Dr. Linda Girgis MD, FAAFP, is a dedicated board-certified family physician in private practice in South River, New Jersey and its surrounding communities. She is a clinical assistant professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as well as a faculty member of CME courses at Harvard Medical School.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Dr. Girgis received her medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine. She went on to complete her residency at Sacred Heart Hospital, a program affiliated with Temple University, during which time she was recognized as intern of the year by the faculty. Since 2018, she has been the Editor-in-Chief of Physician’s Weekly. She is a columnist for MDEdge and a frequent contributor to other media outlets.
Because of her commitment to excellence, Dr. Girgis has continued to earn awards and recognition from her peers and a variety of industry bodies, including:
- Most nominated Health IT Change Agent of 2015 by Health IT Outcomes
- Named one of the top 10 doctors to follow on Twitter by Compass Healthcare Redefined, October 2015
- Named one of the top 100 healthcare influencers by HealthJoy, September 2015
- Named one of the 10 doctors that others follow on twitter by MDigital Life February 2016
- Named one of the top 5 Women in Healthcare blogs in 2016 by Live Clinic.
- Named one of The Top 50 Health IT Blogs by HealthTech, 2017
She has published articles in many media outlets and has been interviewed in US News, CNN, Reader’s Digest, Huffington Post, Newsweek and more, as well as on air for NBC Nightly News and CBS This Morning. She is the author of 8 books that are available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble online.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015-2023 Linda Girgis, MD, FAAFP
Dear Linda, you give advice about supplements. But do you tell patients how much their life will be damaged by the other sicknesses (called side effects) of modern drug? Modern prescribed drugs are killing people at an unprecedented rate. Thousands every day.
I just read your post on “Kevin, MD”. ……..”Medical service based on socioeconomic status: That’s unacceptable”. Interesting, but not realistic, there is no free lunch, somebody has to pay. It is nice and sweet and idealistic to say, “All people deserve the best medical care…..”, but WHO PAYS????? Medicine and the providing of medical services is a business, if you want to say it isn’t, then do you work for nothing? Our society is becoming one where people feel they deserve or feel they are owed something from the government or the from the ones who work instead of working and earning what they want theselves. My wife and I are Registered Nurses and we raised six children and we worked and earned what we needed and wanted……that is the way it should be. The problem is not the providing and helping those who “cant” but now the people who work for a living are expected to provide and help those who “won’t”. Remember, there is absolutely NOTHING in this world free…….somebody has to pay.
Dr. Girgis, I am not looking for this to be posted but could not find an email address for you for a private message. I will gladly give you my real name and contact info if you would like.
I just recently was given a reference to one of your articles and then I got another reference from a different source. I was very impressed with how well written and insightful those articles were and took a little time to review some of your other articles. Every one I read was very informative. Your empathy for what both patients and physicians go through trying to navigate the healthcare system is readily apparent.
My reason for writing is in hopes of planting a seed for a future article that you might consider. It is the taboo topic of male modesty. Most medical practitioners will not acknowledge that it exists, and those that do tend to be dismissive, taking the stance that men just need to get over it.
The reality is that there are many men whose modesty is such that they forego medical care rather than face a sea of female nurses and techs for intimate procedures. It is almost impossible to find a male nurse or tech in urology practices for example and it is the nurses and techs who do most of the actual prep work and treatments.
The majority of men do not forego medical care however and their silence is taken as acceptance, feeding the presumption that they don’t care who sees or does what. Men have brought that perception on themselves. Whereas women will speak up and demand female staff for intimate procedures such as mammograms, men won’t speak up because to do so only adds to their embarrassment. They have been conditioned since childhood to “man up” and remain silent. Some men truly don’t care, but the majority do. It is a men are from Mars, women from Venus kind of thing.
Interestingly, that majority of which I speak are typically OK with female physicians. My best guess is that this is due to consistently high level of professionalism that men have experienced that makes them more comfortable at the physician level. Those who are not comfortable receiving intimate care from female physicians just choose male doctors. It is within the nurse & tech ranks where men have problems in large part because they only rarely have a gender choice. More specifically it is within the nurse & tech ranks where they have had embarrassing or even humiliating experiences at some point in their life. For the most part bad experiences are more the result of poor training or temperament than anything else, but the man is embarrassed (or worse) nonetheless. The nurses & techs involved may not even know that they needlessly embarrassed their patient. Of key importance here is that when men do speak up and ask for a male tech for say a testicular ultrasound, the nurses & techs involved all too often respond with “you don’t have anything we haven’t seen before”, “don’t be silly”, or “we’re all professionals here”. Basically bullying and shaming techniques intended to shut down the conversation and garner compliance from the patient. Most men will then just comply and try to hide the humiliation of that verbal encounter and subsequent procedure. Some will keep looking for a facility that will accommodate their request. Some will just forego the test.
