Covaxin: Doomed to the dugout or ready to join the field of vaccine options?

Meds
January 7, 2022

With apologies to the late Yankees slugger Yogi Berra, for pandemic-weary Americans, it’s like “déjà vu all over again,” as new lockdowns and mandatory mask mandates are being imposed across the globe.

The latest threat, the Omicron COVID-19 variant, has been a major source of breakthrough infections, including among those who have been fully vaccinated and boosted, such as United States Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker.

Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, …

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We must start looking for drowning colleagues

Physician
January 7, 2022

I opened my email recently and blurted out a heartbroken expletive that I can’t print here. Another member of our health care family had died by suicide. I didn’t know them well, nor had I known our colleague who died from suicide just a few months before, but I felt as though I had been punched in the gut. An image came again that has been arising in my head, …

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Hello, health care organization leader, are you listening? [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 6, 2022
YouTube video

“Physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, medical assistants, and other health care workers are a finite resource. They don’t grow on trees. And, though we all seem to deny it, they are human.

The physicians I coach often wonder what they are doing wrong that their lives feel impossible. They are …

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Appreciating patients as unique individuals makes us better physicians

Education
January 6, 2022

The middle-aged veteran curled up on the uncomfortable foam mattress appears irritated. Perhaps he is irritated at himself, knowing that he has gone through this process multiple times, or irritated at his providers, who simply think of him as a chronic alcoholic. I greet him for the first time, sitting on the empty bed opposite him. I ask him a set of questions that I must go through with every …

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Skin-in-the-game doesn’t have to be scary

Finance
January 6, 2022

When I entered the field of medicine, the goal was clear; to make patients “better.” Through my hospital-based training and practice as an internal medicine physician, I developed a strong interest in illness prevention — how can we keep patients from coming here in the first place? The answer became crystal clear. What wasn’t clear was how to focus on preventative care in the current structure of the U.S. health …

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Professional courtesy means being a “doctor’s doctor”

Physician
January 6, 2022

I recently had an email exchange with a friend and psychiatric colleague, Dr. Michael Myers, on the topic of professional courtesy. It’s a topic I’ve written about before. However, one of my essays stirred considerable controversy, so much so that readers’ comments turned ugly and unprofessional, and the commenting section on the host website was closed. It seems my op-ed struck a raw nerve primarily among millennials, many of whom …

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I loved my job yesterday, but I don’t love it every day

Physician
January 6, 2022

I complain about my job all the time. The frustrations are endless. For example, EMR changes that seem pointless and create more clicks, instead of fewer, the constant barrage of patient emails in my inbox that start with “I have a question about X result” because results are released immediately to patients before I have seen them, patients that arrive late without having filled out medical history form ahead of …

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Clearing the air our kids share: a prescription for healthy schools [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 5, 2022
YouTube video

“Six air changes per hour and HEPA grade filtration of indoor air for our children is an investment in their futures for long beyond when the COVID-19 pandemic fades from view. We know there is poor indoor air quality in multiple schools, from inadequate ventilation to air pollution to …

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6 major disadvantages of insurance involvement in primary care

Policy
January 5, 2022

An excerpt from Medical Answers Now!: How Direct Primary Care Guarantees Fast Access to Your Doctor.

Virtually everyone understands the importance of major medical insurance as it relates to unexpected high-dollar care for severe injuries and significant medical conditions, but the value equation for health insurance is quite different when applied to coverage for primary care services.

The full potential cost for …

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The patient who just wanted to be heard

Education
January 5, 2022

I was two months into my first year of medical school when I experienced it for the first time.

“Room 214 … oh yeah, she’s a real pain. She will probably talk your ear off and come up with a new self-diagnosis that she will want to get a full workup for. She always does.”

Nervously, I laughed it off. I grew up in a household where doctors are held in high …

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Depression is a notification that the old patterns are not working

Conditions
January 5, 2022

My energy level was plummeting as Mrs. Jones explained how much her shoulder, her knees, her back, her belly, her head, hurt. She was worn out.

