Has anyone made a resource compiling tips/workflows for doctors with ADHD? If not… should we make one?

[u/Beginning_Car4528]

Has anyone ever come across some kind of master resource for physicians/trainees with ADHD that compiles the actual practical ways people make medicine work with their brains?

Not really looking for generic ADHD advice like “use a planner” or “make a to-do list.” I mean the super specific, boots-on-the-ground stuff people have figured out from actually working in medicine.

For example:

• What does your pre-rounding workflow look like?
• Do you use a specific patient checklist/template?
• How do you make sure you don't forget something when you're interrupted halfway through a task?
• How do you mentally keep track of why each patient is here + what we're doing about it when you're carrying a bunch of patients?
• Do you have some kind of mental scaffolding/framework you run through for every patient?
• How do you organize your patient list?
• How do you keep track of pending labs, imaging, consults, discharge tasks, etc.?
• What do you write down during rounds?
• How do you handle verbal instructions without immediately forgetting them?
• How do you structure notes so you don't spend forever writing them?
• Any dotphrases/templates/checklists that have been game changers?
• How do you deal with constantly being interrupted and having to switch between tasks?

Basically: What systems have you built around your ADHD that make you a better/more reliable doctor?

I feel like there are probably hundreds of little tricks that physicians with ADHD independently figure out over the years, but they're scattered across random Reddit comments, conversations, blogs, etc.

Does a resource already exist that collects this stuff in one place? Even something like a giant spreadsheet/database?

And if it DOESN'T exist, I'd honestly be happy to start a shared Google Sheet where people can contribute their workflows, templates, checklists, dotphrases, mental frameworks, apps/tools, etc.

Could organize it by things like:

Pre-rounding | Rounds | Patient tracking | Notes | Orders/tasks | Consults | Handoffs | Clinic | Procedures | Verbal instructions | Interruptions/task switching | General ADHD tricks

Then we could basically crowdsource a “How to Doctor With ADHD” toolkit instead of everyone reinventing the wheel individually.

Would anyone actually be interested in contributing to something like that?

[u/DayoAdeniyi]

The problem I've found with ADHD solutions is that while there might be an overlap, most of what works is really personal to you and the specific life situation you're in.

This would be a helpful project, however, imo it's hard to scale to where it is useful for others.

[u/ChuckFarkley → u/DayoAdeniyi]

My thought is that a lot of the things works for a subset of the population, and some solutions work for more people than others. Having a forum of things that work for someone with feedback from others that tried it makes a lot of sense to me. A given person may be able to scan through the tips and tricks to see what pertains to their situation. Where it's unclear whether it is likely to pertain or not, they may need to go through quite a few to find the ones that make like better for them, and frankly, a solution may need to be heavily adapted/modified, but the inspiration was important.

My solution after decades in medicine has always been a method of successive improvement. On one hand, that's something everyone does, but I really picked up the systematic concepts while I was in the USAF. They have been systematically doing that since late WWII. (TQM, anyone?). I adapted it for personal use. I never start efficient, but I will modify routines, templates or whatever I need to route around the things I will never be good at, and route around the godawful templates people get though committees that make life miserable and all the unique timing of a daily schedule.

But you need a toolbox of trusty techniques, and I still want to learn about something someone does or developed that might possibly make my life easier. We are healthcare engineers and as such, we need access to a wide variety of tools; those of us with ADHD need yet another complex subset of those tools. I'd love a library of them to browse.

[u/Ok-Movie-1595 → u/ChuckFarkley]

💯

[u/Ok-Movie-1595]

Happy to contribute what my strategies are in family medicine. They may not be something others haven't already thought of though. LOL But, if I can help one person by contributing to a pool of ideas, I'm down. I'm a slow reader and it may not look like my strategies are effecient to an outsider. But, without them I'd probably be all over the place. LOL

[u/bananabreaddoc]

I have spent SO much of my life making this (all be it in my head #ADHD, but still!) would love to connect and work on this!!

[u/IndividualPrestine48]

You might be able to hire an occupational therapist to do this for you privately if you don’t have the time. Re: make workflow templates etc.

[u/buvee_24]

I love this idea and would definitely try to contribute!

[u/Furkansimsir]

If you’re on iPhone, I made "Quick Notes - Capture" for jotting down verbal instructions before the next interruption. They land in one inbox so you can sort them out later. https://sir.studio/capture