It is a seasonally cold fall evening in Long Island, NY, and I am standing in a field in the middle of what should be a darkened park. Still, I am truly amazed by how bright it is lit up by lanterns with different colors demarcating patients, families, and remembrances.
As an oncologist who treats blood cancers, this event, called Light the Night, sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, was …
Black men need to be comfortable saying that we can be scared sometimes, and to share our emotions without guilt or shame.
I say this as a Black man who has experienced vulnerability both as a family physician and as a patient. Over the last year, I’ve been challenged in unforeseen ways. In my professional life, I’ve cared for patients with COVID-19 and other chronic medical conditions, engaged as a clinician-educator …
“Practicing culturally relevant care means we can account for the social determinants of health, barriers to access, and the emotional disconnect that results from the status quo, one-size-fits-all approach many patients have come to expect. It helps us reach into underserved communities and lift them up, which is essential during …
Smartwatch wearers: Have you checked your smartwatch lately? Did it tell you how many steps you have or how fast your heart is beating? How accurate is the information? What does that number mean for your overall health, and where do all of those numbers go after they are reported back to your computer?
The health care industry is under constant pressure to securely store patient information and still have it …
The word vulnerable is derived from the Latin, “vulnerare,” to wound. Vulnerable literally means “able to be wounded.” In common usage, we refer to being vulnerable when we’re feeling weak, fragile, and emotionally worn down. No wonder most of us want nothing to do with vulnerability. Beginning in childhood, we learn to protect ourselves from emotional attacks perpetrated by family members, peers, and teachers. What’s more, if our parents are …
An excerpt from Doc-Related: A Physician’s Guide to Fixing Our Ailing Health Care System.
Early in my career as a rural physician in Texas, I took care of a couple in their mid-70s named Vernon and Nellie. They drove in from another small town 50 miles away. Nellie usually did all the talking, while her husband, Vernon, sat quietly next to …
“You have more power than you realize.
It’s no secret that medical providers feel structurally powerless in our chaotic health care system. Control over the volume, pace, and elements of our work often rests squarely in the hands of others. But know this: Your own personal power over your work remains …
Like anyone else, the holiday season can be the source of great joy. And it can add to the stress and overwhelm that physicians already experience. The practicing physician may find herself torn between responsibilities in the clinical setting and the preparations needed to make a memorable holiday experience for family and friends.
It starts with rushing from work to make it to the store before closing. It’s planning, decorating, baking, …
It was a hot afternoon, but no dog day humidity yet. I was driving back from a satellite office when our nurse practitioner called. A patient with a condition we’d seen many times before, a brain hemorrhage, her consciousness waning. The CT scan showed blood in the ventricles obstructing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid.
The pressure was building and our patient was dying. She needed an external ventricular drain to relieve …
An excerpt from All Bleeding Stops.
42nd Surgical Hospital
Phu Bai
Republic of Vietnam
December 1967
Private Ira Stein has so many wounds, has lost so much blood, that the corpsmen nearly bring him straight to Graves. Steve Benson can’t get a pressure. He shakes his head. “Matthew, there’s no point taking this kid to the OR. He’s too far gone. He has no chance.”
“Bullshit!” …
“I can attest to the tremendous power of simply noticing these rhythms and attending to them. It’s part of a larger attempt to live a more authentic life. So much of my time over the past 20 years has been vying to achieve someone else’s standards or to live …
In the early evening, I stand in the grocery store checkout line. A young mother in front of me presses a pig-tailed toddler against her hip as she rummages for her credit card, and a man with silvered hair and a monogrammed shirt shifts impatiently behind me. As I watch the toddler, I’m hit with a twinge of nostalgia. I think of how I used to pull my daughter’s hair …
“I wish I had known how common this is. I would have started sooner.”
It is currently estimated that one in four women physicians has infertility (compared to one in eight in the general population). Why do I care? Because I’m one of them. But truly, we should all care. These women are our partners, colleagues, trainees, and friends. Their experiences shape the landscape of physician wellness for all of us.
To …
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Below are moments from my intern year of general surgery residency. They represent moments that occurred over three years ago, which I took home to my journal to process and work through. Back then, the moments left me speechless. And today, re-visiting them, the moments clearly demonstrate the fragility of the human spirit.
A silently sobbing 7-year-old the day after surgical repair of his broken femur. His face contorted. His pain …
“My mother, bless her ninety-year-old heart, is slowing down. The things that made her happiest — getting to church, visiting friends, taking walks, and wandering the aisles in the grocery store —are increasingly difficult. She worries that her lack of energy will soon make every activity impossible.
It is 2005 and …
When the term white supremacy culture is used, people get uncomfortable — they picture the skinhead as the prototypical racist. And while those people are dangerous, whether by their openly racist views being broadcast or in other subtle ways, they are largely recognizable.
White supremacy culture is inescapable in the United States. We have been saturated in it. Our country was founded on its tenants. The far more dangerous racist is …
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The recent tragic shooting on the Rust movie set shocked me. A good friend, a prominent cinematographer in Hollywood, texted me his blunt assessment: “Live rounds on a set. Ridiculously unprofessional.”
Humans are naturally shaken when there is a senseless loss of life. Or are they?
As a hospital physician who has personally watched many people die unnecessarily of COVID-19, I found this fatal filming accident to be a powerful metaphor that …
This article and podcast are sponsored by CityVest, providing investors with insider access to pre-screened, institutional real estate investments historically unavailable to individuals.
Alan, please tell us about your background.
My name is Alan Donenfeld, and I’m …
Colder weather is upon us again – and so is cold and flu season. Nearly two years into the fight against COVID-19, we welcome children returning to schools, daycare, and sports. But with the loosening of restrictions and increased social contacts, we are also now seeing increased circulation of common seasonal respiratory viruses.
Kids are experiencing cough and cold symptoms, including fever, congestion, and sore throat due to other respiratory viruses …
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Today’s health care system has become so standardized that if a person in a medical office were instantly and magically transported to a medical office in another city, the person would instantly recognize that they were still in a medical office. Our offices are now antiseptic, cold, and devoid of educational material and humanity, and this office decor can adversely impact a physician’s ability to provide care to their patients.
When …
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