Conditions and Diseases

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.

Health care workers are here for you. Do your part to keep them safe.

Alpa Patel Shah, DO

April 4, 2020

The front desk staff member who checks you in at your primary care physician’s office is 64 years old with a history of hypertension and coronary artery disease. She unexpectedly became a widower five years ago and is planning to work until the age of 68 to secure adequate retirement savings. She is worried about contracting SARS-CoV-2 from a patient as they check-in despite being vigilant about her personal hygiene …

COVID-19 and the Hippocratic Oath

Mary Beth Gadarowski

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

On a sticky summer day four years ago, a class of eager medical students and I harmoniously chimed the Hippocratic oath, binding us to the highest standards and code of medical ethics.

As newly accepted and unassuming medical students, how could we understand the sacred nature of this rehearsed and recited ‘covenant?’

While pledging the words embedded in this sacred vow, we were completely unaware that the culmination of our medical education …

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COVID-19 and the Hippocratic Oath

Domestic violence and social isolation during COVID-19

Ashlee Murray, MD, MPH, Jessica Palardy, MSW, Melissa Dichter, PhD, MSW

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the country, states are mandating “stay at home” orders; and with these orders comes further social isolation for domestic violence (DV) survivors and their families. Many recent articles highlight the potential risks for DV victims “stuck at home” with their abusers as their opportunities to seek help and support are dwindling. With only ‘Read more…

Domestic violence and social isolation during COVID-19

From a physician to our leaders

Estee Gray, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

Since graduating from medical school in 2002, I have seen a disturbing trend in the lives of doctors. For years, physicians have been squeezed from every direction. Insurance companies and hospitals are constantly fighting to remove our autonomy. The amount of paperwork we are required to produce has skyrocketed over the past 20 years, combined with the use of electronic medical records, our face time with our patients has shrunk …

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From a physician to our leaders

How far are you willing to go to survive COVID-19?

Jenny Hartsock, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

As doctors, we know how this disease progresses. We know the prognosis for patients who need to be on a ventilator. We know that if we have a cardiac arrest during the course of COVID infection, our prognosis gets much grimmer. Faced with this knowledge, how do you decide how far you are willing to go to try and survive?

If you had to be intubated on a ventilator, would you …

My uncle’s battle against COVID-19

Jasmine Toor, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

I just lost my uncle to COVID-19. I am writing this to honor him because I cannot leave the country to travel to Canada to see him, I could not visit him in the hospital when he needed us the most, I cannot attend his funeral, and I could not tell him in person how much I love him and appreciate everything he has done for me.

He was …

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My uncle’s battle against COVID-19

I won’t sacrifice myself when I can’t get a damn mask

Susan Shannon, RN

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

Nurses are responsible for patient care. They are the ones at the bedside 24/7. There is no one who spends more time with individual patients. They are the ones most in danger in the coronavirus pandemic.

The news gets grimmer every day about the inevitable surge coming across the country. Forecast of death tolls in the 100,000 to 200,000 range, if not higher, is terrifying. If the death toll is that …

Ophthalmology in the era of COVID-19

Brian C. Joondeph, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

We are in the midst of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The numbers are scary and changing by the day and hour. Johns Hopkins University has a real-time dashboard where you can monitor global cases.

Cases in China have leveled off, while elsewhere in the world, cases are on the rise. At the time of this writing, there are about a quarter of a million confirmed cases worldwide …

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Ophthalmology in the era of COVID-19

For the first time, my job has betrayed me

Kim M. Puterbaugh, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

I miss going to work feeling excited, inspired, determined, frustrated, and exhausted. Being a doctor has been my magnetic north since I was ten, the longest relationship of my life. It’s who I am, what I’m called, how I spend my waking hours, what makes my family most proud of me, and my first love.

Now I go to work terrified. I cannot sleep the night before I am on call. …

A doctor’s message to ICE: Release asylum seekers to prevent COVID-19 spread

Faiza Yasin, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

With COVID-19 spreading rapidly throughout the nation, we need to work together to save as many lives as possible. This includes asylum seekers who are detained for entry-related offenses.

Asylum seekers are among the most vulnerable groups globally. They are mothers, husbands, and children fleeing violence, poverty, and persecution. With few options, they arrive to the U.S under a human and legal right to seek asylum. As …

3 tips for inner peace in this COVID-19 world

Stephanie Wellington, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 4, 2020

The world is impacted by coronavirus. The same advancements in civilization that allow us to travel and experience new cultures are the very thing that has blurred our borders and made everyone susceptible to the virus. We are observers and participants at the same time.

