COVID transmission should not be a touchy subject

Conditions and Diseases
September 19, 2020

Our understanding of COVID-19 is still evolving, but after observing millions of cases worldwide over the last nine months, we can speak to transmission patterns with a modicum of confidence.  SARS-CoV-2 is spread primarily through the air.  Contact with contaminated surfaces, by comparison, plays a minuscule role in transmission.  Why, then, has every surface with the slightest prospect for human contact become subject to “enhanced cleaning?”

Yes, there are studies reporting …

Read more…

COVID transmission should not be a touchy subject

10 challenges faced by those with chronic pain and illness

Patient
September 19, 2020

I’m writing this piece partly to celebrate the release of my new book, How to Be Sick: Your Pocket Companion, and partly, as always, to try and help readers. I thought I would share the challenges that the book covers, adding some comments as I go. Many of the challenges turn out to apply to the restricted lives all of us are leading in light of …

Read more…

10 challenges faced by those with chronic pain and illness

Physician suicide awareness: glimmers of hope for the future

Physician
September 19, 2020

National Physician Suicide Awareness Day was September 17, 2020.  Honestly, I hate that this day needs to exist.  Prior to COVID, physicians had the highest suicide rate of any profession, and we clearly needed to be having conversations about how we improve care for physicians.  Since COVID, the stress placed on physicians has increased exponentially.  In hotspots, we’ve felt overwhelmed and demoralized.  In the downtime, we’ve had to worry about …

Read more…

Physician suicide awareness: glimmers of hope for the future

Bridging the COVID-19 health recommendations divide [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 18, 2020
YouTube video

“Misinformation about COVID-19, if propagated, can be deadly. The stakes are high. Physicians need to have a voice in this discussion and work towards impacting policy in a positive way. Physician-led groups such as IMPACT aim to advocate for evidence-based solutions for the protection of communities and serve an advisory role to those in charge of public policies. As physicians, our …

Read more…

Bridging the COVID-19 health recommendations divide [PODCAST]

Designing your life and career in medicine

Physician
September 18, 2020

The best part of my job is interviewing residents and watching as gears begin to turn in their minds when I ask:

  • What made you decide that you wanted to be a doctor?
  • What is your purpose in life?
  • What legacy are you creating?
  • Which position in your field will truly fulfill you?
  • What type of community do you seek in order to meet your wants and needs?
  • Are you …

    Read more…

Designing your life and career in medicine

If you don’t want to wear a mask, come to work with me

Physician
September 18, 2020

I am an emergency medicine physician in an inner-city emergency department, and I would like to start by stating a simple truth: coronavirus is not going away any time soon.  Cases are climbing in practically every state and show no signs of slowing down. From my personal perspective, things are getting worse. Every day I am treating more and more patients who are ill with COVID-19 …

Read more…

If you don’t want to wear a mask, come to work with me

This is what a successful health care system looks like

Health Policy
September 18, 2020

If a core goal of our nation is to have the healthiest population possible, then we need to rethink, regroup, and restore our commitment to health practices and processes that are aligned with this mission. We are currently investing our precious social and economic capital into a health care system that is wildly inefficient, too expensive, confusing, and failing most of us. As costs continue to spiral upward, the patient …

Read more…

This is what a successful health care system looks like

A welcome to new residents

Physician
September 18, 2020

Twenty-five years have passed since I finished my residency, and a lot has changed. Back then, we hand wrote all our notes, and the only time we looked at a computer screen was to obtain laboratory results. Now, residents spend more time in front of a computer screen than at the bedside.

I contend that electronic health records (EHR) are an obstacle to learning the art and practice of medicine during …

Read more…

A welcome to new residents

An EMR frustration that is still torturing us

Health Technology
September 18, 2020

I have written, or more accurately ranted, about electronic medical records (EMR) systems throughout this blog. While the systems have clearly improved since their mandatory introduction into the medical universe, they have still not delivered on many of their promises.

Of course, EMR has brought tremendous advantages to the medical profession, and we are all grateful for the technology. But this progress has exacted a cost. Many of them are clumsy …

Read more…

An EMR frustration that is still torturing us

Patients without traditional support systems, and the doctors who stereotype them [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 17, 2020
YouTube video

“When doctors ignore the evidence showing that a support system doesn’t have to be traditional in order to be effective, that’s not a medical judgment. It’s a personal prejudice that puts singles at serious risk.

Classifying patients as married or unmarried when studying the effects of social support undoubtedly makes research easier, with groups determined by a simplistic either-or. But since social …

Read more…

Patients without traditional support systems, and the doctors who stereotype them [PODCAST]

Care is no longer personal. Care is political.

