Changing the national conversation on wound care

Conditions
February 12, 2021

We all think we know what a bruise looks like. Black and blue, brownish around the edges. But depending on the circumstances, the same bruise can look different from one person to another.

To a well-loved child who skinned her knee, a bruise might look like a bad memory of an epic tree-climb attempt. To a patient with diabetes, a similar bruise might look like the onset of a life-threatening emergency. …

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Changing the national conversation on wound care

What the PlayStation 5 can teach the vaccine rollout

Conditions
February 10, 2021

It’s no surprise that the PlayStation 5 (PS5) has been extremely popular since its launch in November, with over four million consoles sold since launch. However, what is surprising is that the PS5 has broken all launch month gaming hardware sales records ever, despite its steep prices at $500 for the full console and $400 for the digital edition, not to mention its launch in the …

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What the PlayStation 5 can teach the vaccine rollout

Nursing home workers at catastrophic levels of burnout and trauma

Conditions
February 9, 2021

It’s been almost a year since nursing home workers began fighting on the front lines of COVID-19. They’ve witnessed and experienced extreme trauma. They’ve seen seniors they care for suffer in fear and loneliness during prolonged and repeated lockdowns.  They’ve seen residents fall catastrophically ill and too many of them die.

More than 17,000 seniors are dead from COVID-19 in Canada; Read more…

Nursing home workers at catastrophic levels of burnout and trauma

COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people with severe allergies

Conditions
February 3, 2021

The intensive care unit nurse was worried the COVID-19 vaccine would kill her.

In the past, just minutes after getting the influenza vaccine, she had hives, wheezing, and throat swelling. Her life-threatening reaction only resolved after an epinephrine injection and monitoring in the emergency room. She vowed never to get another vaccine.

With the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, she reconsidered her stance. Now she was in my clinic, …

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COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people with severe allergies

It’s time to curb rising C-section rates in Canada

Conditions
January 30, 2021

Even during the pandemic, labor and delivery are the most frequent reasons for hospitalization in Canada, with over 350,000 births per year.  That’s happy news.  But of these births, nearly one third are by Caesarian section (C-sections).  That rate is far too high – and rising.

C-section is the surgical procedure to deliver a baby that involves an incision in the mother’s …

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It’s time to curb rising C-section rates in Canada

How COVID accelerates change: Bridging business principles with emergency medicine

Conditions
January 27, 2021

Over the past year, we have experienced massive organizational change at an unprecedented pace. Traditionally, we could spend weeks planning how to best make a change in our workplaces, but COVID-19 was anything but traditional. Our emergency department at Saint Barnabas Health System in Bronx, NY, needed to pivot on a daily and even hourly basis, and to do so took planning and effort. In general, change is difficult, and …

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How COVID accelerates change: Bridging business principles with emergency medicine

Are we underestimating the danger of prions and prion based diseases?

Conditions
January 27, 2021

Assessment without definition: a flat tire on the road of progress

Even though we have known about prions for decades, very little progress has been made in defining what a prion is vs. what a prion is not, how they get into the brain, and how prion diseases are different from other neurodegenerative diseases. Phenomenologically these definitions can vary widely. To some, a prion causes a deadly, …

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Are we underestimating the danger of prions and prion based diseases?

Marijuana legalization: an unpopular view

Conditions
January 26, 2021

In the mid-1990s, a few pharmaceutical companies made broad claims regarding the safety and efficacy of opioid medications for pain management. These claims were based on limited research that did not fully account for these drugs’ potentially harmful effects. As a result, we are now facing an opioid epidemic across the United States.

Now, New Jersey joined several other states by legalizing marijuana for recreational use. While there are clear differences …

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Marijuana legalization: an unpopular view

Is my headache coming from my soul?

Conditions
January 26, 2021

Serious soul searching can give anybody a headache, but when a young woman asked me that, I was taken aback in my neurosurgery clinic. Huh? I said. Do you know René Descartes? The pineal gland is the “seat of the soul.” Well, my pineal gland has a cyst and is more like the “seat of my misery.” It turns out this eloquent young woman in her early 20s was a …

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Is my headache coming from my soul?

