Shortening the diagnostic odyssey for hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: a primer for the primary care physician

Conditions
May 27, 2022

Joint pain, nausea, dizziness, bloating, palpitations, urticaria, headache, and fatigue. Surely this must be a list of the chief concerns for each of your first eight patients for the day.

No, these chief concerns all belong to your very first patient of the day. A new patient is scheduled for a 20-minute slot.

How will you possibly get out of the room in time? How can you ever help this young woman? …

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Senators are killing children by failing to enact gun control laws

Policy
May 27, 2022

Nineteen children were killed in a mass shooting in Texas. I have barely escaped the pandemonium of the pediatric emergency department to scarf down a bowl of pasta when I hear the announcement on the breakroom TV. My stomach drops. Again? How is it possible?

I step back into the ED and immediately am called over by an agitated mother whose infant came in with respiratory distress 30 minutes earlier. Any …

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Mothers and sweaters: the gifts of letting go

Physician
May 27, 2022

I sifted through both cars, my own and my husband’s, underneath our boys’ baseball equipment, candy wrappers, and empty water bottles. The felt bag was nowhere to be found.

I was finally ready to take this bag of a dozen sweaters, some of which were my fancy cashmeres, to the dry cleaners. Why a dozen, you may ask? Well, these were essentially all the nice sweaters I owned. I waited a …

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Practicing medicine as a Deaf physician is an uphill battle [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 26, 2022
YouTube video

“No one anticipated how the pandemic would impact their Deaf colleagues’ work environment and career opportunities. Yet, 15% of adults report some form of hearing difficulty. This number increases dramatically with advancing age, with 50% of those aged 75 years or older experiencing hearing difficulty. The exact number of Deaf/Hard of …

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The Buffalo mass shooting and food deserts

Policy
May 26, 2022

On May 14, 2022, ten people were fatally shot with three injured at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, NY, constituting the second most deadly mass shooting this year at the time of writing. As the number of mass shootings and fatalities continues to climb each year with alarming frequency, researchers and policymakers have sought to examine the factors contributing to an increased incidence of deadly domestic terrorist …

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A gun message for woke corporations

Policy
May 26, 2022

It is too early to hear the narratives from the families of the 19 children slain this week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, near San Antonio, Texas. But narratives from the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and 16 other deadly gun violence events have just been published by Red Penguin books. From Bullet to Bullhorn is the …

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How the Judd family has honored their mother

Conditions
May 26, 2022

In a world where we are constantly bombarded with bad news, it is easy to forget the manner in which news is reported can impact and cause harm to vulnerable individuals. The topic of suicide is one such sensitive subject, and there are guidelines for the appropriate reporting of deaths by suicide to help mitigate potential risk. Despite these guidelines, sensationalized stories about death by suicide are often splashed across …

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It’s time for someone to show up for nurses

Conditions
May 26, 2022

I have been privileged to work with and learn from some of the best. Skilled, talented, giving, compassionate human beings who support their patients and each other. I have been pulled up by nurses who saw more in me than I saw in myself. I have been mentored by them and am a much better nurse practitioner because of what I’ve learned from them. I’ve also had the privilege to …

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The public health emergency brought health care into the 21st century. Let’s keep moving forward.

Policy
May 26, 2022

Many Americans will lose access to vital health care services in a few short months unless Congress passes bipartisan legislation already introduced in both the House and Senate.

Co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the Hospital Inpatient Services Modernization Act extends waivers allowing patients with acute illnesses to receive hospital-level care at home. The waivers are set to …

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Warning: Your words can kill

Physician
May 25, 2022

Over the years, I’ve had many medical office assistants. Most were good. Some were outstanding.

Today, I’d like to tell you the story of one who was exemplary. He was never late to work. He never came in and insisted on finishing his breakfast at his desk before rooming our first patient. He was so personable that they would pour their hearts out to him while rooming patients. They would tell …

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What are physician mortgages?

Finance
May 25, 2022

Selecting a mortgage can be daunting. Understanding the mortgage terms, the total cost, estimated property taxes and insurance, and the bottom line on a month-to-month expense can be a lot to take in.

For many individuals, utilizing a mortgage to purchase a home can lead to months of underwriting, painful discovery and disclosure of financial documents, and consistently changing deadlines. This process aims to prove that due diligence is completed thoroughly …

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Premature babies grow up. It’s time to pay attention.

Conditions
May 24, 2022

Premature babies (a.k.a. preemies) and their families are increasingly becoming a powerful voice in society. Life in and after the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is like being dropped off a cliff. I support the preemie community from pregnancy to NICU to home and into the adult years because I had a preemie. My daughter’s story is a stunning example of a system gone wrong and why better outcomes research …

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11 questions physicians should ask during a job interview

Physician
May 24, 2022

One of the hardest questions to answer in a job interview is, “Do you have any questions for me?”

The question itself is not hard — as physicians, we can come up with plenty of questions. What makes it challenging is that we understand the timing and depth of any question we ask and can say a lot more than we want it to. We do not want to ask too …

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Reflecting on my experience as a teenage health care worker during the COVID-19 pandemic

Education
May 24, 2022

During the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2021), I became a high-school pharmacy technician. My senior year of high school ended in gray scrubs, gloves, and a mask. While I knew I was signing up for long hours of selling medication and administering COVID tests, I was not prepared for what else I would learn.

On my first day on the job, a couple approached me and asked …

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Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response [PODCAST]

Podcast
May 23, 2022
YouTube video

“As physicians, we are masterful at suppressing so many of our emotions, and the thoughts and memories associated with them. However, trauma has a way of impacting us in great big obvious ways (as we saw with Will Smith), and not such obvious ways (perfectionism, workaholism, lack of boundaries).

I’m not suggesting …

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The baby formula shortage puts your baby’s brain at risk

Conditions
May 23, 2022

The baby formula shortage has morphed into a full-blown ongoing crisis. Many stores report that more than half of baby formula products are out of stock. Babies who are six months old or younger should only be fed breast milk or formula. Any substitute may be nutritionally incomplete and may cause babies to have permanent problems in brain development.

What are the essential brain ingredients in the leading baby formulas?

Docosahexaenoic acid …

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Don’t give up on intermittent fasting just yet

Conditions
May 23, 2022

In late April 2022, headlines were plastered across the internet calling for the death of intermittent fasting. This was in relation to a New England Journal study out that week titled “Calorie Restriction with or without Time-Restricted Eating in Weight Loss.” I would have named it, “If you ask the wrong question, then you don’t get a helpful answer.”

The researchers asked if people lose …

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