The path to gender-affirming care is closing: We need to open it

Policy
April 2, 2022

Imagine losing control of your child’s life-saving care. The mental anxiety is overwhelming enough – then suddenly, all the decisions that should be up to your child, you, and your child’s physician are snatched out of your hands by faceless institutions. This is the fate currently befalling the families of transgender youth in Texas.

The Gender Education and Care, Interdisciplinary Support Clinic (GENECIS) in Dallas, has been effectively …

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It’s time to flip the script on peer evaluations

Physician
April 2, 2022

I just received my peer evaluation from work. And I’m gonna admit: I was nervous.

“Yikes.” I cringed when I saw it in my inbox. Would my colleagues call me out for not being as sharp, fast, or adept as them? Would they fault me because I just cannot stomach a dislocation despite working in a pediatric urgent care for several years? (True story: I damn near dropped out while treating …

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Pause for a moment to feel your energy

Physician
April 2, 2022

When was the last time you paused for a moment to feel your energy? I mean, really get in touch with the energy you hold inside your being?

Could it be that, as physicians, we have gotten so used to feeling stressed or drained at the end of the day that we’ve forgotten how to feel at ease and be in a state of joy as we take care of our …

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The unheard cries: an obstetrician’s nightmare

Physician
April 2, 2022

Her image captured the world: mangled hip, jutting belly, stretcher, war, a woman carried out of a bombed maternity hospital. She’s gray, contrasted against a colorful beach towel, among the smoldering ruins of Mariupol. The outcome was bad; neither she nor the baby survived despite the perimortem Cesarean. News stories reported that she gasped and, with her dying breaths, said that she did not want to live in a world …

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To treat future COVID variants, we need more than vaccines [PODCAST]

Podcast
April 1, 2022
YouTube video

“With government and industry working hand in hand, we can develop and stockpile monoclonal antibody therapeutics in anticipation of variants to come. We need to be thinking several moves ahead to keep ahead of variants so that stockpiles of therapies do not become obsolete as they have now. Our …

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Does your patient advocate have access to stop the medicalized death train?

Physician
April 1, 2022

My mom has Alzheimer’s dementia and lives in memory care. During her February 4th, 2022 health visit, her chart reflected stage FAST 7A (a 7-step staging system for dementia). I am her patient advocate, durable power of attorney for health care (DPOA-HC) that was activated two years ago. I was clear with her care team from the beginning that my mother is a DNAR and, when she became hospice eligible, …

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If we better manage diabetes, can we better manage COVID?  

Conditions
April 1, 2022

Over their lifetimes, adults in the United States have a 40% chance of developing type 2 diabetes. And the likelihood for Latino adults is 25% higher. Even worse, Latinos develop type 2 diabetes when younger, and experience more severe complications and higher hospitalizations.

The stark disparities of type 2 diabetes reveal how cultural and social factors affect disadvantaged populations. As a case in point, managing diabetes is more difficult for patients …

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I left medicine. Then I found meaning.

Physician
April 1, 2022

Many years ago, doctors were relied upon to care for the health needs of their local communities. They were trusted fixtures relied upon to diagnose and treat whatever the ailment. They spent time interacting with patients, not paperwork or screens. There was no bureaucratic red tape or a long list of administrative procedures. It was pure medicine.

I think it would be safe to assume that burnout barely existed. These doctors …

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I risked my career to save my life [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 31, 2022
YouTube video

“I have spent years in silence about my career decisions, nervous that my inability to take call and inability to thrive while sleep-deprived could be seen as weaknesses. Being afraid to admit I was advocating for my mental health and my life. That’s a problem. I am experiencing fear …

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I gained weight and, with it, I gained life

Physician
March 31, 2022

First, this article is not to discredit or compare to anyone. This article is not to take away the celebrations of those whose behavioral changes have made them feel more healthy and fulfilled in their lives — though I will challenge the emphasis on the number on the scale as an outcome measurement to use for such celebrations. This article is to shine a light on a less commonly discussed, …

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Going mobile: an antidote for career regret

Physician
March 31, 2022

This year, the National Resident Matching Program provided matching services to more than 42,000 applicants. A medical student’s choice of specialty is one of the most important decisions they will ever make. But deciding which medical specialty to enter can be difficult. The majority of medical students are indecisive about their intended area of practice. Over the course of medical school, only a quarter (26.1 percent) of …

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What does Will Smith’s facial expression at the Oscars tell us about our patients?

Physician
March 31, 2022

Will Smith’s Oscar smackdown of comedian Chris Rock proves one thing: violence should never be a response to insults – or any other inciting factors – in the heat of the moment. Will Smith knows it, and so do the millions of television viewers who witnessed the assault. Yet, despite Smith’s written apology to Rock, Smith may likely believe his actions were justified. Why do I say this? Because if …

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How doctors can ensure their Latinx patients receive the best medical care

Physician
March 31, 2022

“Any questions?” I asked one of my patients, Dona Maria, for the third time.

After her prolonged silence, I asked again, almost in despair, “anything else? Anything that you don’t like about what I have said? Or anything you don’t like about the medications I am recommending?” Dona Maria sees my disappointment and tries to smile at me. Then she shares some stories about her great-grandson, who just turned three.

It is …

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Inside the race to conquer the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 30, 2022
YouTube video

“That year, 2020, Uğur told the crowd, would be the year BioNTech proved the doubters wrong.

There was no time to lose. Soon after he’d finished his talk, Uğur hopped on a plane to Seattle, where he met with a team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which had …

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Mental health issues and the African American community

Policy
March 30, 2022

Death is a topic that most people try to avoid. Death by suicide is also something that that remains rarely discussed. This is probably because suicide is scary, particularly if we have thoughts of being the loved one left behind. People considering suicide don’t take the time to let people know that they are considering suicide; they tend to keep all these things bottled up to themselves.

As one writer Read more…

Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response

Conditions
March 30, 2022

This is what the result of unresolved trauma looks like.

What we witnessed Will Smith do in assaulting Chris Rock during the Academy Award ceremony was a trauma response.

While I am in no way condoning violence, this is a very public and important opportunity for us to understand what a trauma response can look like.

A trauma response can take many forms and look like:

  • Slapping someone for saying “the wrong” thing.

    • …

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Why this medical school is doing it right

Education
March 30, 2022

It’s been shown that patients can benefit from a satisfying medical experience and the actual clinical treatment. The satisfying medical experience in and of itself leads to trust, follow-through, and health improvements.

Medical school is the optimal time to learn how to deliver a great patient experience. In med school, one develops formative views on the culture of medical practice. Knowing this, we looked at an institution that …

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Support desperate health care workers now, before your life counts on them [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 29, 2022
YouTube video

“America’s health care workers are on the brink of collapse. If we want them to hold on and be there for us when we are too sick to walk, stand or breathe, we must act now.

Cast aside political opinions. Follow CDC guidelines. Wear masks when you are in a group …

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Death of a nurse: a soliloquy

Conditions
March 29, 2022

It’s not what you think. It’s not my actual mortality.

It’s that emotional death.

Of being a nurse.

If you’ve never been a nurse. Then you will never know.

It’s that’s giving of yourself: heart and soul.

Constantly and forever.

It’s not being with your family for Easter or Thanksgiving or Christmas.

It’s not being able to go to the bathroom or even take a 30-minute break in 12 to 13 hours.

It’s being surrounded by bully nurses …

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