Room 1, ICU — Love on life support
This was a busy Saturday in 2022.
06:45 — I walk into the unit and spot a gray-haired man pacing outside Room 1. Clothes rumpled, air sharp with sweat. The moment he catches my white coat he stops.
“Doctor, any updates for me?”
Through the glass I glimpse his world: a woman in her …
Love on life support: a powerful reminder from the ICU
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Health care executive and patient advocate Aja Best discusses her article, “How early CKD diagnosis can save lives: a transplant survivor’s journey.” She shares her harrowing personal experience with a delayed diagnosis …
Surviving kidney disease and reforming patient care [PODCAST]
It’s not the easiest question to ask aloud—especially in medicine, where we pronounce death but rarely reflect on it.
We chart it. Certify it. Explain it.
But what does it mean to die?
For most of us, the word carries a double weight. It means to stop biologically. To cease. To end.
But it also means to vanish. To be forgotten. To be no longer seen, needed, or named.
As a surgeon, I saw death …
Why we fear being forgotten more than death itself
I have always been a performer at heart, starting with theater in school. For 28 years, I was a law professor at Indiana University in Indianapolis, and teaching gave me a captive audience. Beyond the classroom, I have always been passionate about music. I play the guitar and sing, and back in the day I was part of a band. I was also a distance runner and dreamed of completing …
My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD
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Health care public relations leader Melanie Doupé Gaiser discusses her article, “Antimicrobial resistance needs a publicist.” She highlights antimicrobial resistance (AMR) as an urgent and deadly public health crisis that is not …
Antimicrobial resistance: a public health crisis that needs your voice [PODCAST]
The field of emergency medicine (EM) is at a crossroads. Faced with rising burnout, a constantly changing health care landscape, and an evolving trend in unfilled residency positions, the specialty is now grappling with another proposed structural change: A proposed mandatory fourth year. While the idea has been periodically debated over the past two decades, it gained new momentum with proposed changes to the ACGME Program Requirements for Graduate Medical …
Why a fourth year will not fix emergency medicine’s real problems
In numerous writings and venues regarding physician practice, the claim is made that “physician education is lacking in nutrition, geriatrics, care for non-cisgender people, relating to patients in general, cultural respect, equitable treatment, etc.” While all of these suggestions have merit, to what extent would they lengthen the already most extended medical school curriculum among developed countries? Or would those who advocate for these additions propose that they replace parts …
Why shared decision-making in medicine often fails
In the grand theater of American higher education, where the pursuit of knowledge once bowed to the austere discipline of merit, a troubling drama unfolds. The medical school admissions process, now awash in the murky waters of holistic review, risks becoming a stage for ideological caprice rather than a crucible of intellectual rigor. Amid the clamor of the Gaza conflict—a geopolitical tempest that has spilled onto university quads and inflamed …
Do Jewish students face rising bias in holistic admissions?
Even before Mia was born, I could sense that something about her was different. With my other children, I felt constant movement during pregnancy, but Mia stayed curled up in one spot and hardly moved at all. When I mentioned this to my obstetrician, he assured me that it was normal. But I was sure that there was something more going on.
As soon as Mia was born, there were signs …
She wouldn’t move in the womb—then came the rare diagnosis that changed everything
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Medical student Rishma Jivan discusses her article, “Medical curriculum 2.0: Integrating technology and innovation in medical education.” She argues for an urgent update to medical training, embedding technology and innovation as core …
Rethinking medical education for a technology-driven era in health care [PODCAST]
Here in the Midwest we have finally made it through the doldrums of winter, which also indicates the season that basketball fans eagerly anticipate all year: March Madness.
The annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) single-elimination basketball tournament inspires millions of folks to fill out brackets predicting the winners, myself included. I love sports for a multitude of reasons, and witnessing these young adults experiencing some of the best—and hardest—moments of …
From basketball to bedside: Finding connection through March Madness
Integrity and trust are foundational. But today, that trust is under assault—not from human error, nor negligence, but from the sophisticated but disturbingly unreliable outputs of artificial intelligence (AI). What the media euphemistically calls “AI hallucinations” are not benign mistakes—they are dangerous fabrications, systematically undermining both clinical and legal standards.
As a psychiatrist, I confront the reality of hallucinations regularly. Patients vividly describe voices, visions, and sensations with profound distress. Hallucinations, …
In medicine and law, professions that society relies upon for accuracy
There’s an ever-growing body of evidence to suggest that diabetes contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Some even go so far as to dub Alzheimer’s disease “diabetes type III.”
How might diabetes cause Alzheimer’s disease?
It’s the sugar: Chronic high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) can damage blood vessels, including those in the brain. This vascular damage reduces oxygen and nutrient delivery to brain cells, increasing …
Diabetes and Alzheimer’s: What your blood sugar might be doing to your brain
Mother scholar.
The phrase rolls off the tongue with the force and ferocity of a curse word—blunt, unsparing, weighty. I didn’t coin the term, but I inhabit it. A vessel for the seeming contradictions of tenderness and skepticism, integration and dissection. Of being simultaneously maternal and cerebral in institutions that reward detachment, autonomy, and efficiency.
As I sit in reflection this May—a month of devotion to motherhood and due dates for faculty …
How motherhood reshaped my identity as a scientist and teacher
The heart, often overlooked in its relentless duty, only garners attention when it falters. For centuries, the notion that life is impossible without this vital organ has been unchallenged. However, recent advancements have shattered this belief. The groundbreaking implantation of a fully artificial heart by BiVOCAR, led by the visionary Dr. Daniel Timm, heralds a new era in cardiothoracic surgery. This achievement is not just a medical milestone; it is …
Jumpstarting African health care with the beats of innovation
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Gastroenterologist Shamita B. Shah discusses her article, “How doctors can help IBD patients manage symptoms between visits.” Addressing the rising prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the U.S., Shamita highlights the …
Empowering IBD patients: tools for managing symptoms between doctor visits [PODCAST]
After 35 years in health care, I thought I’d seen it all—until it happened to me.
We talk about burnout, compassion fatigue, and systemic issues in medicine. But there’s something more silent, more painful, and far more personal happening in hospitals and clinics across the country: Generational warfare.
The young eat the old. And the old? We’re expected to disappear quietly.
In my early years, experience was respected. Elders were mentors. Wisdom mattered.
Now, …
Voices from the inside: 35 years as a nurse in health care
Medicine demands fast decisions.
Chest pain in triage. A vague complaint from an elderly patient. A scan with subtle shadows.
But the speed that saves lives can also lead to predictable, systematic errors, especially when we trust our gut too much.
Psychologist Daniel Kahneman taught us that we do not have one mind. We have two.
System 1 is fast, intuitive, and automatic. It makes snap …
When I read Didi’s story, my heart recognized every detail—the subtle disrespect, the overt hostility, the isolation. I felt seen. Not just because I understood her pain but because I lived it, too.
In 1998, I began medical school in Oklahoma. Young, hopeful, and profoundly aware of the honor medicine held, I imagined a career built on compassion and respect. Instead, what greeted me was bias, microaggressions, and disrespect—from seniors, nurses, …
The invisible weight carried by Black female physicians
When I was unemployed, I applied for countless positions. For months, I have been waiting for a call letter regarding a test or an interview. Now that I have accepted a job at a hospital located far away, I receive call letters in the mail almost every day. This makes me uncomfortable because I know that, being new in my position, I cannot take time off for any test or …
A female doctor’s day: exhaustion, sacrifice, and a single moment of joy
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