Schools are closed and shifting to long-distance learning models. Conferences are canceled. Sporting events are shutting the stadiums to fans. We are social beings now being …

We treat self-sacrifice as a currency in medicine

Dasha Klebaner

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

The world of COVID-19 has two poles: the frontline workers bravely putting themselves at risk for the greater good, exiled to tents in their backyards to protect their families – and the rest of humanity, asked to do its part by staying home.

As a medical student, I have felt somewhat untethered – aligned in training and identity with the former, but relegated to the latter out of necessity. I have …

Coronavirus exposes the reality of income-driven health inequality

Harsh Bhavsar, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

It’s maddening to see the differences in health outcomes between the rich and the poor. Even more unsettling is reflecting upon the psychological pain accumulated when living in a fad-obsessed materialistic comparison-creating society, the postponed dreams, and the day to day compromise that those with less have to endure – thoughts that may be far removed from the ruminations of the those who have abundance.

I don’t mean to stereotype, and …

Being a medical student during the COVID-19 pandemic

Alicia Asturias

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

On March 17th, in a nationwide effort to protect our patients and minimize the overuse of critical primary protective equipment (PPE), the most disposable force in the hospital was removed: our medical students.

When I learned of this temporary suspension, I had just finished my first month of inpatient medicine, a defining achievement in the clinical years. My peers and I had endured eight months of clinical rotations, surviving (at times …

Ignoring COVID-19 won’t make it go away

Gretchen LaSalle, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

Ignoring a problem won’t make it go away. I say this all the time, with love and compassion, to my patients who are having trouble accepting a diagnosis. Ignoring your Type 2 Diabetes, for example, won’t make it any less real. It will only land you in renal failure and on dialysis, or with a foot amputation, or a heart attack or stroke. Sometimes, we have to set ego aside. …

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Ignoring COVID-19 won’t make it go away

What about the other 80%? Medical students at all levels of training can help beat COVID-19.

Matthew A. Crane, Tiffany Lian, Suraj A. Dhanjani, Daniel Y. Liu, Richard Liang, Luis E. Cortina, George S. Corpuz, and Diviya Gupta

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

The global pandemic of COVID-19 presents a serious threat of overwhelming our health care system’s capacity. With the lack of a clear, decisive response from the federal government to minimize early virus transmission, it’s becoming rapidly clear that the spike in critical patients flooding the health care system within Italy will likely soon be a problem that the United States will face …

Don’t praise physicians, protect them

Carrie Rose, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

I am addicted to Facebook these days. Like everyone else, I am glued to social media, riveted by the drama unfolding around me. I read from the perspective of a primary care doctor in Seattle, the site of the first case of COVID-19 in the country. My friends and family send me regular thanks for being “on the frontlines.” In truth, I am not on the frontlines. I am not …

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Don’t praise physicians, protect them

Redefining the role of psychiatrists in the time of COVID-19

Chinenye Onyemaechi, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

The unparalleled and pervasive nature of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of us in some way. There is limited, albeit growing, research on the mental health effects of disasters. A recent review article pointed out the potentially negative consequences of prolonged quarantine, while other research from Wuhan, China, highlighted the impact of COVID-19, particularly amongst healthcare personnel. Psychiatrists and mental health professionals will play a …

The heart of America’s health care system is failing

Nick Sawyer, MD, MBA

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

In college, I learned about the Frank-Starling law of the heart. It is fascinating and demonstrates just one of the bewildering number of human physiologic responses needed to adapt to the demands we place upon our bodies every day. In brief, the Frank-Starling law states that a healthy, normally functioning heart will respond to increases in demand for blood supply and oxygen by increasing the strength of cardiac contractility. This …

A few weeks into COVID-19: Alternating between sadness, fear, optimism, and anger

Uzma Khan, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 3, 2020

Fourteen days of social distancing have passed. Emotions are high all around. The wicked foreboding of the mysteriously menacing novel Coronavirus has spared no one. Everyone is scared. The cleaning staff, scrubbing, and wiping just one more time. The techs, maintaining stoicism behind masked faces. The patients, eyes darting with fear. The nurses, bravely caring for their patients. The reality is that the physicians are scared too. We are all …

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