Conditions

Sepsis protocols coupled with rapid host response technologies are the key to improving patient outcomes

Conditions
March 20, 2024

Patients come into the emergency department (ED) with symptoms, not diagnoses. That’s when time is of the essence. Clinicians must quickly triage patients and establish an appropriate care pathway to obtain the best possible outcome. Most patients entering the ED are time-sensitive, requiring clear protocols for care. However, even some of the deadliest conditions still lack the necessary data, tools, and standards to quickly diagnose and effectively treat patients.

Over the …

Read more…

A doctor’s journey: from student to healer, facing a mentor’s illness

Conditions
March 20, 2024

I had a teacher in my third year of med school. His name was Dr. T. He taught us pediatrics. At that time, he was the head of the department of pediatrics in the busiest teaching hospital in our city, where I was working. Every day, hundreds of children from far-flung areas are referred to our hospital with complications due to suboptimal treatment received in their local areas, as we …

Read more…

Assisted suicide: Safeguards debated as bioethicist warns of unintended consequences

Conditions
March 19, 2024

At a time when many states are considering assisted suicide legislation, I was interested to encounter the perspective of the well-known bioethicist Arthur Caplan who recently expressed his support for these laws on these pages.

While I appreciate Caplan’s endorsement of protecting doctors’ ability to refuse, as a matter of conscience, to participate in assisted death, I admire his insistence on restrictions or safeguards within these laws to …

Read more…

Inside the cancer waiting room where hope hangs in the balance

Conditions
March 17, 2024

I sat there, frozen in time, full of fear, full of anxiety. Waiting for my time to “face the music,” but this wasn’t a dance party.

My fellow patients, complete strangers, were seated about me, and each of us kept a safe distance apart from each other—a carry-over from the pandemic, I guess. All of us waiting to get our news—a thumbs up or thumbs down.

For me, it is a yearly …

Read more…

From overdose to ICU: a doctor’s battle for a young woman’s life

Conditions
March 13, 2024

An excerpt from Adventures of an American Medical Student.

I can still remember Ms. Osborne’s long, messy, brown hair and pale, attractive face like it was yesterday. She was young, and she presented to the Brighton Medical Center Emergency Department (ED) unconscious after an OxyContin overdose. I saw her as soon as she arrived with Brent Johnson, a young, trim, handsome MD who was wearing hunter green scrubs embroidered with …

Read more…

The humorous essay that predicted today’s medical anxiety epidemic

Conditions
March 10, 2024

In elementary school, we read an essay named “The Man Who Was a Hospital” by Jerome K. Jerome. This is a humorous essay in which the writer describes his misadventure in a humorous way. He says that once, he was reading a liver pill circular when he suspected that his liver was out of order. He went to the British Museum Library to study the details of liver disease. He …

Read more…

America’s nurses have PTSD: Will anyone listen to them?

Conditions
March 9, 2024

My first clinical rotation as a nursing student was on the same floor where my mother died of cancer. And my very first patient was a young Hispanic man with four children. I was asked to tell him that he had pancreatic cancer and very little time left. I was 21 years old and the only Spanish speaker on the floor – back in those days, interpretive services were rarely …

Read more…

Critical care physician battles long COVID with hope and grit

Conditions
March 8, 2024

I recognize your anguish. Long COVID is new, and I will do my best to support you through this new and confusing illness. This is all I wanted to hear in my countless doctor’s visits. Some came close. The rest were baffled, given how healthy I was prior to a “mild COVID” infection.

I felt patronized by my own colleagues for trying experimental therapy. When activities of daily living are a …

Read more…

Navigating spring allergies in the era of climate change

Conditions
March 7, 2024

As winter chill thaws and the spring flowers begin to bloom, many of us find ourselves grappling with the unwelcome return of sneezing, itching, and congestion that signals spring allergy season. This year, like nearly every in the last decade, seems to have arrived earlier—a trend that’s becoming increasingly common. As a physician specializing in allergy and immunology, I’ve observed firsthand the impact of climate change and air pollution on …

Read more…

Inside the mind of Alzheimer’s: a caregiver’s haunting nightmare

Conditions
March 6, 2024

An excerpt from Releasing the Butterfly: A Love Affair in Four Acts.

Imagine there must be thousands, if not millions, of family members and caregivers who wonder what it must be like to be the one who has Alzheimer’s. Genie and I have always shared our thoughts and experiences with each other. Often, I would imagine telling her about something that had happened to me and could hear her voice …

Read more…

Ultrasound shows promise as new pain treatment, targeting a specific brain region

Conditions
March 6, 2024

A recent study published in PhysicsWorld documented a possible new treatment for pain. Something most physicians would be surprised to hear. Ultrasound. That’s right, low-frequency ultrasound waves, when directed to a specific area of the brain called the insula, have been shown to give some pain relief to persons who were being subjected to a standard contact heat evoked potential (CHEP). In this test, brief pulses of heat are …

Read more…

Why you (and your patients) should have a mindfulness practice

Conditions
March 5, 2024

Nobody can question the fact that the world has a mental health problem. Nowhere is this more pronounced than in the medical health profession. American Medical Association statistics show that in 2021, physician burnout rates were 63 percent, which was almost double the rates in 2020. The CDC reports that 1 out of every five adults suffer from a mental health disease. If medications and psychotherapy are standard treatments, we …

Read more…

Did you know that colder weather can complicate blood pressure control rates and treatment?

Conditions
March 4, 2024

Next time you hear “cuffing season,” think of blood pressure cuffs. As winter has properly set in with shorter, darker, colder days, you might see the impact on blood pressure control rates.

A new study examined the health records of more than 68,000 adults being treated for hypertension and found that on a population level, BP control rates decreased by up to 5 percent during the winter months …

Read more…

ADVERTISEMENT

Breaking free from sugar addiction: Why cold turkey doesn’t work

Conditions
March 2, 2024

We know how dangerous sugar can be to our health. Excess sugar intake has been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and even our immune system health. But giving it up is easier said than done. One question that people often have is, “Do I have to completely give up sugar, like, all of it? Cold turkey?” The answer is: nope! For most people, systematically identifying, replacing, and reducing sugar in …

Read more…

Psychiatry in 1984 vs. now: Has progress come at a cost?

Conditions
March 1, 2024

This essay is part satire. The trouble is, I don’t know which part.

As far as I know, time travel is fodder for science fiction thrillers and movies. It doesn’t actually exist on Earth. However, I can time travel in my mind, and I do it frequently, reminiscing about the 40 years between the time I completed my psychiatric residency (in 1984) and now. What has changed in my specialty in …

Read more…

From Afghanistan to hope: a cancer patient’s remarkable story

Conditions
March 1, 2024

A few weeks back, a young male from Afghanistan visited us in the oncology clinic. He was in his late 20s and came with a translator to facilitate his consultation. He was not very fluent in either Urdu or English but could still understand most of it. He seemed very anxious and perplexed in the initial assessment room. I observed him closely and noticed that there was no family member …

Read more…

Heart-stopping brain surgery: a surgeon’s harrowing dilemma

Conditions
February 29, 2024

An excerpt from of Paint and Pancakes.

The epicenter of Jane’s cancer occupied some very expensive real estate between Broca’s area and the motor strip. Her ability to speak and form coherent words resided in Broca’s. A little further back was the Motor Strip, which controlled the movement of the right side of her body.

It all looks the same … so damned normal. Mike cleared his throat. High-price …

Read more…

Beyond medical vs. N95: strategic masking for COVID protection

Conditions
February 28, 2024

Do masks prevent COVID-19 infections? You might be thinking that it is a bit late to ponder these questions. But better late than never! As shown in the following graph provided by the CDC, COVID is here to stay with us, at least for the time being. Even though nothing compared to the 140,000 hospitalizations per week during the early 2022 wave, there were still about 40,000 weekly hospitalizations a …

Read more…

Is your persistent cough more than a cold? Understanding micro-choking.

Conditions
February 27, 2024

These days, everybody is coughing. The resurgence of COVID, RSV, and flu has overwhelmed emergency rooms and hospitals this early winter. But not all coughs are viral. If you recently visited a family member for the holidays and noticed a persistent cough after dinner, you may have witnessed not a viral illness but what’s known as an aspiration event.

As primary care providers, we frequently take care of people who are …

Read more…

Why the medical community should be invested in understanding chronic wasting disease

Conditions
February 27, 2024

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible prion disease seen in the deer family – including mule deer, whitetail deer, elk, and moose – in countries throughout the world. The prion affects nervous system tissue in infected animals. Eventually leading to erratic behavior and certain death. Currently, there is no evidence of direct transmission of CWD to humans. However, given the biological plausibility for transmission, equity/ecological concerns, and the …

Read more…

109
pages