Trauma in health care workers, in comic form
Emily Watters is a physician and discusses trauma in health care workers, in comic form. (Click to enlarge.)
Why is health inequity an issue, and why do we have to highlight the issue?
Health equity is vital for a harmonious society with the potential to prosper. The root causes can be divided into two themes: structural inequity and social determinants of health. The root causes contributing to health inequity and disastrous health outcomes in specific communities should be analyzed. It is essential to understand the reasons to promote equal and effective interventions to save people’s lives. This is important because by saving a …
Taking courage to heart and to the heart of medicine
Few individuals are called upon to be heroes like Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy who, in choosing to stay and fight a massive, invading army, faces a real possibility of imprisonment and death. This is true courage.
Within the medical profession, there are also wars to be fought that require true courage. One thinks of the late Dr. Paul Farmer, who worked tirelessly throughout his career to bring high-quality health care to …
New strategies are needed for mental health treatment [PODCAST]
“Reducing the occurrence of comorbid mental and physical disorders will require an integrated model combining medical and behavioral health care services. The window of opportunity is open for health insurers and employers to invest in employee assistance programs and telehealth platforms and build on a newfound acceptance of mental health …
Take politics out of science and medicine
This month marks the 12th anniversary of Obamacare’s passing. Was it perfect? No. It was meant to be a starting block to cover a widening gap in the nation’s health equity. It became less effective because of direct attacks by politicians who then used the failures to point a finger back at President Obama for nothing other than party-line politics. The Affordable …
Losing my first patient
I had known AR for eight days before she passed away.
AR’s medical record was littered with phrases all too familiar in the field of medicine: she had “poor insight into the severity of her disease” and was “insisting on all resuscitation measures despite poor prognosis.” But quite frankly, I could not blame her. She had been diagnosed with metastatic gastric cancer, bilateral Kruckenberg tumors and additional metastases throughout her abdominal …
The connection between sickle cell disease and socioeconomics
Two new treatments have emerged for sickle cell disease. One curative treatment is a bone marrow transplant, and the second treatment is a gene-based therapy undergoing clinical trials. While this is much-welcomed news for patients battling the disease, the medical profession still needs to address sickle cell disease’s socioeconomic and racial health care inequities.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic disease that alters and lowers red blood …
Primary care should be the center of gravity in health care [PODCAST]
“If we want a more effective health care system, it needs to be re-engineered to revolve around the true center of gravity – the patient. We must involve patients early and often in the design of health policy, health technology, and health care ecosystems. We must reinvent health care payment …
Before taking Paxlovid, consider these drug interactions
FDA and Health Canada recently approved Paxlovid as an oral treatment option for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of progression to severe COVID-19. It is a combination drug containing nirmatrelvir/ritonavir. Nirmatrelvir works by binding to SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease to ultimately stop viral replication. Ritonavir does not have any antiviral activity against COVID-19 but increases concentrations of nirmatrelvir by decreasing its metabolism by CYP3A4 enzyme. Ritonavir is …
Will Biden’s State of the Union remarks revive prescription drug reform?
My credit card hovered over the card reader at the pharmacy as I contemplated whether I should pay. Two hundred and eighty dollars and some change. For two EpiPens, each with 0.3 mg of epinephrine that could potentially save my life if I accidentally ate something with sesame seeds. At that moment, I realized that even I, as someone with good employer-based family health insurance, was being forced to make …
Why this medical student tutors
Tutoring is the most selfish thing I do. This probably sounds counterintuitive, but let me explain.
To state the obvious, medical school is hard. You spend four years pushing yourself to the limit of your comfort zone. For two years, you cram more information into your brain than it can hold (and most of it leaks back out). Then for the next two years, you chameleon your way from one clinical …
How a legal injustice changed this physician’s career [PODCAST]
“I do not hesitate to share what I endured. I recognize that there is a code of silence that must be broken when one is involved in legal action. It is imperative that we speak out to patients, legislators, and other physicians against these types of injustices. The sense of …
Bring back CME conferences to exotic locations
It was not too long ago, but it seems like decades when traveling for a CME conference was a routine part of being a physician as looking up articles on UpToDate or giving patients bad news. But like so many other things in life, the reality of CME conferences has changed.
