“Just as Simone Biles has her detractors, there will always be physicians unable to empathize with their mentally ill colleagues, believing psychological struggles are a constant state of being human. But if taking care of oneself means temporarily leaving the workforce to receive professional treatment, then so be it. Physicians …
If Simone Biles were a doctor she would be vilified, not praised [PODCAST]
We’ve all been told by a well-meaning friend, family member, or therapist, “You can’t care for others unless you care for yourself first.” Put your oxygen mask on first, blah blah. But in medical training, we repeatedly demonstrate that, unfortunately, you can provide great care for patients while neglecting yourself. Medicine rewards self-sacrifice and hard work, often at the cost of physician happiness or wholeness.
Maybe it starts in undergraduate school, …
Medicine rewards self-sacrifice often at the cost of physician happiness
Despite the bright pink walls of its exterior, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility stands inconspicuously, set back along a stretch of a frequently traveled road. We had come to meet Carla (identifying information changed), a detainee seeking asylum whose lawyer had requested a medical evaluation from our medical student-run human rights clinic. The immigration officer peered closely at our letter granting entrance and balked at the medical equipment …
Asylum seekers: a snapshot from an American physician’s lens
“According to AAMC, the median debt for medical students in 2019 was $200,000. Unfortunately, fundraising for scholarships was difficult for many organizations due to the pandemic despite more students seeking out scholarships. Luckily, more anonymous generous donors have helped the next generations of physicians in recent years, but what happens …
Scholarship tips for medical school [PODCAST]
Creative photography
Year after year, new medications find their way into the market, adding to the abundant and colorful world of pharmaceuticals.
Medications play a dual role in our lives, as they represent wellness and illness concomitantly. I am primarily fascinated by the human love-hate relationship with medicine in the form of dependency and liberation, desire and distaste, and hope and despair. On one …
The abundant and colorful world of pharmaceuticals
Award-winning actress Christina Applegate revealed on social media that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). “It’s been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going,” wrote Applegate in a tweet.
Multiple sclerosis is a neurological autoimmune disease that has puzzled patients and health care providers for decades. The disease was first described by the French physician Charcot in the 1800s in the original report “sclerose …
Christina Applegate reveals multiple sclerosis diagnosis
“Our country is facing a voting crisis with multiple layers: chronically low overall voter participation, even lower voter participation among physicians and — to add insult to injury — an increasing number of laws that make voting more difficult, especially for those with chronic health conditions. Voter registration in health …
Doctors: You can increase voting in the U.S. [PODCAST]
I’m confused and disillusioned. When we were in the throes of the COVID pandemic at the beginning of this year, the talk revolved around when life-saving vaccines would become available for the general public. Thankfully, beginning during the first quarter of this year and continuing through present times, the COVID vaccine is being administered to all who wish to secure it. But unfortunately, in many states across our country, some …
The vaccine is not the enemy. COVID is.
“Currently working in a COVID ICU in a tertiary center in Kathmandu, I have experienced how difficult it is for the health system to manage the patient load. A month ago, ICU beds were fully occupied, ventilator alarms would set off time and again, indicating low flow as the hospitals …
Telemedicine in Nepal during COVID-19 [PODCAST]
In 2009, I came across the white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto describing a digital currency based on a peer-to-peer network, completely independent of central banks, autonomous, decentralized, digital, and would give access to finance and banking to the masses.
This “magical internet money,” as it was described at the time, would come to be known as Bitcoin.
The reason that this paper was so revolutionary was that it was prescient of …
Should physicians invest in cryptocurrency?
U.S. COVID deaths have surpassed U.S. war deaths from World War II, Vietnam, and Korea. The unvaccinated are a fifth column that has ushered in a wave of nasty COVID variant infections in the United States, with their attendant deaths, costs, and disruptions to society. We need to stop debating the tone in which we address the unvaccinated and label their sabotage for what it is. We need to start …
The fifth column brings a fifth wave
I’m currently reading What Happened to You by Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, and being reminded that I react rather than respond when I am in a trauma activation. When that happens, I don’t have access to higher cortical functions like critical thinking. And as Gabor Mate, MD, would say, I don’t respond to what’s happening; I respond to my perceptions of what’s happening. And actually, I …
How a physician learned to stop reacting to overnight calls
“Until recently, voice changes from menopause and aging have been almost unmentionable. If a woman talked about her challenges, especially if she was a professional singer, it could have meant decreased opportunities and even the end of her career. Most women have stayed silent, coping as best as they can, …
Menopause changes women’s singing voices [PODCAST]
On April 5, 2021, the federal government mandated that health care providers provide free electronic access to patients’ clinical notes, as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. This includes 8 types of notes spanning outpatient and inpatient arenas. If providers/organizations do not comply with this mandate, they will be subject to fines due to “information blocking.”
This was borne from the OpenNotes movement – which declares itself to promote and …
How medical notes will change if patients get to see them
First, you turn off your phone. You can’t have any interruptions. As you walk to your patient’s room where the family is waiting for you, pick up a box of tissues and put it in your back pocket. Don’t hold it in your hand as you meet them. It’ll betray their new reality.
When you enter the room, you introduce yourself to everyone as the doctor. You find a seat to …
How to tell someone their loved one died
“We can’t sit in the stands – we have to get messy and play on the field.”
The casual observer, the season ticket holder, the player, and the coach have very different levels of knowledge, skill, and passion for a professional sport. The casual observer may be confused, not even understanding the fundamentals of the game. The season ticket holder likely has some experience with the sport, possibly playing as a …
Getting messy in the game of health care
“A rough career transition in 2019 followed by the pandemic highlighted how I was still financially tethered to my job — after 10 years of practicing as a subspecialty trained radiologist, saving, maxing out my retirement accounts, and investing in the stock market and in real estate. Looking around, I …
How doctors think about financial independence is dead wrong [PODCAST]
Woodworking / Illustration
The problem with the act of taking medications is that it’s so mundane that we don’t see any problem with it.
This machine-cut, flat, unemotional, same-size-fits-all object that we defencelessly welcome in our very private body has a role. Medications occupy our existence by interlocking with our cells and taking control of our body, fighting, provoking, sedating, and changing the music …
The ritual of taking medications: the pill wheel
But seriously, who needs scientists? It’s not like we listen to researchers or pay attention to the warnings. The world is burning up with record ground-breaking temperatures. These so-called scientists predicted these warnings decades ago, with great details. Who do they think they are? They got lucky! They are fear mongers and not to be believed. Look at the fake media! Landslides, earthquakes, fires, flooding, drought, and the list goes …
Who needs scientists? It’s not like we listen to them anyway.
“With this single word, mom had now completely altered her willingness to see the deep suffering of her child. This single word watered all of this child’s five years of depression, crippling anxiety, history full of ACEs, and very significant struggle down to a simple, selfish, flippant choice.
Furthermore, mom …
How one word may have harmed my patient [PODCAST]
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