A message to administrators from physicians: Lead, follow, or get out of the way

Conditions and Diseases
March 27, 2020

We represent the front lines in this ongoing crisis, and we are disheartened by not only the lack of support but overwhelming greed from just about all of you.

We have kept our mouths shut and practiced medicine, providing excellent patient care, while many of you became incredibly wealthy on the backs of our hard work. Many of you have not touched or cared for a patient in years; some of …

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A message to administrators from physicians: Lead, follow, or get out of the way

What’s going to happen? What’s going on? I wish someone could tell me. 

Conditions and Diseases
March 27, 2020

The waiting room is empty, and I take signout on five patients. The patients that typically line the hallways waiting for beds, for stress tests, for MRIs all stayed home. The familiar drunks still get their blister-packed turkey sandwiches. There’s a trickle of patients onto my side: a middle-aged woman who lost vision and a prematurely grey man clutching his distended belly that tightens like a drum as I lay …

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What’s going to happen? What’s going on? I wish someone could tell me. 

Help our health care heroes take care of you

Conditions and Diseases
March 27, 2020

The goal of “flattening the curve” regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic is to slow transmission such that we avoid seeing a large unmanageable peak of infections at once. It doesn’t necessarily mean that fewer people will be infected from start to finish, but it probably does mean that the outbreak will be extended to spread our resources out over a longer period to allow for replenishment. Simply put, we are …

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Help our health care heroes take care of you

Mental health and college students: What parents can do to support their children

Conditions and Diseases
March 27, 2020

The percentage of U.S. college students who are living with mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance, and alcohol misuse, and self-harm are significant. Approximately 39% of college students experience a significant mental health issue. The 2018-2019 Healthy Minds study found that:

  • 36% of the random sample of students from colleges and universities across the U.S. who answered the study’s web-based questionnaire had experienced mild, moderate or major …

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Mental health and college students: What parents can do to support their children

Thoughts from the COVID-19 front lines

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

I am an internal medicine physician directly taking care of patients admitted to the hospital who are COVID-19 positive or those who are being tested for COVID-19. Last week, my hospital created a special team dedicated to taking care of these patients. During that time, the hospital was eerily quiet: the ED no longer had patients lying in stretchers, and the inpatient medicine teams were carrying half of the patients …

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Thoughts from the COVID-19 front lines

Your only option is to stay home

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

This is the first time in modern history that humanity is facing a common adversary. As much as Uncle Harry might want to blame the Chinese for this misgiving, it will not change our predicament. The fact is that this time around, our enemy is stealthy, small, and everywhere. We can’t dehumanize, shoot it down, hate it, or send our drones to take care of it. When the enemy finds …

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Your only option is to stay home

A pathway for the inevitable and imminent need to unite the world

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

Pestilence has fallen upon modern society. For thousands of years of written history, humanity fights and inevitably wins battles against infectious diseases. Although the war against pathogens shall likely continue for as long as humanity exists, our current conception of modern society may not. Modern society must evolve, imminently.

I refer to the novel coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the cause of the disease …

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A pathway for the inevitable and imminent need to unite the world

5 things that should change in medicine after COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

As I sit here nervously reading the news and awaiting my next shift at the hospital tonight, I cannot help but wonder what the world will look like when the coronavirus pandemic passes. While I cannot predict when this will be, or how much more damage this outbreak will cause, I do know that medicine will never be the same. Here are some thoughts on what could change and the …

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5 things that should change in medicine after COVID-19

Doctor’s Day 2020 will be unlike any other

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

Doctor’s Day is March 30, 2020.  Usually, it is celebrated simply.  Recently, it means if you work for a health care organization, they may give you a gift, or they may have a special meal in the lounge.  Personally, I am grateful for that recognition.  Some of my favorite work jackets came to me for Doctor’s Day.  Usually, I take the time to appreciate how lucky I am to be …

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Doctor’s Day 2020 will be unlike any other

Protect your health care workers. Protect your front line.

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

As schools, public transport, gyms, restaurants, libraries, playgrounds shut down, and life comes to a standstill, people stay at home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Healthcare workers, however, do the reverse. They get ready every morning to go to hospitals and clinics to take care of patients, putting themselves and their families at risk. In some regions of the world, they work extra shifts, sometimes with inadequate …

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Protect your health care workers. Protect your front line.

