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“People developing anaphylaxis will not always have five extra minutes to spare. I do appreciate that auto-injectors are expensive, but it is not at all expensive to have an ampule or vial of epinephrine on board, which …
A nut allergy nightmare at 35,000 feet [PODCAST]
I am a physician.
We are always taught to see our patients as more than their state of illness or diagnosis. “Speak to the patient,” “listen,” “look them in the eye,” “do not put one foot out the door,” the list of do’s and don’ts, while self-explanatory, is long. A good doctor is considered one who is able to view the person behind the symptoms and offer a shoulder, not just …
A patient gave this physician her humanity back
An excerpt from Not A Real Enemy: The True Story of a Hungarian Jewish Man’s Fight for Freedom.
The first signs that something terrible had happened were the lights. The hospital was brightly lit through every corridor. In communist Hungary, electricity was yet another resource one learned to do without. Lights …
The true story of a Hungarian Jewish man’s fight for freedom
Amazon recently announced plans to shut down Amazon Care, an in-home and virtual health care service.
The reasons cited were attributed to a significant overlap of services with the One Medical chain of clinics, which Amazon purchased in July of this year for 3.9 billion, as well as Amazon Care not being a complete enough offering for large enterprise customers for which it was targeting.
This is the third health …
The recent closing of Amazon Care shows the magnitude of the challenge in changing health care
This article is sponsored by the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning, an independently owned and operated full-service medical education company that has been developing certified health care education for nearly twenty years.
Visit the tools and a CME quality improvement activity at preventhypotoolkit.org. …
Severe hypoglycemia: Are your at-risk patients prepared?
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“The most important lesson when negotiating contracts is picking your battles and coming at them with optimism and positivity. Yes, you can and should be excited about this new opportunity, but you need to receive what’s fair …
Negotiating employment contracts from a place of strength [PODCAST]
With so much disconnect in our world right now, it can be a challenge for some to find ways to stay connected to meaningful things, people, places, and events. I won’t belabor my own list of disconnectedness, but I imagine many of your lists are much longer than you are accustomed to.
A recent medical experience motivated me to write about this …
Use connectivity to rise above our individual and collective challenges
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 is an ambitious piece of legislation that was signed into law on August 16 of this year. This was a revised, negotiated version of the Build Back Better Plan that failed to pass in December 2021. Like many pieces of legislation, this is a complicated bill, 730 pages in length, with a very broad scope. Although controversial, the costs of this bill will …
The Inflation Reduction Act: Can it build back medicine better and reduce climate change?
This piece started out focusing on the impact of colds on our lives, particularly if COVID is now “just a cold.”
But now it’s personal.
My husband and I escaped COVID until now by being very careful until we got vaccinated. Once vaccinated, we focused on living our lives safely – no eating at indoor restaurants (there are plenty of outdoor venues to choose from), masking indoors and testing when gathering with …
The impact of a single COVID infection
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“The worry and anticipation of getting sued are heightened more than ever in the wake of the pandemic. It is in all physicians’ minds. I recently did a quick poll in some of my physician groups on …
What to do if you’re involved in a medical malpractice lawsuit [PODCAST]
Almost 20 percent of America’s population lives in rural areas of the country, where accessing health care facilities and services can be challenging. The patient-to-primary care physician ratio in rural areas is only 39.8 physicians per 100,000 residents, compared to 53.3 physicians in urban areas.
Rural hospitals work diligently to meet the health needs of the populations they serve, but they have long struggled with staffing shortages, inconsistent patient volumes, …
Improving access to care in rural America: Keeping rural hospitals in the game
I am an anesthesiologist, a physician with a specialization in anesthesia. I chose this profession, with its difficulties and its rewards. I knew there would be sacrifices and I have gladly made them. I didn’t expect this, yet here I am, doing what has to be done, if for no other reason than it is what I do.
I want to share with you something I wrote in the summer of …
“How is it being back?” Truthfully, it’s much harder than before.
Congratulations! You made it through residency. On to the next stage of your emergency medicine career – attending-hood (and for some fellowship)!
Here are ten tips we learned during our first year as attendings at an academic emergency medicine department.
1. Efficiency comes with time. Start off making sure you are methodical. Unlike residency, you will no longer have an attending re-ordering hemolyzed labs or ensuring a negative HCG prior to obtaining …
10 tips for smoothing the transition from resident to academic emergency medicine attending
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“Since President Nixon declared war on cancer in 1971, and despite some great victories and many losses, there continues to be a never-ending battle in this long-fought war that seems never-ending. The convergence of great intellect and …
Antibodies are the future of cancer treatment [PODCAST]
As a parent of elementary school children, every mass shooting, particularly ones killing school children like in Uvalde, jolts my doing-the-mom-thing-just-keep-busy-can’t-stop denial. On the last day of school before summer vacation, when the bus doors squeaked open, and my kids hopped off, I experienced a momentary sense of relief. They were safe for one more day, at least from school shootings. I hugged my kindergartener and patted the head (that’s …
Bulletproof backpacks: There’s more we can do
The twice-vaxxed, twice-boosted First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, tested negative for COVID after taking Paxlovid. And then she rebounded, just like her husband did weeks ago or like Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief Medical Advisor to the president Anthony Fauci did in June or like the 1 to Read more…
Do we need to temper our expectations of Paxlovid?
An excerpt from A Caregiver’s Love Story.
After Bill was given his terminal diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and the bloody nose scare, I began to worry about the future. It was like “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” wondering when and how his death would happen. I …
What anticipatory grief feels like
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“Gun violence, war, pandemic, natural disasters — listening to the news or doom scrolling on social media during times of tragedy can leave us feeling devastated, discouraged, and angry. Tragedy can also make us feel like helping. …
How you can donate effectively after tragedy [PODCAST]
For all the time and attention that’s placed on whether opioids should be prescribed or even removed from the market, we must put equal – if not greater – emphasis on enhancing access to non-opioid pain treatments. Not prescribing opioids doesn’t solve or eliminate the root issue and reason many people are on painkillers to begin with—chronic pain.
Fifty million Americans live in chronic, debilitating pain. For many, their pain …
We need to get real about chronic pain solutions
Health isn’t about luck — it’s about intentionality. But even if you’re doing and saying all the right things, you might not be any closer to your goals.
I know because I was there.
As a heart surgeon, I was very good at following the rules.
But I was still morbidly obese.
I followed the food pyramid to a T.
I exercised for the recommended amount of time each day.
I thought I was doing everything …
How to stay off my operating table
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