Bridging the COVID-19 health recommendations divide [PODCAST]

Listen and followApple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes

“Misinformation about COVID-19, if propagated, can be deadly. The stakes are high. Physicians need to have a voice in this discussion and work towards impacting policy in a positive way. Physician-led groups such as IMPACT aim to advocate for evidence-based solutions for the protection of communities and serve an advisory role to those in charge of public policies. As physicians, our primary purpose is the well-being of our patients. We owe it to them to share not only information about sinus infections and sore throat, but how to protect themselves from COVID-19. We must share what we know.

We can and should begin to reintegrate into society, but as physicians, our responsibility to the community is to educate and protect. We should not shy away from sharing our expertise with others. This may include uncomfortable conversations with friends and family whose views differ from our own, but if we come from a place of respect and understanding, we can and will get through this together.”

Inna Husain is an otolaryngologist.

She shares her story and discusses the KevinMD article that she co-wrote, “Physicians’ role in bridging the COVID-19 health recommendations divide.”

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please click here to leave a review for The Podcast by KevinMD. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out!

Do you know someone who might enjoy this episode? Share this episode to anyone who wants to hear health care stories filled with information, insight, and inspiration.

Hosted by Kevin Pho, MD, The Podcast by KevinMD shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from.

Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show, where we share the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. My name is Kevin Pho, founder and editor of KevinMD. Today on the show, we have Inna Husain. She’s an otolaryngologist, and she co-wrote the KevinMD article “Physicians’ role in bridging the COVID-19 health recommendations divide.” Inna, welcome to the show.

Inna Husain: Hi, thank you, Kevin. Happy to be here.

Kevin Pho: So we’ll get into your article in a little bit, but first off, can you share your story and your journey to where you are today?

Inna Husain: Sure. So I’m a board-certified otolaryngologist who subspecialized in laryngology. That means that I manage disorders related to the upper aerodigestive tract, such as difficulty swallowing, difficulty breathing, and voice issues. I am currently section head of laryngology at an academic institution in Chicago. So that’s my work life.

The other part of my life is my home life. I am the daughter of an otolaryngologist, so I’m a second-generation female otolaryngologist. I’m married to a husband who’s in medicine as well, and we have three small daughters, so currently that takes up a lot of my time as well.

Kevin Pho: Wonderful. And how has the pandemic affected both your practice and your life?

Inna Husain: In terms of being an otolaryngologist, otolaryngologists are at high risk for contracting COVID due to our work in the upper aerodigestive tract. So as soon as the pandemic hit, it essentially put our clinic and our operations at a standstill, just because of the high risk of contracting COVID. We are pretty much open now, but we see patients with a lot of precautions, so a full N95 mask and a face shield. I wear scrubs to work now. So it’s really changed the way we interact with our patients, but we’re still able to provide the services that we provided before.

In terms of work life, along with a lot of other parents in this country, I’m struggling with figuring out distance learning versus in school, what’s the best decision for my family, and how to navigate some of those challenges.

Kevin Pho: I have a daughter who’s a sophomore in high school and another in grade six, so I’m right there with you with all those challenges of distance versus remote learning. So let’s talk about your KevinMD article, “Physicians’ role in bridging the COVID-19 health recommendations divide.” For those who haven’t read your article that you co-wrote, can you share a little bit about it and walk my audience through it?

Inna Husain: Sure. So I actually co-wrote this article with a colleague and friend, Dr. Jill Jeffe. She’s a pediatric otolaryngologist, and what’s interesting is that this article came from our lunchtime discussions. We would talk about what we were feeling in our work life and in our home life, and the idea for this topic and paper came from that.

So basically, what it’s about is this idea that as physicians, when we’re at work, we’re constantly bombarded with COVID, right? So precautions, how to see patients safely, how to keep everyone healthy. But yet when we would leave the hospital setting and go grocery shopping or go to Target, we didn’t feel that same sense of urgency and the need for the precautions that we felt in our work life. So we felt that there was this huge disconnect between the message and the narrative that was out there regarding how to protect yourself from COVID.

This came about during the summertime, right after the Fourth of July. There were lots of parties, and parents and family wanting to gather, and we just felt that we were the ones who were saying, “We need to wear a mask,” or, “No, we still need to social distance.” And so we wanted to write this article as a way to guide physicians on what role we can play in helping close that gap, and our role in that. So that’s where the background for this article came from.

Kevin Pho: Now, what are some specific areas of public health messaging that are getting misconstrued by the public?

Inna Husain: Right. I think one of the big ones, very early on, was the need to wear a mask or not. Unfortunately, early on, the recommendations were that we didn’t need to wear a mask. That quickly switched. And so I think what happened was that, with national agencies backtracking a little bit on their initial recommendations, it doesn’t really bode a lot of confidence, and that’s the perfect type of environment for people who are very opinionated, maybe the opposite way, to get a foothold.

And so a couple of things that we still are really promoting are the mask wearing, the social distancing, and the limitation of indoor gatherings. As a laryngologist, I work a lot with professional voice performers, and so one of the things we’re still honing in on with them is that indoor singing is not safe yet. So that’s some of the stuff that we’re still telling our patients out there, because even though it’s summer, and soon it’ll be the holiday season, a lot of choir groups, church groups, and that sort of thing want to get together. It’s not safe to do that yet.

Kevin Pho: So when you’re in a room with a patient who is skeptical, what are some of the techniques that you found to be successful?

