An excerpt from First Patients: The incredible true stories of pioneer patients.
Unfazed by the village doctors’ refusals, the parish deacon forged ahead. Dr. Andrew Bell–preacher, educator, and doctor, possessed the temper and energy of a combustion engine. Nothing would stop him from carrying out his plan to vaccinate the three …
Farmer Jesty’s bold experiment
This episode is sponsored by Athelas, the number one provider of remote patient monitoring.
“At the beginning of my time as a CMIO, I needed to remain clinical to build camaraderie with my colleagues. This proved essential as the health system was going through a transition to …
Physician informatics and the chief medical information officer [PODCAST]
Success in any project is based on using the right tool for the job. No tool would be more effective in the campaign against COVID than Covaxin, which has shown its value in India and other markets during recent months.
While mRNA vaccines were a promising option in the early stages of the pandemic, a study released by the CDC on January 19, 2022 showed that in two of the most …
Why is the world’s first universal coronavirus vaccine not in the FDA’s toolbox?
What’s the problem?
Anthony Fauci, MD, has said: “Virtually everybody is going to wind up getting exposed and likely get infected.” There’s one reason to avoid this scenario: long COVID.
If Omicron is sooner or later going to infect even just “more than 50 percent,” how many will get long COVID? We can’t know yet, the variant having appeared just three months ago. Hopefully, this …
An update on COVID’s long tail
Frustration.
If you’ve treated patients with PTSD, I’m guessing that both you and your patients have experienced frustration at numerous points along the treatment course. And it’s understandable – up until this point, the efficacy of PTSD treatments has been notoriously poor. The best options aimed to diminish the severity of symptoms with a combination of therapy and daily medications.
However, the …
What doctors need to know about psychedelic medicine
COVID has been with us for two years. I have written my reflection during the pandemic periodically to vent, share and disseminate information. But I have felt at a loss for words in the last few months. I am exhausted, emotionally drained and bereft.
Critical care docs are resilient. We train to serve the sickest patients. We are used to making decisions in split seconds. Lives depend on us, and we …
Reflections of a critical care doctor after 2 years of COVID
There is a lot of confusion and outright falsehoods about fasting. You can search the internet for clarity and end up more confused than when you started.
The fact is, fasting can be a very effective tool to improve your metabolic health, increase insulin sensitivity and help you lose weight. But, who should and shouldn’t use fasting for weight loss and how long to fast for effective weight loss are questions …
This episode is sponsored by Athelas, the number one provider of remote patient monitoring.
“Patients die. This is a tragic truism in the world of medicine. Usually, the patients who die are elderly. Patients die from diabetes and kidney disease, or from alcohol abuse and liver failure, …
Never underestimate the self-flagellation of the physician [PODCAST]
My gut churned, a burning rose into my chest as I read the email. It’s happening again repeated on a reel in my mind, followed by I need to leave this job. But I wasn’t quitting. I was triggered. It was years after I’d had the rug pulled out from under me at an institution where I’d spent decades working, but sometimes my nervous system sent me right back there.
I was a palliative …
A crushing blow in a workplace I loved
The first time I heard the phrase “shoulding all over yourself,” I laughed. As a gastroenterologist, I have a particular affinity for poop jokes. It might not be obvious when you read the phrase, but say it out loud, and you will hear it. I think the phrase also caught me off guard. I didn’t understand the significance of the word should. It just seemed like an ordinary word in …
Stop “shoulding” all over yourself
As 2021 passed into 2022, I was hoping new stories would emerge and dominate the medical landscape. So, I did a bit of crowdsourcing on social media and among colleagues. Here are five topics I’d like to read less about — if for no other reason than they’ve been discussed and vented ad nauseam with little likelihood of resolution unless words give way to meaningful action.
COVID-19
We’re rapidly approaching the three-year …
5 topics I don’t want to read about in 2022 (but I probably will anyway)
As I was preparing for my next medical mission, I began to think about the word “minister.” Obviously from a religious standpoint, it has certain connotations, one of which is “to serve”. When you are ministering to someone’s needs, you are serving them.
This caused me to think of my dear friend in Nepal, Fahad. Fahad is a young Muslim physician with whom I had the privilege of serving and working …
You are a servant with a servant heart
“The U.S. health care industry has large challenges that can be overcome if we remember why our systems and services exist. We are here to help patients, and we must obtain the needed staffing capacity to drive throughput so patients can receive the care they need. Our system will cease …
Health care’s goal is in peril [PODCAST]
Before I worked as a medical scribe, I didn’t realize how many mildly ill people visited the emergency department (ED). In my first few weeks, though, I learned that patients with minor complaints, such as sprains, cavities, rashes, and common cold symptoms, actually present to the ED quite often – often enough that the hospital where I worked had to dedicate an entire 12-bed wing to them. In most EDs, …
Solving the low-acuity emergency department problem
When I was in the fourth grade, I left school early one day unbeknownst to anyone. I misread my watch when the teacher was switching subjects, and she stepped out of the room for a minute. I thought it was 12:05 — time for lunch. I gathered my bag, walked out of the school, and stood by my mom’s car waiting for her to take me home for lunch. No …
The business of medicine creates a culture where doctors aren’t allowed to rest
Millions of Americans each week watch as fictional television matriarch Rebecca Pearson, in the NBC-TV series, “This Is Us,” struggles with frustrations of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and fear of an unknown health future. In the coming decades, millions more will experience this in real life.
Guardianship — or the care and legal control over another person’s life —may become one of the biggest issues of the next three …
How strong policies can improve guardianship
My niece and I look across the expanse of the second floor of Marshall’s Dranko Library as we take in the library’s Spring art exhibit: Creation in Confinement. We spot my moon drawings on black paper hanging on the opposite wall. As a new artist, accompanied by my niece artist, I excitedly read: Heavenly Moon and Worldy Skies, and how they are both done with pastels, colored pencils, and gel …
“Absolutely, there are times when you need to be face-to-face with your patient. Yet looking at the broader picture, COVID-19 has shown us that in many instances, we can perform at an optimal level while remote. In my experience, I’m often able to see more patients, and the quality of …
Can medicine transcend beyond the clinic walls? [PODCAST]
Can we agree to abandon the notion that COVID in children is “mild?” At least, as a medical community? We are taught to look at the data and guide our patients based on evidence. And the fact is, in a single week in January 2022, nearly 1 million pediatric cases were reported according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Since the detection of the omicron variant, COVID-19 …
COVID is not always mild in kids
Next time you are stuck in the waiting room of your doctor’s office, read this.
A few years ago, a video published by Cleveland Clinic made its way around the internet. It’s a tear-jerker. It’s called Empathy and can be found on YouTube. If you’ve never watched it, you should. It takes you on a walk-through of various parts of a hospital – the front entrance, hallways, elevator, …
Thoughts from a doctor who runs late
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