What to consider when choosing an online mental health provider

Conditions and Diseases
September 12, 2020

The stresses of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are taking a significant toll on not only physical health but also mental health and wellbeing. A recent study published on JAMA Network Open found that symptoms of depression were three times more prevalent among the U.S. adults surveyed during the pandemic than before it. Those with lower income, less money in savings, and exposure to more sources of …

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What to consider when choosing an online mental health provider

Trained immunity in the fight against COVID

Conditions and Diseases
September 12, 2020

It is probably a very good friend right now.

COVID-19 vaccine trials are underway in an unprecedented fashion.  But lately, questions about the integrity of Operation Warp Speed have started to linger.  A vaccine availability deadline prior to phase 3 data has not helped, and many think that immunity, while feasible, is still distant.

While awaiting proof of vaccine reliance, Read more…

Trained immunity in the fight against COVID

What is anti-racist medical education?

Medical Education
September 12, 2020

The current socio-political environment in the U.S. and worldwide has brought much-needed attention and heightened awareness to the plights of minoritized groups, especially Black and African-American communities.

Police brutality, structural violence, overt racism, and discrimination are only a few examples prompting new activism. Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, they have amplified health inequities and disparities that have pervasively been threatening communities of color.

As a response, academic medicine leaders, equity scholars, and …

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What is anti-racist medical education?

Sunscreens: The balancing act between safety and cancer prevention

Conditions and Diseases
September 12, 2020

That’s the question that will be on the minds of many as the Food and Drug Administration releases a second study on the absorption of sunscreens. The reality is that answering the “safe” question is becoming more complicated—and more important as well, given the fact that so many of us use sunscreens as part of our own sun safety efforts, while others (me included) use sunscreen as part of our daily …

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Sunscreens: The balancing act between safety and cancer prevention

COVID-19 reveals gaping holes in locum tenens contracts [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 11, 2020
YouTube video

“I called the locum agency in the morning to air my concerns. To their credit, they admitted that the COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event for which no one could have planned. They had developed a fund through which they could support health workers in need. If I took ill, I would have to call them for support. My health care …

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COVID-19 reveals gaping holes in locum tenens contracts [PODCAST]

I cured my patient, but what was his diagnosis?

Physician
September 11, 2020

He canceled his follow-up appointment because he was feeling fine. He didn’t see the point in wasting a Saturday to come to my clinic when he had lawns to mow and chores to do.

Less than two weeks before that, he was sitting on the exam table in my office, again and again nodding off, waking up surprised every time his wife prodded him. The stack of printouts from the emergency …

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I cured my patient, but what was his diagnosis?

Physicians work in a culture of fear-driven productivity

Physician
September 11, 2020

As we had our all agency meeting at work the other day, involving mental health employees from all three of our sites and from all types of job descriptions, I was struck by something that came up as we discussed issues of cultural diversity. We had had a good presentation on diversity and how it was germane to the people that we serve everyday. Then, a few folks made observations …

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Physicians work in a culture of fear-driven productivity

What do you picture when you think of health care?

Physician
September 11, 2020

What do you picture when you think of health care? How different is that from your vision of health? Is it possible to connect these two mental images? Can they be merged directly or at by way of a bridge?

When I envision health, I see images of vitality, vibrant smiles, glowing skin, and strong bodies. When I sense health, I feel peaceful spirits, connected hearts, kind actions.  When I witness health, …

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What do you picture when you think of health care?