Most training programs give allowance to physicians for CME conferences on a yearly basis. After training, you have to keep …
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10 mistakes smart doctors make
When most people think of physicians, they think of the class nerds or the smart kids who got all As and took honors classes and were on the debate and math teams, did the science Olympiad or won the spelling bee. They think of us as brighter and more intelligent than most of society.
But we are also just human beings who have the same flawed brains and make the same …
Is there such a thing as too much empathy?
“What does it mean to be neighbors in the trenches?” I began a recent staff meeting at our medical group.
We’d just read a passage about the Christmas Truce between the Germans and the British in World War I. The troops found themselves so close together they could smell each other’s food, hear each other’s music. It was impossible not to pause the violence in a moment filled with so much …
Nurses are in need of racial healing [PODCAST]
“Now more than ever, our profession needs to move toward racial healing. There is an urgent need for nursing to acknowledge its history of racism, boldly confront racism wherever it shows up, and address the racism that nurses witness when delivering care to those they serve. This will not happen …
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The need for physician leaders for a better health care system
Health care is a complex machine. With each passing year, it appears to get even more complicated. There’s an ever-increasing need to balance quality and cost between technology and humanity. These are competing needs, which are usually critical to health care delivery, as care professionals are faced with the often overwhelming paperwork and the need for hands-on patient-centered care.
There can be challenges in prioritizing one condition at the expense of …
Palliative care: Most doctors do not know how to talk to their patients
“If you don’t let us go home because of the vomiting, his time is running out … I don’t want him to be at a point where there is nothing else to do, and I don’t want him to go home at that point,” said J’s mom.
“Am I crazy to want to see this naturopathic doctor? He promised us he would cure our son of his cancer …”
“It is not …
How stigma and online trolls stopped an intervention that could save lives
I came across an article a few weeks ago with the heading, “Biden administration denies funding handing out crack pipes to addicts to improve ‘racial equity.'” As similar articles came out across the United States and the United Kingdom, I was immediately bombarded with questions from friends and family members who were in disbelief that the government would do something as ludicrous as giving out crack pipes. …
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Physicians and the weight of expectations [PODCAST]
“What exactly is my obligation to medicine? Am I supposed to practice medicine forever? Is it my duty? Do I have to continue serving my patients, the hospital, and society because of these expectations?
The answer is simple: You get to decide. Most physicians I know love practicing medicine. It …
Past Week
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Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]
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The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you
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Past 6 Months
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What’s driving medical students away from primary care?
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The silent crisis hurting pain patients and their doctors
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What happened to real care in health care?
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Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting
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The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain
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Recent Posts
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How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care
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Alzheimer’s and the family: Opening the conversation with children [PODCAST]
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AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support
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Past Week
-
What’s driving medical students away from primary care?
-
Make cognitive testing as routine as a blood pressure check
-
The hidden cost of delaying back surgery
-
The dreaded question: Do you have boys or girls?
-
Rethinking patient payments: Why billing is the new frontline of patient care [PODCAST]
-
The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you
-
Past 6 Months
-
What’s driving medical students away from primary care?
-
The silent crisis hurting pain patients and their doctors
-
What happened to real care in health care?
-
Internal Medicine 2025: inspiration at the annual meeting
-
The hidden bias in how we treat chronic pain
-
Residency as rehearsal: the new pediatric hospitalist fellowship requirement scam
-
Recent Posts
-
How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care
-
Alzheimer’s and the family: Opening the conversation with children [PODCAST]
-
AI in mental health: a new frontier for therapy and support
-
What prostate cancer taught this physician about being a patient
-
Why fearing AI is really about fearing ourselves
-
The broken health care system doesn’t have to break you
-
