It is said that 57 percent of U.S. doctors receive drugmaker/industry funding and 66 percent of U.S. adults are now on prescription drugs. Any correlation?
Drug ads now cast such a wide “symptom net,” comedian Chris Rock said he expected to hear, “Do you fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning? You might be suffering from ….”
Here are six ways drugmakers hijack U.S. medicine
Diagnosing. Once upon a time …
It was 7:45 a.m., and I stood frozen in the middle of a sidewalk on campus, barely awake undergrads shuffling past me on their way to morning classes. My daily walk to work cut through a part of the university where the college of medicine sits beside student dorms. It is a path I’d tread as a wide-eyed student, a determined trainee, and now, a weary attending. That morning, I …
When people think of electronic health records (EHRs), they assume these digital systems for storing patient information were designed for clinicians. But that is a fallacy. EHRs initially were designed for billing and compliance—and it shows.
Given the original purpose of EHRs, it’s not surprising that clinical workflows are disjointed. The limitations of traditional EHRs have made it more difficult for clinicians to quickly access relevant patient information at the point …
As artificial intelligence gains ground in every aspect of health care, from diagnostics to documentation, an urgent question arises: Are we gaining efficiency at the cost of empathy?
Drawing inspiration from Simon Sinek’s perspective on AI and humanity, this piece explores how health care can embrace innovation without compromising the very heart of medicine.
1. Humanity first, technology second
“I’m not in the AI business. I’m in the humanity business.” – Simon Sinek
AI …
When reviewing poor maternal health outcomes in the U.S., it is clear we cannot keep doing the same thing and expect to make pregnancy safe and healthy for all. A new approach is needed that harnesses the power of molecular advances to bring precision medicine to pregnancy health. Preeclampsia, one of the most dangerous complications in pregnancy, is a disorder of high blood pressure that has eluded the ability to …
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Physician coach and marriage and family therapy graduate student Jillian Rigert discusses her article, “Fear of other people’s opinions nearly killed me. Here’s what freed me.” Jillian shares her harrowing journey through …
Imagine yourself being miserable at work and you have been thinking about quitting for a long time now, but you are just really good at what you do. Your colleagues approached you when they needed advice and even your patients praised and thanked you all the time. Imagine leaving all of this and walking away from years’ worth of hard work.
Initially, you might have felt guilty and isolated for feeling …
As an early career physician, transitioning from residency or fellowship into attendinghood, or even just contemplating a job change, can feel both exciting and overwhelming. There’s the thrill of stepping into your first “real” job, finally earning a salary that reflects the years you’ve invested. But alongside that excitement often comes anxiety: About finding the right fit, navigating unfamiliar systems, and negotiating a contract you may not fully understand.
Amid all …
Tucked along the edge of the frigid James Bay, Moosonee stands as one of Northern Ontario’s most remote and storied communities—a place often referred to as the “Gateway to the Arctic.” While towns like Thunder Bay or Rainy River echo similar titles, Moosonee carries its own unique distinctions.
This isolated town of about 3,000 people is shaped by its subarctic climate, deep cultural roots, and resilient spirit. Read more…
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Nephrologist Saad S. Alshohaib discusses his article, “Why truth still matters in the courtroom: lessons from a physician witness.” The conversation provides a profound reflection on his decade of experience serving as …
“In the courtroom, I was asked to speak about wounds. But the deepest wounds I saw weren’t just in patients — they were in trust, in truth, and in the silence that follows when no one wants to say what really happened.”
I never aspired to testify in court. Like most physicians, I trained to treat patients — not to evaluate the decisions of others. But then a case came. A …
There’s a sacred irony in medicine: Those who care for hearts often forget their own.
This truth came into sharp focus for me this past weekend, where I found myself in a room of women cardiologists at The American College of Cardiology in D.C.
The women in attendance were brilliant and compassionate. They spend their days pacing hearts, restarting them, and stenting them open. They are experts in life’s most vital rhythm. …
Pain is a signal. It gets our attention. It arrests, alarms, and demands we listen. C.S. Lewis wrote in the problem of pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” And what a deaf world we have become.
Pain is physical—a sign of tissue damage. It’s defined as “physical suffering or discomfort caused …
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I was on another overnight shift in the OB/GYN emergency department. The air was thick with tension, as it always is when the night is full of contractions, cries, and codes. One woman arrived in active labor — her first baby, frightened eyes, and no family by her side.
Everyone rushed to prepare for the delivery. Monitors beeped. Gloves snapped. Orders flew around the room. The focus was on the baby. …
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Historian and ethicist Nigel Cameron discusses his article, “How DrKoop.com rose and fell: the untold story behind the Surgeon General’s startup.” The conversation chronicles the dramatic history of the iconic dot-com era …
Sleep is not a luxury — it’s a fundamental pillar of health on par with diet and exercise. As we enter a new era of sleep, people are more aware than ever before of how rest impacts their overall health. We are at an inflection point where sleep is increasingly recognized as essential to preventative care and wellness. Yet, many still suffer in silence, trapped in a cycle of exhaustion.
The …
An excerpt from The Healthy Kidney Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Manage Hypertension, Control Stress, and Prevent Renal Failure, Kidney Disease, and More.
A good friend and neighbor of mine is a kidney transplant survivor, and I wanted to thoughtfully document her thoughts on different parts of her journey. She is currently a married, African American woman, mother of a teenage son, in her forties, and works full time in …
As a health care professional, I’ve often observed how one critical aspect of medication safety and efficacy gets overlooked: food-drug interactions.
Every day, we prescribe and dispense powerful medications — but what patients eat alongside those medications can completely alter their effects.
This isn’t just a pharmacy concern. It’s a multidisciplinary issue that deserves greater attention from physicians, pharmacists, and patient educators.
The physician’s role: Asking the right questions
We often do a solid …
A woman sat nervously in front of me, eyes wide, voice low. “I saw this video on TikTok,” she said. “Now I’m not sure I want to try it.” “It” was semaglutide—one of the most transformative medications we’ve seen for weight loss and metabolic health in years. But her fear wasn’t uncommon. Like many patients I see, she came in hopeful, but hesitant—torn between her desire to get healthy and …
In recent years, an alarming trend has emerged within the health care system, one that is eroding the very backbone of medical care delivery: the physician. What once were rules and regulations designed to protect and elevate the standard of medical care are increasingly being exploited by medical authorities as a tool to extort, reprimand, and harass physicians. More disturbingly, this extortion is now cloaked as “education,” forcing doctors to …
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