Physicians are an underserved population about their own mental health care

Conditions
January 24, 2021

COVID-19 has shed light on a pre-existing condition in medicine – our health care system has failed to tend to its workforce’s well-being. While generally privileged, physicians are an underserved population about their own mental health care.

Numerous articles and countless interviews have focused on the pandemic’s deleterious impact on physicians’ mental health and well-being. But this is not a new problem, nor is it caused by a lack of resilience. …

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Physicians are an underserved population about their own mental health care

Extreme athleticism and the risk of atrial fibrillation

Conditions
January 23, 2021

Consider the following sports icons:  tennis legend Billie Jean King, basketball veteran Larry Bird, triathlete Karsten Madsen, baseball pitcher Kenley Jansen, and cyclist champion Haimar Zubeldia.

What do all of these well-known professional athlete heroes have in common? They are athletes with atrial fibrillation, also called AFib. AFib is the most common heart rhythm disorder worldwide, accounting for 750,000 hospitalizations per year in the US alone. It is estimated that 6 …

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Extreme athleticism and the risk of atrial fibrillation

COVID vaccines: side effects, myths, and madness

Conditions
January 22, 2021

I received my COVID vaccine on December 21st before starting an ER shift; sitting in the cold, plastic chair in a hallway-turned-vaccine-clinic, I tipped my head back to blink tears into submission as I reflected on making it this far in the pandemic without contracting COVID.  Four days later, after three twelve-hour shifts, I tested positive for COVID.

The COVID vaccine did not cause my positive result; getting exposed …

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COVID vaccines: side effects, myths, and madness

How the vaccinated may become the next super-spreaders

Conditions
January 21, 2021

With COVID-19 vaccines being administered to our front-line health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel of this pandemic. Yet, given the time-limited nature of the vaccine’s development, we have yet to learn the extent to which vaccinated people can spread the virus. The COVID-19 vaccinations prevent disease, but we know little about if …

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How the vaccinated may become the next super-spreaders

As a busy primary care doctor, here is what I am facing

Conditions
January 15, 2021

“Doctor, how are you doing?”

I’m really so grateful when people take the time to ask this. But when I respond, candidly, that it’s been tough and I’m definitely not doing great, I often hear, “But you haven’t had any patients who have died from COVID, have you? And you got the vaccine, didn’t you?” Fortunately, no (not yet) and yes.

My heart goes out to our ICU, inpatient, and ER teams …

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As a busy primary care doctor, here is what I am facing

The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic are eternal

Conditions
January 14, 2021

She was rather calm during her visit.  It was the first time we’d met, and she was establishing primary care with our office and me.  We were both delighted to learn she was from a small Georgia town not too far from where I previously practiced, and we quickly reminisced about the slow pace, lack of certain resources, and genuinely good, devout people that often stem from and still reside …

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The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic are eternal

Upholding the principles of informed consent in the fight against vaccine hesitancy

Conditions
January 14, 2021

Experts have taken to social media to quell misinformation and address common concerns about Pfizer’s messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccine, performing an important public service in support of robust vaccine uptake. However, some scientific information is being oversimplified to the point that it is misleading. The public’s decision to take a vaccine whose long-term risks are unclear should be a well-informed one. Clear communication is crucial to the process of …

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Upholding the principles of informed consent in the fight against vaccine hesitancy

An unexpected COVID-19 vaccine side effect

Conditions
January 13, 2021

Introduction

Today, I had my second shot of the Pfizer vaccine and suffered an unexpected and unreported side effect. That’s the problem with a new medical treatment; you never know what might happen.

Transformation

Just a few seconds after the needle penetrated my arm, I felt a mild soreness, kind of like a flu shot. But as I sat for the required 15 minutes of observation time, a wave of something engulfed my …

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An unexpected COVID-19 vaccine side effect

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