Health Policy
September 17, 2020

Care.

I do not believe we have ever heard more about care at a presidential nominating convention than in this year’s Democrat convention. “Patriotism,” “justice,” “bravery,” “strength”?  For sure.  But “care”? Scarcely a word. Yet we now hear that the role of the president is to “care about and for the people” he governs.

Socrates spoke of the task of a ruler to care for his subjects as the shepherd who cares …

Read more…

Care is no longer personal. Care is political.

Caring for other physicians as patients

Physician
September 17, 2020

My favorite patients were the older physicians who came to me as patients. I was humbled, grateful, and awed by each of them. For some reason, I had quite a few physicians as patients, and caring for this group is interesting. It was not until I got old enough and had issues needing a doctor for myself that I learned how hard it is to walk both sides of that …

Read more…

Caring for other physicians as patients

We need leaders who can channel the intrinsic motivation Americans have to help those around them

Conditions and Diseases
September 17, 2020

In the hospital, hand washing is critical. Studies have repeatedly shown that handwashing reduces hospital-acquired-infections with impressive magnitude. But how do you motivate hospital workers to wash their hands? In a study, professors Adam Grant and David Hoffman demonstrated that the phrase “Hand hygiene prevents patients from catching diseases,” increased handwashing over the alternate phrase, “Hand hygiene prevents you from catching diseases.” An appeal to altruism was more effective …

Read more…

We need leaders who can channel the intrinsic motivation Americans have to help those around them

ADVERTISEMENT

Calling out sexism: 10 tips for speaking out

Physician
September 17, 2020

The number of women going into medical school has risen to top the number of men admitted. Harvard has its first Black woman student body president. I am seeing more and more women sharing their experiences and uplifting other women in my physician coaching groups.

“It’s like, we’re not going to take this anymore,” said Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, referring to sexist comments made by a colleague in Congress. You have to admire …

Read more…

Calling out sexism: 10 tips for speaking out

Is now the time for single payer? [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 16, 2020
YouTube video

“Single payer is the solution. And the time for it is now.

A single-payer system would guarantee health care coverage immediately to every American. So whether a loved one gets sick from COVID, has a heart attack, or gets in a car accident, she will receive the care she needs without it causing financial hardship.

A single-payer system will eliminate employer health insurance …

Read more…

Is now the time for single payer? [PODCAST]

Navigating the river of health

Conditions and Diseases
September 16, 2020

Optimal results are achieved when the patient takes an active role in the wellness plan. This is a phrase published in a brochure describing the details of my work. As a specialist in neuromusculoskeletal medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMT), patients often present with pain, which is usually multifactorial in nature. Given that the majority of evaluations result in the use of osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) to address mechanical dysfunction, there …

Read more…

Navigating the river of health

Food safety and the neglect of the unpeeled potato

Conditions and Diseases
September 16, 2020

Judging from the shortage of canning jars and lids in grocery stores recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred fresh interest in home canning (a potentially dangerous practice that has declined since its peak in 1943); and because the public expects doctors to know everything about health, it may be educational for physicians to consider the tragic case of the unpeeled potato.

I recently read a Facebook post in a …

Read more…

Food safety and the neglect of the unpeeled potato

The flu shot is more important this year than ever

Conditions and Diseases
September 16, 2020

In the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic, getting a flu shot has never been more important.

Many people are staying indoors, wearing a mask, and washing their hands frequently. In this environment, patients ask me, “With all this social distancing, do I really need a flu shot this year?” The answer is unequivocally, “Yes!” Even the safest practices do not guarantee that a person won’t catch the flu or the coronavirus. …

Read more…

The flu shot is more important this year than ever

Science and faith in the time of COVID-19

Physician
September 16, 2020

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a glaring trend has emerged, one that has long helped forge the American religious cultural landscape, but has now blossomed in full force, particularly within many Christian fundamentalist circles. As a physician who is also an evangelical Christian, I constantly live with the tension of balancing the practice of my faith and the results of sound scientific investigation with the opinions of patients and others within …

Read more…

Science and faith in the time of COVID-19

Patients alone cannot combat high health care prices

Health Policy
September 16, 2020

After three months of physical therapy, her doctor told her that it was time to get an MRI. She had already paid off her annual deductible, meaning the imaging test would “only” cost her the $150 co-pay. An imaging center near where she worked charged $1,500 for the test. Just two miles away, another facility would have just charged only $900 for the same test. She arranged to go to …

Read more…

Patients alone cannot combat high health care prices

1562
pages