Coming back to the physician’s role in this, in addition to controlling the hiring and training of staff, another piece that the physician controls is who you bring into the room with you. The man who was OK with his female physician doing an exam may become rather embarrassed if she then brings in a female chaperone, scribe, or medical assistant, especially if they are young. Exposure to young staff is always more embarrassing than exposure to older staff. Again, just the way men think.
Someone of your stature speaking to this issue could go a long way towards allowing a start to a conversation that is long overdue. Maybe it could encourage more men to start speaking up. Maybe it would trigger some efforts in better training for nurses/techs on minimizing exposure and professionally interacting with the patient. I would be glad to elaborate on this from a male patient perspective. I have had several dozen intimate procedures handled in a totally professional manner that did not leave me embarrassed at all, and a few that embarrassed and even humiliated me. The last of those few bad experiences put me into an avoidance mode (of female nurses/techs) where and as I can. Still having been in the “man up” mode at the time I never complained about what happened. I have since found my voice and will speak up going forward, but few men have gotten to that point.
Medical care is not gender neutral no matter how much the medical world wants it to be. A voice such as yours would be very valuable in fostering some dialog. Thank you for any consideration you might give this.
I totally agree! I have been subjected to some very humiliating and embarrassing situations and I feel the medical community is not interested in fixing.
Dear Dr. Colleague,
It’s our honor and privilege to invite you to participate as a speaker at “Glycomics -2016” going to be held during December 01-02, 2016 at Atlanta, USA.
Glycomics -2016 conference will be organized around the theme “Glycomics: To evaluate the entire complement of sugars in an Organism” which covers latest updates and reviews in the core of Glycomics and its related technology. It is anticipating more than 400 participants across the World.
Glycomics -2016 consists of following tracks:
Glycoproteomics
Clinical Glycomics
Glycomic Analysis
Glycomic immunotherapies
NGS & Data Analysis Technologies
Developmental Biology
Microbial & Human Genetics
Neurodegenerative Diseases
Glycomics Pathway Analysis
Molecular Genetics & Genomics
Glycomic Diseases
Glycogen and Obesity
Glycomics and Diabetes
Glycomics: Business Trends
Benefits:
All accepted abstracts will be published in the respective International Group Journals as a special issue.
Each abstract will receive a DOI provided by Cross Ref.
For more details of the conference please go through the following link: http://glycomics.conferenceseries.com/
Please let us know your availability for this congress. We appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours Sincerely,
Eva Jones
Glycomics -2016
5716 Corsa Ave, Suite110
Westlake, Los Angeles
CA-91362-7354, USA
We have had enough. The time for change is now.
http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/abim-vote-of-no-confidence
I am interested in learning more about your practice and your interest in innovation. Can we find a time for a conversation? thanks
This is a terrific website! I was linked to this from this article: http://www.healthitoutcomes.com/doc/tech-savvy-doctors-use-social-media-to-educate-market-and-advocate-0001?sectionCode=Freeform1&templateCode=Single&user=3013015&source=nl:44528&utm_source=et_6231164&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HCIT_2015-12-22&utm_term=e0cf719c-96fd-448d-a32a-9de28d15d707&utm_content=Tech-Savvy%2bDoctors%2bUse%2bSocial%2bMedia%2bTo%2bEducate%252c%2bMarket%252c%2bAnd%2bAdvocate
Your site is a shining example of how clinicians can use social media to educate their patients, and advocate for health care. Keep up the good work! (TheraManager is an EMR in the behavioral health space.)
Thank you so much!
Great,,,,
Will send one out soon,,
Thanks so much,
Mark
Dr Linda,,
This is a great article,,,,,,
I am a physician assistant and cancer survivor who just wrote a book called “Lifelines To Cancer Survival” Only around 5% of cancer patients get true personalized care. This book teaches patients and clinicians how they can find this care for themselves and gives them access to the labs and clinicians in the US that offer this,
I was wondering if you would like to read the book if I sent it to you,,?
Thanks so much,,
Mark
Thank you and I would love a copy of your book!
You can mail it to me at: PO Box 6779. East Brunswick, NJ 08816.
I look forward to reading it and have a great weekend!
Dr. Linda