She was an ICU downgrade. Hospice care is what they told me. We added her name to our list, and my senior resident told me she was now my patient. I did not have a clear story. Sepsis? Complications? The ICU note was lengthy. Rounds were coming up, and I needed to see all my patients.
I went into her room. She was breathing slow. Oxygen saturation dipping. Unconscious. I asked …
“Call the family. Let them know she passed away.”
According to the WHO, 10 to 20 percent of COVID-19 patients experience lingering symptoms for several months following infection. What we know as long COVID is now termed post-COVID condition as of October 6. Post COVID-19 condition occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, usually three months from the onset of COVID-19, with symptoms that last for at least two months and cannot be …
A COVID long-hauler shares her story
“Is your health care organization reeling from a bad EHR implementation?
There have been rumblings from hospital leadership and congressional committees about the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospitals’ implementation of the Cerner Corporation electronic health record (EHR) replacing the VistA EHR. The $10 million EHR overhaul has been controversial since the staggered …
How to recover from a bad electronic health records implementation [PODCAST]
“HIV has been a blessing in my life.”
Lola was a 48-year-old woman living in Denver when I interviewed her in 2002 about her HIV-positive diagnosis. She said the diagnosis improved her life in important ways; she had received income and housing support, nutritional assistance, health insurance, medication assistance and primary and infectious disease health care based on that diagnosis.
She said her sense of life’s purpose had changed, her basic needs …
HIV/AIDS vaccine underscores need for better health access
Here — outside with nature — this was where I needed to be. It was raining cats and dogs, unlike the light drizzle earlier in the day.
Earlier in the day.
Earlier in the day, I could still see the casket go into the ground, adding finality to the affair as if death was not final enough. Goodbye, Baba. I was yet to cry. That was why I needed to be here. …
What my father taught me about language
“Scarcity has, in many ways, defined the COVID-19 experience in the U.S., from shortages in personal protective equipment to ICU ventilators and hospital capacity, to COVID test kits, to drugs like Remdesivir in hard-hit states. These shortages have added impetus and new dimensions to existing conversations around health care …
Is COVID a turning point for sustainability in hospital supply chains? [PODCAST]
Nothing like a tragic global pandemic to make everyone rethink their careers. This past year and a half have brought a lot of changes to the workplace. Many of us don’t want to go back to the way things were. According to a Pew Research Center survey from late 2020, of the 71 percent of employees working from home because of the pandemic, more than half, given …
Can medicine transcend beyond the clinic walls? I’d like to see us try.
In the past week alone, I have heard the following comments from pediatricians on the front lines: “I’ve been practicing for 21 years, and I’ve never seen things this bad”; “I have been called uncaring because my patient had to wait an hour. But I couldn’t tell my patient that I was running behind because of a suicidal patient”; “I’m considering leaving clinical medicine because it seems like there is …
The pediatricians are not alright
“Technology continues to evolve every day. In the near-term future, portable and easily deployable robots will allow surgeons all over the world to perform minimally invasive surgery in an increasing number of procedure types and become even more effective surgeons. To achieve our goal of having a future surgeon workforce …
Robotic surgery’s impact on training the next generation of surgeons [PODCAST]
Sometimes I really look forward to something new. An alien race arriving on earth would be a nice start. I think we could all use a change in the news cycle. Because I am very tired of thinking about, talking about, and especially treating COVID-19.
In all of my years of medical practice, I have never seen anything that taxed the system and caused so much mayhem, while simultaneously producing such …
Trapped in a cauldron of suffering, medical staff are weary
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, diamonds are formed deep within the earth, about one hundred miles down in the upper mantle. As you might imagine, it is quite hot in that part of the planet, and there is a tremendous amount of pressure bearing down in that location. The brutal combination of pressure and heat is what it takes to form diamond crystals.
Now, we can’t actually travel there or even …
Clinicians are diamonds in the rough
When medical historians write about the coronavirus pandemic, they’ll likely focus on the slow U.S. response and failures of leadership that led to a tragically high death toll. But that will be only part of the story.
From the wreckage and devastation will emerge something few contemporary observers would expect: a brighter future for American health care.
Five technologies, all previously underappreciated and underutilized, will help …
5 technologies that will transform medicine post-COVID
Guess what, everyone, I am a health care hero. I have been applauded by strangers. The Blue Angels flew over the hospital once in the pitch of COVID to salute us. I once sifted through a giant box of free chapsticks delivered to the hospital basement and grabbed one for my colleagues.
First of all, let me clarify: There is no such thing as a “hero.” It’s a social construct laypeople …
Being a health care hero means we get free ChapStick
“The problem with feeling like an imposter is thinking there’s something wrong with it.
I know this is different from any way you have thought about it, but humor me. What happens when we are offered an opportunity but we feel like an imposter?
We hide.
We overwork to compensate.
We look around at …
Stop resisting the imposter [PODCAST]
There are many reasons why you should seek a second opinion. A second opinion can help you:
One study conducted by …
How to overcome the roadblocks to getting a medical second opinion
Are you a woman, and your sanity has been questioned? Congratulations: You are now an activist.
There is such a thing as implicit bias in which we may not be aware of how our subconscious thoughts are affecting our conscious thoughts, opinions, or actions we have daily.
They manifest in all aspects of life. Whether you come to see me for a surgical consultation and when you walk into the room, you …
Women are still being “burned at the stake” in medicine
Thirty-five years ago, as a first-year student, I (DWS) wrote an article for my medical school’s student-run newspaper titled, “Sexism in Medical School.” The article highlighted three examples of sexism:
Sexism in medicine: Alive and well or a dying breed?
“Sufferers of diseases, particularly terrible ones like Alzheimer’s disease, and their loved ones need and deserve something better than science can deliver today. However, the scientific rigor of the clinical trials process where approval is only granted to drugs with a clear benefit in excess of risk needs to return.
Imagine …
Aduhelm and how money and politics supersede science [PODCAST]
Every day I read stories on the Internet and in the newspaper of the deaths of previously healthy people who died of COVID-19. They were good people, caring parents, working people who seemed like responsible citizens. What they all shared was not being immunized against COVID-19.
Maybe they were just “vaccine-hesitant” — one of those who wasn’t convinced of the value and safety of the vaccines. Maybe they didn’t understand the …
Why this physician is running out of sympathy
While I am commonly considered to be a friendly person, I never had very many friends. This was likely because I was too much. I am was too brown, too bookish, too loud, too assertive, just too much in every single category. It was hard for people to accept me, and I gave up early on in high school to make friends. I fell in where I could, my boyfriends …
Dirt masks and couples massages: My trauma bonds in medical school
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