The cacophony of the COVID-19 crisis

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

ICE is requesting bids for 45,000 N95 masks

Why is ICE soliciting for masks when our frontline health care workers need them? There is no social distancing during detention and deportation, and what ICE is doing puts the public at risk. We should immediately suspend detention and deportation for the time being!

Health care workers forcing to take PTO to self-quarantine

When PPE (personal protective equipment, e.g., face masks and gowns) are in …

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The cacophony of the COVID-19 crisis

Coronavirus is America’s Chernobyl moment

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

In the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, there’s a scene where one of the supervisors, Dyatlov, is told there has been a breach of the nuclear reactor. When he hears that their radiation detectors are maxing out at 3.6 Roetgen, he casually responds, “3.6 Roetgen … not great … not terrible.” He was obviously wrong. The United States is currently in a 3.6 Roetgen moment with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We …

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Coronavirus is America’s Chernobyl moment

I’m a physician and I’m not a hero

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

Upon walking through the revolving door that guards the hospital’s main entrance, I was ushered by security staff to join the queues of my peers, also seeking passage to their respective posts.

“The new policy,” the officer explained, examining my hospital ID to confirm that I am, indeed, an employee. Visitors are no longer allowed.

“Please sanitize your hands,” another instructed me, as he pointed to the neat rows of surgical masks …

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I’m a physician and I’m not a hero

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I can only compare COVID-19 to 9/11

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

These are tremendous times that we have never faced before. A novel virus, lack of preparation time, and a healthcare system that already runs at near capacity, we have a disaster of epic proportions on our hands.  What can we do? What should we do? How can I help even if I am not on the front lines?

Many of you are waging war on the front lines: the hospitals, clinics, …

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I can only compare COVID-19 to 9/11

I am an anesthesiologist. I am preparing to potentially die for you.

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

I am an anesthesiologist. I am trained to stay calm when everything surrounding me is going downhill. In the OR, I am the anchor. The steady hand, the ready plans. I work with skilled CRNAs who are an integral part of the team.  We do critical care medicine every day. We don’t run from the chaos. We are always ready to fight the good fight. We don’t scare easily, but …

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I am an anesthesiologist. I am preparing to potentially die for you.

A retired physician wonders whether to rejoin the fray

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

Many moons ago, in the 1970’s era, when no imposition from physically brutal on-call schedules to laudable scut to demeaning attendings was outside the boundaries of the house staff training curriculum, our leaders informed us that we were being introduced to the worst-case medical environment.  That familiarity with setting aside our own creature comforts would enable us to save patient lives when the circumstances demanded our resilience.

Not quite two years …

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A retired physician wonders whether to rejoin the fray

Lack of professional and personal financial literacy is a primary driver of burnout

Physician
March 26, 2020

Physicians are, without a doubt, some of the most educated professionals around. You spend endless hours studying, taking tests, and jumping through academic hoops in the name of good grades and patient care. But is the education you are receiving truly preparing you for the practice of medicine today?

Health care is now considered almost exclusively a business term. And yet there is a lack of business taught in medical school. …

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Lack of professional and personal financial literacy is a primary driver of burnout

The many firsts of coronavirus

Conditions and Diseases
March 26, 2020

We are health care workers. We are doctors, advanced care practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and so much more. We are on the frontlines. We are our parents’ children, and we are parents to our young children. For the first time, we are at an extremely high risk of being quarantined by the same beast we are trying to conquer. We are experiencing moral distress, guilt, and frustration, knowing our …

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The many firsts of coronavirus

COVID-19 and the power of prayer

Conditions and Diseases
March 25, 2020

Prayer is a funny thing. I guess it’s like an N95 protective mask to guard you against COVID-19. You don’t realize how valuable and precious it is until you’re without it, and sadly we are all running low. For the past 25 years of my career as an emergency physician, I bet my partner Dr. Jaime Harper and I have passed by them on the droplet isolation precaution carts a …

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COVID-19 and the power of prayer

Now is not the time to vilify doctors

Conditions and Diseases
March 25, 2020

Doctors used to be heroes. We used to be universally respected. Our opinions used to mean something. And now? Now the president of the United States goes on live TV and vilifies us. Pointing the finger, shifting the blame to us as the reason you can’t go to the bar and watch the game, or go to Disney World, or get drunk every day on spring break at the beach. …

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Now is not the time to vilify doctors

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