Inna Husain: I think the first thing is to not ignore it. As health care providers, we are very busy, right? There’s always more to do in a day than there is time. But you can’t ignore it. So when someone makes a comment that they don’t believe in COVID, that is the time to take that extra 30 seconds, actually stop, look at them directly, and say, “That’s not true.” And I think as physicians, we need to understand that we do have a lot of power when we have those interactions with patients. It’s not just our role to teach them about vocal health or help them with their difficulty swallowing. As a physician, it’s also my role and my duty to help them through public health challenges, because that affects their overall health as well.

And so I think the main thing is that physicians need to know that it is OK to stop a patient and tell them they’re wrong. You have the expertise, you have the knowledge, and you need to share that. And so I would really encourage physicians: One-on-one is the best way to try to get through to somebody, in that intimate in-office experience with the patient. So use that. Take 30 seconds and just give them the other side of the argument.

Kevin Pho: Sure. Now, take a step back. What can we do from a broader perspective? Because I think there’s mixed messaging also from the federal government, of course. Is there anything that we physicians can do from a broader perspective to help with accurate public health messaging?

Inna Husain: Definitely. I definitely think there are ways that we as physicians can combat some of that. I’m sure you’re aware of the most recent firestorm that came out. Our CDC made comments that only 6 percent of over 180,000 deaths were maybe actually due to COVID. That’s not true. And a lot of physicians, especially on social media, have taken to explaining what that really means in terms of how you create a death certificate and the different diagnosis codes that you need to place.

So I think the main role that physicians can actively take right now is to be vocal. Get on social media and share your stories. Get on social media and explain and educate. Patients and the general public do not know the intricacies of, for example, writing a death certificate, or how a diagnosis is made. So let your voice be heard.

I really encourage physicians especially to be active on things like social media. I recently started doing this during the pandemic, and I found such an amazing community. And I found that a lot of people are getting their information online now, and so we need to have a footprint online as well in order to essentially compete against some of these, you know, there was that pandemic video on YouTube, and we need to compete with it. We can’t just stay silent in our offices and assume that the word is getting out.

Kevin Pho: Now, for those physicians who may be a little bit hesitant about going on social media, what exactly do you mean by sharing their stories on social media, and how exactly can they do that?

Inna Husain: Twitter is a great forum for the dissemination of medical knowledge and medical information. The hashtag is MedTwitter, and it’s actually really popular. So one way to do it is, when new studies come out in reputable journals, share those. Retweet them. Commentary is not even necessary. Just retweet it so that it gets spread out and people have access to it, and you know it’s a reputable source, so you’re sharing that information. That’s probably the simplest, easiest way to disseminate information. If you think of how many people actually read these medical journal articles versus how many of them now probably see them on social media, I mean, the numbers are astounding. So that’s one really easy way.

You don’t have to share personal. People often get worried, like, “I don’t want people to know about my children and stuff if I’m on social media.” That’s fine. Just keep it completely professional. Just retweet articles, and even that alone is enough.

Kevin Pho: Now, I talk to a lot of physicians who are on social media, of course, and they’re concerned about the pushback they get. The more controversial the topic is perceived to be, the more pushback they’re going to get. What kind of advice do you give to physicians who may be facing pushback from what they’re posting online?

Inna Husain: I would say that if you’re true to yourself, you’re not doing anything wrong, right? You have to figure out what’s best for you and your family and your personality, and that sort of thing. But it’s almost a form of bullying, right? So, “Let me just bully this person into not saying what they know to be true.” And not everyone is able to stand up to that, and I don’t think it should be the expectation that you can stand up to that kind of bullying. But I think that’s exactly what it is. It’s just bullying.

So use your education, your years of training, and your review of the medical literature. It’s OK to share that, because for as many people as don’t want to hear that or don’t want to listen to that, there are people who are being helped. And really, at the end of the day, even if one person is saved, that’s worth something.

So I would say it’s definitely a personal decision in terms of how controversial a topic you want to delve into, and a lot of this comes with years of experience and training. So it’s a lot easier to do this once you’re established in your practice and in your career, and if that is the case, maybe help mentor those who are entering the field, because confidence doesn’t come automatically with the MD, right? It takes years of establishing yourself. And so it’s a personal decision, but I think there are ways that we can all be involved.

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Inna Husain. She’s an otolaryngologist, and she co-wrote the KevinMD article “Physicians’ role in bridging the COVID-19 health recommendations divide.” What’s something that you know now that you wish you knew back before the pandemic started?

Inna Husain: I think one of the positive things that came out of the pandemic for me was really just finding a sense of community, especially among other health care workers. I think often we just get trapped in this silo of our individual practices, or the day-to-day, and what the pandemic allowed me to do is look outside my individual circle. I’ve made lots of colleagues in different departments who share my same views on things like COVID precautions, and the future with schooling, and things like that.

And so I think one of the things I wish I knew was that there’s a whole community out there of people who are very similar to you, and strength comes in numbers. And so find colleagues who maybe aren’t right next door to you, or even in your same hospital. That’s one of the benefits, to be honest, of social media: It’s connected me with health care providers across the world, and so it makes for a very strong collaboration. And so I wish I had just known that earlier, and not just had to wait for a pandemic to learn that.

Kevin Pho: And my final question: Do you have a take-home message that you want to share with the KevinMD audience?

Inna Husain: I would say speak up. You are educated. You know what you’re talking about. Your voice needs to be heard. And so if that is just telling a mother-in-law about something, or a neighbor about something, it’s OK to speak up. And I think as physicians, we should really be proud of the information and the knowledge we have, and share that with the public.

Kevin Pho: Well, thank you so much for sharing your time and insight, and thanks again for being on the show.

Inna Husain: Thanks, Kevin. Have a great day.

Listen and followApple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes