As a healer who has been doing my work in the dark, blind in a sense, today was a big day.
The visit was scheduled, not as a phone visit but as my first Zoom visit since the pandemic began 150 days ago. Usually, I see about 30 patients in-person a week. During the five months of COVID, I have seen about 30 patients in-person total, with the remainder conducted entirely …
An appreciation for the sacred spaces at work
The stuffing of things into organs for a desired effect, in this case, fattening a goose, is first recorded in Ancient Egypt and has since been used in multiple culinary traditions. It is now best known for French cuisine. What gastronomes desire animal welfare people abhor. The preferred method is to put more things (food) into an organ (stomach) to cause a secondary change (liver). I am sure the geese …
Zoom is foie gras of the brain
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.
National Internal Medicine Day is October 28, 2020. It’s a time for internists to reflect on the work they do and take pride in being a part of the greater internal medicine community.
Recognizing internal medicine and the work of internists is particularly pertinent …
Internal medicine, the pandemic, and William Osler
Given that October is National Dental Hygiene Month, today we’re going to take a look back at the history of dentistry, its separation from medicine, and the importance of bringing them together.
A 2006 article in Nature magazine describes the discovery of nine people in a 7,500 to 9,000-year-old graveyard in Pakistan with eleven drilled molar crowns. It’s somewhat surprising that dentistry has …
Filling the cavity between dentistry and medicine
During this past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down and changed not just the way we live and work but also how we think and behave. Every part of the world has been affected, and every aspect of life has been impacted. Our everyday routines were brought to a stop, and any sense of normalcy was lost. While we stop and look at the world around …
5 life lessons COVID-19 has taught me
The recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has brought immense attention to the future of the Supreme Court with the scrutinized nomination of Amy Barrett amid the COVID-19 pandemic and upcoming presidential election. As an oncologist and public health physician, however, I cannot help but to focus on the medical causes of her death rather than the political consequences and see a stark contrast in her passing from cancer …
Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Chadwick Boseman: a tale of two cancers in America
For many years and in disturbing frequency over the past few years, police brutality has been a big-ticket issue. The excessive use of force has led to innumerable acts of civil rights violation and, most tragically, the disproportionate death and destruction of innocent Black lives. There have been many debates on what to do to change law enforcement culture. But what has been weighing on my mind is …
Do police officers get jaded over time, just like a lot of physicians do?
We are accustomed in the profession of medicine to be in the position to care for and serve people from a variety of disparate occupational backgrounds and from all facets of society. We serve the poor. We care for the privileged. We are destined, at some point in our training, to care for the least of these. Such is germane to the general altruism that is the profession of medicine, …
Are political physicians dangerous?
As a physician transitioning from hand-written patient charts to electronic medical records, I have observed the blooming of pop-up alerts prior to my completing each patient visit. These alerts remind me what I should do for my patients: age and gender appropriate screening tests and procedures, vaccinations, pain management suggestions, and prescription renewal reminders, to name a few. These reminders are a great support to caring physicians who find themselves …
Electronic medical record reminders influence treatment decisions: Are they always right?
Over the last seven months, the state of medicine, as we have known it in the United States, has been found out. Disjointed, disheartened, and failing. For every ounce of energy we have put into patient safety, quality improvement, and preventing medical errors over the past 20 years, we have simultaneously drained the soul from medicine by turning our work into a commodity, with a price attached to every action …
The safety of patients is dependent on our commitment to a just and change-oriented mindset
Our obstetric anesthesia team sat down to debrief after a particularly harrowing case. We had just replaced our patient’s blood volume twice over after she went into labor with a placenta previa accompanied by a placenta accreta. The operating room had been the usual controlled chaotic scene of multiple teams intensely focused on their responsibilities. It was noisy. Too noisy. I had to remind everyone to restrict themselves to essential …
Unconscious bias in the operating room
Research conducted by the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), a nonprofit research organization in New York, defines the three pillars of executive presence (EP) as gravitas, communication, and image. Stated differently, EP reflects how you act, how you speak, and how you look. CTI concluded that when people are perceived as capable of becoming leaders, they are more likely to be promoted into leadership roles. This is particularly important for …
Executive presence for women leaders
I found out I was pregnant the night before a chemistry exam. I had taken a break from stoichiometry to take a very different kind of test, one I bought from the nearest Walmart to avoid any indiscretion on the family Amazon account. After the second pink line appeared, clear as day, I got up off the bathroom floor and joined a friend to finish the last of our review. …
I will be a doctor because I was once a patient
ADVERTISEMENT
In medicine, we define shared-decision making between the patient and physician as our gold standard ideal. Leveraging separate ideals is our standard of behavior. So what must it feel like to a patient of faith when his/her physician tells him/her “believe the science?” Scientific evidence and religious texts can both be manipulated to support a group’s point of view. Based on their own agendas, groups have used science to argue …
The other side of believing the science
“I didn’t understand what you said,” said the waitress.
“She very clearly said she wanted a quesadilla with a side of beans!” yelled an elderly gentleman at a different table.
The nervousness that arose when ordering food at restaurants grew as months passed like the fetus of a diabetic mother. My thoughts would race around what words to pick and how to pronounce them. My cheeks flushed as I stuttered sounds that …
I will never question my worth when I am misunderstood
Most health care providers are aware of the FIGS scrubs advertisement that depicted a female physician with a DO badge holding a Medical Terminology for Dummies book upside down. In one fell swoop, FIGS enraged the entire medical community causing backlash towards their company. This ad mocking female osteopathic physicians sparked outrage. Many in health care have vowed not to purchase FIGS, prompting the #boycottFIGS response posted as a result …
A DO’s take on the FIGS faux pas
Do you remember what you dreamed of becoming as an adult? I do, and I recall my father telling me I could be anything I wanted to be. My dreams were shattered as soon as I stepped into a prison and I am still trying to pick up the pieces of my self-worth.
“Wait, you’re a doctor?” “Nah, man he ain’t a doctor; he looks too much like us.” I am …
A Black man’s self-worth in medicine
For a bunch of folks striving to stomp out malignant processes in our patients, we sure tolerate a fair amount of destructive behavior among training programs.
I’ll be the first to say I’m not the most delicate flower in the garden. Before pursuing medicine, I was a college athlete. I’m no stranger to long hours, harsh coaches, or repeated failures.
Medical students get their first bitter taste of malignant …
Why we’ll never eradicate malignancy in medical training
During a typically busy Saturday evening shift in the emergency department (ED), I am summoned to the trauma room for a “tie-down,” an agitated patient needing restraints. I find the entrance choked with police officers and push my way through to see the patient. Once there, I see a large, young appearing Black man lying on his back, his hands cuffed tightly together on his stomach, a netted hood over …
The issue of tie-downs in the emergency department
“Hope things go back to normal soon.”
That was the text I received from a friend yesterday. It struck me in reading those words that I have stopped thinking or worrying about the end of the pandemic. In those first months, absolutely. Daily thoughts of getting back to normal life.
Now, out of self-preservation and a renewed sense of life’s sacredness and fragileness, I have turned to making the most of each …
2 stories that remind us to find joy and creativity in our new normal
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