“And I don’t ever think I’ll feel better. I’ve felt like this for so long and I think I’ll always feel like this. I’m so sore. And so tired. And my family doesn’t do anything to help. In the evening after I’ve finished making dinner, …

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Tumor-informed residual disease testing can help inform cancer treatment

Conditions
January 5, 2022

Life can feel full of uncertainty when battling cancer, with few guarantees. “Is there still cancer in my body?” and “Will it come back?” are common questions that have long been difficult to answer confidently until recently. Advances in next-generation sequencing — and a growing understanding of how our bodies respond to illness and treatment — have brought us closer than ever to predicting our individual futures, at least when …

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Unless we get back to the basics, there will be no end to the pandemic

Conditions
January 5, 2022

Frankly, I am tired of this pandemic. I am tired of the death. I am tired of the destruction of families and the obliteration of vulnerable individuals’ social supports. I am tired of human issues being politicized and used as weapons to divide us further. I am tired of people being politically correct at the expense of what is better for society.

So, let me be bold, and say something almost …

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With Lynch Syndrome, knowledge alone isn’t power [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 4, 2022
YouTube video

“I imagine I would have, as I’m sure so many others do, headed to the Internet, reading both accurate and inaccurate information. While much of my visit with my genetic counselor feels like a blur, I left that meeting with a list of answered questions, referrals to specialists, contact …

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How to convert medical knowledge into digital assets that work for you

Physician
January 4, 2022

Over 12 months, I rebuilt my practice workflow to solve the problem of inefficient knowledge transfer between me and my patients. Now with a new system incorporating a library of leveraged digital assets I’m saving time and improving patient experience. Here’s how it happened:

“Hey, Picasso! That patient wants to keep your drawing to show her family!”

My secretary shouted down the hall to my office. An elderly patient asked to keep …

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The value of our time is equal

Physician
January 4, 2022

Funny (not necessarily “haha,” but sometimes that, too) how things sometimes start.

Somehow something got in my shoe.

It’s sort of like the sock that disappears in the dryer.

We don’t know how it happens, but it seems to.

In case you didn’t know, there’s actually a missing sock day — May 9.

I’m not sure how that was decided upon, but it’s been designated Lost Sock Awareness Day.

If you’re a believer in the Great …

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The gender vaccination gap

Conditions
January 4, 2022

This year, I lost too many close and extended family members to COVID-19. As a medical student, I was stunned to see a virus take a grasping toll on my life and surroundings. It was frightening, to say the least. Throughout the period of grief, which I’m still experiencing, I’ve learned a lot and have become more knowledgeable. Unfortunately, I learned that there was a common denominator among those …

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Physician job search: 4 things I wish I had done differently

Physician
January 4, 2022

While you must be understandably excited about this new chapter in your life, don’t let this excitement get in the way of optimizing your job search. Over half of physicians leave their first job within five years and, of those, a majority leave after 1 or 2 years. Your first job search is an important step in your career; make sure the search gets the time and energy it deserves.

1. …

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It is time to make the unvaccinated pay their fair share

Policy
January 4, 2022

Massachusetts is again experiencing a COVID-19 surge and our hospitals are overwhelmed, mostly with unvaccinated patients.

As a practicing physician who takes care of many high-risk diabetic patients, I ask all my patients about their COVID-19 vaccination status. I explain to my unvaccinated patients that the benefits of vaccination far exceed the risk, both at the individual and societal levels.

Unfortunately, this conversation only convinces a minority of the unvaccinated to get …

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I wish it didn’t require a cancer diagnosis to trust me [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 3, 2022
YouTube video

“The medical profession hasn’t changed.

Our credibility hasn’t changed.

Our commitment to care for you – to adore you, to grieve your diagnosis and what it means for you and your family – hasn’t changed.

Our advice hasn’t changed.

I’m grateful for your trust in me.

I wish it didn’t require a cancer diagnosis to …

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