“I am grateful that I work in a small rural hospital that is like a family. I am grateful that my organization has done everything in its power to protect us… but I hope we can do better. I hope medical workers have enough left within them to give their all …
Life in a rural emergency department during COVID [PODCAST]
Every week, I see a teen with depression and/or anxiety. Sometimes that teen is mine.
And while I can certainly opine over the lack of mental health resources for our children and teens — you have to be a certain age, you have to have certain insurances, if you’re uninsured or underinsured, you can see a community health professional but only for eight sessions — what I really get frustrated with …
When the teen with depression and anxiety is yours
Primary care physicians already have a lot of competition from retail clinics, urgent care clinics and telehealth services that cater to consumers. Now they’re facing a new threat from the “virtual primary care plans” that insurance companies have launched recently. These are health plans that prioritize virtual visits with doctors hired by telehealth services over in-person visits to primary care doctors.
For years, some insurance companies have been offering online urgent …
PCPs could counter virtual plans by increasing telehealth visits
The differential diagnosis is a cornerstone of the profession of medicine which epitomizes physicians’ critical thinking skills. It is not an antiquated tradition of by-gone eras. The practice of medicine has been positively impacted in the past century by revolutionary scientific advancements, standardization of medical education, and transformative societal changes. Its overlap has provoked some unfavorable changes in the practice of medicine with the business of health care. The differential …
An ode to the differential diagnosis
“Let’s meet in the middle and listen to what’s happening in communities. All across U.S. communities, there are pockets of promise and programs focused on family interventions, behavior change, and health disparities, but there are many obstacles to true change. Currently, the work relies on visionary champions within a community, but …
Weight stigma in children and teens [PODCAST]
Whether you like her or not, Meghan is speaking openly about suicide. For that, I am thankful.
In her interview with Oprah, The Duchess of Sussex shared her suicidal thoughts—and how she was obstructed from mental health care, told to “tough it out” and keep smiling. The Duchess needed a doctor. Yet doctors are reported to have the Read more…
Duchess vs. doctor: Why Meghan Markle’s mental health matters to me
One year ago, on March 14, I worked my first of many COVID shifts as a hospitalist at a large academic teaching institution in Chicago. In the beginning, I think most of us on the front lines felt a strange combination of duty, fear, and exhilaration. There was this novel virus, the world was shutting down because of it, and while the rest of society was stocking up on toilet …
Reflections on a year of COVID
Three years ago, I met Dr. Boyce Fish*, the ER physician revived after suicide. I also met Rachel Dawson, wife of Dr. Chris Dawson who killed himself and his two children.
We all sat in red ballroom chairs in a room with nothing in it, but it felt full. All the lights were dim, and I was privy to the darkest innermost thoughts …
Physician suicide: We need safe spaces to talk about it
“When you’re applying to medical school, it’s remarkable how much four years or more of intense work can come down to one single day. The medical school interview is high stakes: studies have found that interview performance is the most important factor in admissions decisions.
While your MCAT score and your GPA …
Medical school interview secrets [PODCAST]
“Come to triage right now, and wear your N95. A patient going straight to OR and she’s having fever and chills.”
I was summoned to the triage area of labor and delivery for a patient brought in from the ultrasound clinic and found to have absent fetal heart tones. One of my colleagues started an IV, and I ran to the OR to set up for emergency general anesthesia. The patient …
One year into the COVID-19 pandemic
Keto, Mediterranean, Paleo, intermittent fasting. How many times have you or your patients been sucked into the latest diet trend only to crash and burn just a few weeks later? I have tried every diet in the books and every single time, draw the same conclusion: extreme dietary restrictions are not sustainable. So many of us lose weight with the newest trending diet only to gain it back months later …
Reimagining diet: Why cheating brings the win
“Despite forces not within our control, namely the thoughts and actions of others, headway has been made in my local practice area: the decline in mortality, the advances in clinical knowledge about the pathophysiology, more efficient testing, more PPE, an uprooting and great revealing of the need for prioritization of health …
A physician deals with uncertainty during the pandemic [PODCAST]
Emily Watters is a physician who shares how the mRNA COVID vaccines — known as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — work. (Click to enlarge.)
The other option, the single-dose vaccine created by Johnson & Johnson, is explained here (click to enlarge):
Cartoons that explain how the COVID vaccines work
Everyone knows about the doctor car. Doctors know about it. Non-doctors know about it. Other than the doctor house, it is the symbol of medicinal consumerism.
But today, my friends, I am going to completely debunk the doctor car myth!
What is the doctor car myth?
This car myth states that a doctor must have a fancy car to legitimize herself or himself as a physician.
To drive a fancy car is to show that …
Debunking the myth of the doctor car
“At the start of the pandemic when hospitals were overrun, testing and PPE were scarce, and unknowns about COVID-19 transmission abound, such restrictions were reasonable, perhaps even essential. But we have made progress since then; most hospitals test most if not all admitted patients for COVID-19; most Americans own a mask, …
End the draconian hospital visitation policies during COVID-19 [PODCAST]
Vax’n 8, a group of physicians from Northern California working in a variety of specialties in medicine, are proud to present “My Shot!”, a song adapted from the hit Broadway show Hamilton.
“My Shot” addresses the social, scientific, and political issues currently affecting the decision to receive the vaccine against the virus SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19.
While we completely respect everyone’s freedom of choice, we as a group of physicians support …
My Shot! A COVID vaccine adaptation
“A scientific achievement can never have success on its own unless if it has acceptance in the social context by the masses. I think that the concerns brought forward by the vaccine-doubters cannot be dismissed as ignorance, and it is hard to convince people. As a physician, it is not uncommon that I see a patient become indecisive and anxious about various treatment decisions facing them. I don’t …
What this physician says to vaccine-doubters [PODCAST]
Acute COVID-19 infection ranges from no symptoms (asymptomatic) to life-threatening. What about long COVID (the symptoms occurring more than three weeks after infection, also known as post-acute COVID syndrome)? Could there be thousands of people with “mild” long COVID who don’t know it? Could there be legions of people with new low-energy levels being misdiagnosed as depressed, stressed, having a sleep disorder, or being labeled “lazy”? The inability to tolerate …
Could a glass of wine diagnose long COVID?
“The rapid change-over to telemedicine in March of 2020 brought predictable challenges to health care at large and substance use disorder treatment in particular: patients without the skill set to navigate HIPAA-compliant apps, phones with too little smarts to handle video conferencing, lack of connectivity in rural and economically depressed …
Addiction medicine during COVID-19 [PODCAST]
One of the best feelings medical students must have is the day they match into a residency training program. This day will end an era and starts another. During those few months before July 1st, all medical students go through this phase of mental transitioning from the medical student to the resident. This transitioning process varies in its depth and complexity depending on each student and their environment. Some take …
Congratulations, you matched! Now what?
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