Physicians writing on KevinMD about the diseases they treat and the people who have them: cancer and its screening arguments, pain and the drugs that treat it, diabetes and the obesity argument, mental illness and who gets treated for it, and the decisions at the end of a life. Five maintained records draw on this archive: Cancer: what physicians say, in their own words, Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words, End of life: what physicians say, in their own words, Diabetes and obesity: what physicians say, in their own words, and Mental health: what psychiatrists and physicians say, in their own words.
Therapy is a treatment intended to heal a disorder. That’s the medical perspective anyway, and it’s not wrong, but it’s maybe only part of the picture. Therapy frequently begins by addressing a primary complaint or problem in a collaborative relationship that grows over time. And during that time, while the client is assessing trustworthiness, the clinician continues to work towards an effective therapeutic alliance. How this exactly occurs depends a …
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A physician’s perspective on what therapy is
When the pandemic hit the U.S. – we were caught off guard. We were uncertain about how COVID-19 spread or how it killed. But amidst the chaos, health care providers have learned how to better care for infected patients today. Since March, we’ve learned that surprisingly simple actions can make a significant difference in both containing COVID-19 and improving patient outcomes.
For example, we now know mask-wearing, social distancing, and limiting …
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Reducing death from COVID-19 pneumonia before widespread vaccination
On March 2nd, 2020, as New York State announced its first proven case of COVID-19, a federal court there handed down a stunning decision. For 10 years, according to the court, the United States government illegally failed to hold drug companies accountable when they did not report, or inaccurately reported, crucial data about their drugs’ safety and efficacy.
Between 2007 and 2017, the court held, the Food …
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How transparent were the COVID vaccine trials?
7:42 a.m.: I got my first COVID vaccine today. I don’t feel a thing and almost wonder if I really got the injection. Then, within the first few minutes after receiving it, I feel a little lightheaded. But I realize I haven’t eaten yet for the morning. Luckily, the employee health staff had given me a water bottle, which I quickly down (after sanitizing my hands) and waiting my 15 …
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The side effect of the COVID vaccine that no one is talking about
As I take the pups on their daily walk around the neighborhood. I come upon eight adults outside their houses, near the street, laughing and coughing and sneezing and smoking their cigarettes and huddled up close together.
They didn’t say hello to me, nor did I to them.
But I listened: “I ain’t gettin’ the COVID vaccine, I ain’t going to the hospital. If I get the COVID, I’m staying at home …
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COVID doesn’t matter to them. Until it matters.
Over two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese, and approximately 88 million American adults have pre-diabetes. More than 84 percent of those with pre-diabetes are not even aware that they have it.
Both obesity and type 2 diabetes are associated with an increased risk of cancer development. The risk of type 2 diabetes is related to elevated insulin levels and other growth factors. A recent article in …
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The synergy in obesity and cancer
Some of you may have heard it on the playground. Others might have used it in jest. I’m not going to write it. I’m just going to call it the R-word because it’s that disgusting.
It’s a slur against people with intellectual disabilities that you will see peppered in many news stories.
NFL player Janoris Jenkins was cut from the New York Giants for using the word; Khloé Kardashian promised to “do …
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The R-word takes away people’s humanity
A recent conversation among a group of physicians gave me a fair amount of distress and discomfort.
The topic was an unproven treatment for COVID-19. The discomfort was the disinformation — in my opinion — being shared. The distress was that the discussion likely reflected what some doctors are actually doing for the treatment of patients infected with the coronavirus. Evidence was left at the doorstep.
As I reflected on the conversation, …
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Why won’t unproven COVID treatments go away?
Recently, I started suspecting that RT-PCR testing was not foolproof at ruling out COVID disease after seeing a fair number of patients with typical signs and symptoms but a negative PCR. I have encountered some patients hospitalized with typical COVID pattern pneumonia, thromboembolism with multiple negative PCR tests. Some of these folks even had exposure history and the signature hallmarks unique to this virus, like multiple peripheral opacities on CT …
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Why COVID PCR tests aren’t as accurate as you think
I am an internist in private practice in a community west of Milwaukee, and my commitment as a physician is to keep my patients and community safe and healthy. Throughout the pandemic, I have worked hard to learn everything I can about COVID-19, have helped my patients stay healthy, greatly reduced rates of COVID spread through preventive education, and cared for my patients who have become COVID positive, keeping them …
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I feel more alone than ever before
The COVID-19 vaccine has failed.
I don’t mean that the vaccine itself doesn’t work—far from it. I mean the ineffective way such an important lifesaving, pandemic-ending vaccine is being rolled out. The slovenly effort is putting the lives of millions of Americans at risk. At the vaccine’s current injection rates, or even if they got it to 1 million a day, it’ll still take a year before all Americans are fully …
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The failure of COVID-19 vaccine distribution confirms government incompetence
Given the COVID-19 pandemic’s ongoing course, it is important to prioritize offering our still limited vaccine supply to individuals with the highest risk of exposure to, and negative outcomes from infection with the virus. While each state is allocating their initial vaccines somewhat differently, for the most part, staff working in hospitals and nursing homes have been given priority. Hopefully, with few exceptions, the initial doses have gone to those …
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Correctional facilities are not prioritized for COVID vaccines
If 2020 was the year of the coronavirus pandemic, 2021 has got to be the year of vaccinations. The miracle of modern science, generous funding, and expedited research have led to us having at least three available vaccines to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Pfizer/ BioNtech, Moderna, and most recently, AstraZeneca have produced vaccines that are up to 94 to 95 percent effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 virus infections or reducing …
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#ThisIsOurShot to end the pandemic
COVID-19 has turned the world on its head. A major problem we have faced since the beginning is that it had already been spreading like wildfire for a few months since the end of 2019 — before most of the world realized that it was time to take action against this respiratory virus. We’ve therefore been on the back foot from the very start.
Research has estimated …
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The blunt truth on why stopping COVID is impossible
Health care has been hanging by a thread for some time — in our community and across the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed weaknesses inherent in an underfunded public health system, a monopolized hospital, and a fractured medical supply chain.
At the beginning of this pandemic, I wrote, “Our lives will not be saved by the government. And lives will not be saved by elected officials or large institutions. Lives will …
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Is there hope for COVID with home visits?
On a recent trauma call, we had a busy night, culminating in a horrific motorcycle trauma that came in early in the morning. The patient had devastating injuries and ended up dying. The detectives finally tracked down the patient’s family. I cleaned myself up, put on my white coat and had the family sit down in a private conference room. I entered with my trauma attending and a consulting specialist, …
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Can we do better when delivering bad news in trauma?
As if COVID-19 weren’t bad enough during the pandemic, another public health crisis – substance use disorder (SUD) – has gone from bad to worse, while access to behavioral health services is shrinking.
As of September, more than half (52%) of community behavioral health organizations have seen an increase in demand for services, and half of those that offer SUD services saw their demand jump in the previous three months. At …
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The COVID-19 vaccine won’t solve major substance use disorder treatment gaps
