The hands were heavily stained black, the skin with severe eczematous changes, yet she did not mention them. She was a young mother who had come to the clinic to have her six-month-old baby boy seen by the “doctors from America.” I was the team leader of a faith-based medical team serving in the outskirts of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania in Northwest Africa. We were there to provide primary …
May the needs of others become personal to you
Health care is now at a crossroads.
We’ve been hearing that phrase more often recently, but what does that mean? Being at a crossroads signifies that now is the time to make a decision that will affect the future in substantial and irrevocable ways.
Why is health care at a crossroads now? Americans are getting sicker as every year passes: “A 2007 study reported that seven chronic diseases have a total impact on …
Individualism vs. the common good: It is time for the pendulum to swing back
When it comes to eating disorders, there are plenty of incorrect assumptions. Let’s debunk three of them.
Myth: Eating disorders occur only in teenage, rich white girls.
This myth perpetuates stereotypes and can discourage people from getting treatment as they think they do not have an eating disorder as they do not fit the mold.
When people think of eating disorders, the image is often of an emaciated, white teenage girl in the …
3 eating disorder myths that health care professionals should debunk
“As the next COVID-19 variant hits our country, I feel a renewed sense of urgency. We need to move faster to invest in an infrastructure that protects our nation’s health care workforce before we lose more nurses, doctors, and other care team members. Every day they risk their own …
Stop health care’s great resignation [PODCAST]
Hear me out.
I am a first-generation, working female in my family. My mom was your typical 70s woman that stayed home with her kids and didn’t have, or even want, a career. Or so she said. The laws surrounding job discrimination and sex-based wage disparity of the mid and late 60s were still very fresh and, in many ways, working moms at that time, were not always held in the …
Please stop giving awards specifically to women in the workplace
Timothy Hoff is a professor of management and author of Searching for the Family Doctor: Primary Care on the Brink. Copyright 2022. Published with permission of Johns Hopkins University Press.
There is a fight going on for the soul of not only American health care but health care everywhere. Primary care and family medicine are at the center …
Family medicine and the fight for the soul of health care
The COVID-19 pandemic has made mental health conditions so pervasive that, in turn, the stigma that once accompanied seeking treatment has been minimized. As a result, public attention towards psychological health has skyrocketed. Other factors such as the collective loneliness brought on by continuous isolation have resulted in a newfound willingness for people to speak more freely about their emotional wellbeing without judgment or ridicule. Individuals feel much more compelled …
New strategies are needed for mental health treatment
“As we know, diabetes is a comorbidity that can cause more severe symptoms in COVID-positive patients. This knowledge, along with the sense that diabetes is overwhelming the entire body, can quickly deplete a patient’s reserve of positive energy. Despite all their best efforts, diabetes is a disease that can …
Diabetes impacts the whole body, but the foot can’t be forgotten [PODCAST]
Since the spring of 2020, COVID-19 has disrupted our social and economic order. One of the unraveling consequences of the historic changes wrought by the pandemic is the grossly uneven gendered and racialized nature of those shouldering the burden. Across all labor and occupational sectors, frontline workers and essential service providers have become sacrificial beasts of burden. They range from retail store employees, waiters, transit providers, farmworkers, meat packers, delivery …
We need improved policies, not platitudes, for racialized and gendered frontline workers
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.
“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”
– Verna Myers, diversity advocate
Fostering a culture of diversity and inclusivity in health care professional organizations is important for many reasons, and thus should be a priority. First and foremost, …
Acknowledging and mitigating unconscious bias in health care
Trigger warning: This article discusses suicidal ideation. Please use your best judgment in reading. I am sharing my journey with caution in hopes that my reflection will help others, and I invite you to continue shall you feel it’s a safe and appropriate time for you to join in this discussion.
I am no stranger to existential crises. The moments where I realize my mortality and have a mild panic about …
Contemplating death taught me how to live
“Setting boundaries can look like setting a time limit for patient appointments, availability for email responses, the number of shifts worked this month. You can set boundaries by saying ‘no’ to low compensation, setting a time limit on conversations with friends, setting a limit on our after-hours availability for work-related …
Why boundaries should be part of your 2022 physician goals [PODCAST]
It starts with an invocation. A prayer. A plea for redemption. This is how the Sabbath Town Halls, Sufi Naqshbandi, and Bahá’í community gatherings begin and end.
Around the world, communities of faith are much more than a sanctuary. They provide a space for healing and hope. As religious exemptions, hesitation, and resistance for vaccinations and public health policies have taken on a new fervor, the critical role of faith-based institutions in supporting …
How faith-based dialogue can support vaccine acceptance
“Gimme five,” the TV doctor said to his little patient as he entered the exam room. As I watched this scene in an evening TV program, I was reminded of one of my pediatric practice’s most gratifying stories, which happened over 20 years ago.
Before the days of cellphones, the internet, and social media, I had become the local expert on support groups. After realizing how what I learned from support …
Support groups are life-changing for many patients
Each day I am inundated with reminders of why doctors are leaving clinical practice. My peers are exhausted by pandemic patients and pandemic controversies. They feel unappreciated and overworked doing what was originally their passion. Many feel they are part of an industrial machine, turning out widgets in the form of patient visits or procedures. They want to leave. Should I? Wouldn’t it be easier to be a dog-walker, park …
A neurosurgeon finds another reason to stay in clinical practice
“Remember the things that we’ve discussed as the majority of people are broke. And just because your friends are showing off the ‘stuff’ things they buy doesn’t mean they can actually afford them.
Once you realize that everybody in the world is after your money, the quicker you know how …
How not to be a broke doctor [PODCAST]
Someone once described war as: “Long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.”
Similar to flying: “Hours and hours of sheer boredom punctuated by moments of stark panic.”
My life is like that: Fairly mundane, routine and predictable — until it isn’t.
Near where I work is a sandwich shop. I have walked to it, but usually, under some time constraint, I drive. I have taken to getting a large sandwich, …
Finding joy in my forgetfulness
I started planning my escape in late 2020. I would find a way to quit health care, to cease being a practicing physician altogether. Living the life of a doctor-mom, I felt consumed with daily obligations and duties.
Guilt plagued me for feeling burdened by this life, for feeling it was a monotonous prison. The guilt soon transformed to anger. I was not showing up to my life in a meaningful …
Cities and urban environments tend to have large gaps in health care accessibility and correspondent health care disparities. Despite the existence of localized public health infrastructure, such infrastructure tends to be fragmented and cannot fully encompass the level of nuance within its patient population as a result. As such, health care inequities are cyclically perpetuated in part through discontinuous health systems. Smarter, patient-centric approaches are needed to move the needle …
Inhaler nonadherence and social determinants of health
“There’s a new best practice emerging, one that lets you deliver a high standard of care today but that well-prepares you for a shift to value. We’ve been talking about it throughout this article series in terms of doing more with less and making the system work for you: it’s …
Opportunities from the coding changes in primary care [PODCAST]
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