“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 …
To treat future COVID variants, we need more than vaccines [PODCAST]
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, …
Does your patient advocate have access to stop the medicalized death train?
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 …
If we better manage diabetes, can we better manage COVID?
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 …
I left medicine. Then I found meaning.
“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 …
I risked my career to save my life [PODCAST]
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, …
I gained weight and, with it, I gained life
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 …
Going mobile: an antidote for career regret
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 …
What does Will Smith’s facial expression at the Oscars tell us about our patients?
“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 …
How doctors can ensure their Latinx patients receive the best medical care
“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 …
Inside the race to conquer the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]
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…
Mental health issues and the African American community
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:
…
Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response
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 …
Why this medical school is doing it right
“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 …
Support desperate health care workers now, before your life counts on them [PODCAST]
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 …
An excerpt from Boundaries For Women Physicians: Love Your Life And Career In Medicine.
When I openly share my experiences with friends and colleagues, I am amazed by how many other women physicians tell me they have had similar ones. They admit to feeling so low that suicide or …
The key to loving our lives and our careers starts with us
“Peace is your home, integrity is the way to it, and everything you long for will meet you there.”
– Martha Beck
In 2017, the blueprint I had crafted for my life evaporated before my eyes.
Up until that point, I had systematically checked off the steps to becoming an Air Force oral and maxillofacial surgeon. I was in the Air Force, and I was in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) residency. I …
2 insight-provoking questions when starting over
“As a doctor, it is pretty humbling to reflect on the fairly minimal impact our health care system has on individuals’ overall health. One study I find particularly intriguing shows that socioeconomic factors (e.g., education and income), and physical environment (e.g., security and safety at home and reliable access …
How to close gaps in social determinants of health [PODCAST]
I don’t think I became a whole person until my mid-30s. When you spend the majority of your life in school, training, and building a practice, everything else goes on hold, or autopilot. There are very few things that I made conscious decisions about. Becoming a doctor was something I decided in childhood, and then it was a mission that I felt I needed to achieve. Every action in my …
A physician was bullied and fired by the bully
It is no surprise that burnout is surging along with this latest pandemic wave. Exhaustion—both physical and moral—is the ashen heart of burnout. Even as the flood of patients recedes in some areas, health care operations are hardly back to normal as many systems struggle with staffing shortages. In the hospital where I work, nurses have carried up to double their normal patient load, while the remaining phlebotomists on staff …
Those with the power to reform our system have little incentive to act
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