radiation. Since the 1950s, the amount of radiation used in medical imaging has fallen by more than 95 percent, the system said. n