Last week, a mother of six children—four of whom have disabilities—made the trek to the health care campus where I’m a faculty member to share her story. She’s making this trip weekly on Thursdays to give the same presentation twice in succession for a duration of an hour each time, for five weeks in a row. That’s ten times telling her story to a faceless crowd of interprofessional health care …
The cost of presence: a lesson in listening
I worked in rural health in Kentucky for twenty years, then in urgent treatment centers in Denver. All sorts of patients pop up in primary care and in UTCs. Most have easily identified complaints: UTI, sinusitis, flu. Others are there for regular refills, for hypertension or cholesterol meds. There were a few patients I remember whose presentations were less straightforward, whose diagnoses were more elusive.
The following two patients presented with …
The unexpected truth behind these misdiagnosed medical cases
“I want to be white,” he said.
I didn’t know how to respond.
I was quiet.
He was serious, waiting for my reply.
He was only 8 years old, in the hospital with an asthma flare-up.
I had asked him, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
I wished I hadn’t.
I’ve thought a lot about his answer in the …
Why racism in health care is still an emergency
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Psychotherapist and author Margo Lowy discusses her article, “Maternal ambivalence: the side of motherhood no one talks about.” She explores the often unspoken emotional complexities of motherhood, where love and frustration coexist. Margo delves into …
Why it’s OK to feel conflicted about motherhood [PODCAST]
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has become a household word; Americans have increasingly turned to virtual platforms to connect with their doctors. But what has not become widely known is the role telehealth is playing in hospitals and emergency rooms across the country. From virtual neurology and cardiology to maternal-fetal medicine and behavioral health, specialists are remoting into patient rooms to address life-threatening symptoms—and, in the process, they are reducing …
Hospitals are driving revenue and improving outcomes with telehealth
Physicians are healers; they were not meant to be hunted. Yet in modern America, the very system that once revered physicians has turned against them, weaponizing regulations and laws into weapons and transforming healers into criminals. The Controlled Substances Act, health care fraud statutes, and a labyrinth of federal regulations have ensnared countless physicians in a trap of legal peril, branding them as fraudsters when their only crime was dedication …
Criminalizing care: How the system turned on physicians
Every day, over a million doctors across the nation rise with a singular, noble purpose: to heal and to help. This isn’t a calling pursued for recognition or praise—it’s a commitment rooted in a deep, unwavering care for others. From family physicians who anchor communities to pediatricians who safeguard our children, from surgeons who wield precision in the operating room to specialists unraveling the toughest medical enigmas, these …
A tribute to the unsung heroes of medicine
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Emergency physician W. Frank Peacock discusses his article, “What if a doctor didn’t wash their hands between patients?” He explores the critical role of hand hygiene in preventing hospital-acquired infections while exposing …
Why hand washing isn’t enough to stop infections in hospitals [PODCAST]
In his deluge of executive orders, Trump once again is focusing on health care cost transparency.
Efforts to open the lock on health care costs began in 2019 under the Trump administration with mandated publication of hospital price lists, called chargemasters. These price lists are arbitrary, as they have no relation to the contracted …
How price transparency fails patients and what insurers must reveal next
In his book Cross Pollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry, Nabhan illustrates the interconnection between thinking across varied fields and how one specifically might inform the other. He is by no means the first or only thinker to harness looking across disciplines. This approach has certainly also informed the world of psychotherapy. The unifying glue, however, is time and space for reflection, to consider leisurely, to let the …
Why systemic thinking can transform both therapy and medicine
They never said it outright. Not at first.
They didn’t have to.
I was a physician at the edge of the Republic, serving those the system had long since forgotten. When the last doctors left, I remained. I healed. I endured. I became necessary.
And for that, the system turned.
Not with conviction, but suspicion.
Not with verdict, but process.
How the system hunts physicians who refuse to kneel
With the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, is on the rise, there is an urgent need for physicians to arm their patients with tools and education to manage these conditions in between appointments.
IBD already includes nearly three million people in the U.S. who are diagnosed with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, which cause inflammation of the …
How doctors can help IBD patients manage symptoms between visits
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Family physician Pamela Buchanan discusses her article, “Why diversity in medicine saves lives.” Pamela shares powerful stories from her career, like adjusting a biracial child’s treatment for a scalp infection and saving …
How diversity transforms health care and patient outcomes [PODCAST]
An excerpt from Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General.
“I have learned that, when an idea’s time has come—and it is on your watch—you must seize the moment.”
– CEK, Glasgow speech
It would take C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D., just an hour—one very well-prepared hour—to overturn nine months of obloquy and ridicule. In the process, he re-ordered the public face of …
C. Everett Koop’s fearless fight against the tobacco industry
Why do so many people share their harrowing airline experiences with me yet never document them or file complaints?
Some say they do not want to relive the trauma. Others feel embarrassed for having been ridiculed, either themselves or in front of their child. Many simply want to move on because, thankfully, nothing catastrophic happened.
But silence does not equate to safety.
If I …
Flying with food allergies: Combating misconceptions and advocating for safety
When I first started my career in medicine, CT scans and MRIs were nonexistent. Scientific advancements and technology facilitated the development of these and many other diagnostic tools.
These changes have enhanced medical care, enabling physicians to diagnose and treat patients more effectively. The integration of computers has played a crucial role in this advancement by ensuring better continuity of care, whether at home or in the hospital, through improved communication …
The business of medicine: How hospitals are putting profits over patients
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
The American medical system is ill, and physicians are among its sickest patients. As a dual-boarded physician, an assistant professor of family medicine, and someone who has walked the halls of both academia and clinical practice, I have witnessed firsthand the symptoms of this systemic disease. It is a sickness that manifests in exhaustion, …
The disease of modern medicine: How a sick system is failing physicians
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Pediatrician Derek W. Moss discusses his article, “How natural disasters reveal resilience and the power of community.” Derek reflects on the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which flooded his Hendersonville Pediatrics practice and …
Rebuilding after disaster: lessons in community resilience [PODCAST]
Last night when I came to work most of the beds in our 31-bed emergency department (ED) were full. There were more than 20 patients either in the waiting room proper or in the chairs that serve as “rooms” behind the triage area.
Much of the problem was the fact that we were boarding patients who were waiting on inpatient beds, psychiatric admissions, or transfer to higher levels of care elsewhere. …
The emergency department crisis: Why patient boarding is dangerous
Many physicians are feeling profoundly betrayed right now.
We dedicated our lives to medicine, science, and healing. We sacrificed. We put our patients first, often at great personal cost.
The current political and public health landscape makes many of us feel disregarded, unheard, and deeply disrespected.
Health care, and we as physicians, feel under siege.
Public health policies are shifting in ways …
Physicians are feeling betrayed. How do we protect our peace when health care is under siege?
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