The failure of the U.S. government’s physicians to do good, avoid harm, and tell the truth

Conditions and Diseases
September 11, 2020

Medicine is a moral pursuit. Physicians inherit the tools of medicine not only through their training, but also by taking an oath to do good, avoid harm, and tell the truth. Hippocrates, the father of medical ethics, realized that the tools he possessed as a physician could be used for either good or for harm. Even today, the modern students of Hippocrates promise that they will …

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The failure of the U.S. government’s physicians to do good, avoid harm, and tell the truth

Health care should be apolitical, but it isn’t [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 10, 2020
YouTube video

“COVID-19 is a tragedy that could have easily been prevented if our leaders cared more about the well-being of their citizens instead of economies, stock markets, and their political campaigns. To all those arguing about how the economy is more important, I ask, how will sick and dead people contribute to an economy? How will sick and dead health care workers …

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Health care should be apolitical, but it isn’t [PODCAST]

When we coach, we change the lives of our children

Physician
September 10, 2020

For the past six months, I’ve spent my free time becoming a certified life coach. I’m a hospitalist, but a little more than a year ago, I was introduced to life coaching. I love the changes it has produced in my life – particularly how it’s changed me as a mother. Coaching helps me to be more present for my family and more emotionally available for my kids. It’s changed …

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When we coach, we change the lives of our children

It’s time to go all in on climate action

Health Policy
September 10, 2020

I can’t sleep, or maybe it’s that I got up too early. It’s 3 a.m. and a good 1 to 2 hours before I usually get up. California is literally burning. We have no rain in sight. Colorado is burning as well, although they may have snow soon. Do you remember last year when Australia was up in flames and koalas were dying? Did you wonder what the Australians were …

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It’s time to go all in on climate action

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So you want to be a doctor? Here are 10 myths debunked.

Physician
September 10, 2020

I’m glad you’re looking at a career in medicine. I hope you will be happy with your choice forever. To help you out, these are a few myths I wish somebody told me about when I was in your shoes.

1. You’ll be rich. You likely won’t. After two decades or so of med school and residency, you’ll be paying back student loans with exorbitant interests for a few more decades …

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So you want to be a doctor? Here are 10 myths debunked.

What is an informed decision in the context of an addiction?

Conditions and Diseases
September 10, 2020

Ironically, his fingers looked like cigarette butts. They were black and chalky at the tips and then tan through his knuckles to his hands. A couple was capped by long yellow fingernails, shooting out like stalks of hay, bending in different directions.

A few other fingertips had already fallen off, leaving behind stumps he could barely flex or wave.

I sat down and asked what he knew about his disease.

“I’ve Googled it,” …

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What is an informed decision in the context of an addiction?

Anesthesia touches nearly every area of medicine [PODCAST]

Podcast
September 9, 2020
YouTube video

“I suppose those of us between zero and ninety-three are blessed in our own way as well. We are here, swirling in a jumble of the inconsequential and consequential. We’ve enjoyed some of the world’s beauty and reserve the potential to experience more. Some of us will have longer than others, but perhaps we should focus on savoring rather than quantitating …

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Anesthesia touches nearly every area of medicine [PODCAST]

Reflecting on the challenges of patient advocacy

Patient
September 9, 2020

The third week of September is Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week: a time to fundraise, light up buildings in green, and hold events that highlight mitochondrial disease research and awareness.

My family has never heard of mitochondrial disease until 2017, when our newborn daughter, Miriam, tragically died from it at seven weeks old. Our family felt a profound sense of loss and tried out best to participate in awareness and fundraising efforts …

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Reflecting on the challenges of patient advocacy

It only takes a moment of laughter to alleviate a crappy situation

Conditions and Diseases
September 9, 2020

One day recently, while working as a nursing assistant, I heard a shrill, gravely cry for help pierce the air in the hallway of the long-term memory care facility where I work. I sprinted to the room where the pleading call was coming from, and in the two seconds it took to reach the room, a million different worst-case scenarios passed through my mind. Broken hip, pool of …

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It only takes a moment of laughter to alleviate a crappy situation

A CEO with the keys to the kingdom. And the pharmacy.

Conditions and Diseases
September 9, 2020

1986. I graduated from LPN to RN. And I was immediately offered a new job. Manager of a six-bed ER.

This hospital had three surgical suites — 50 inpatient beds and 2 L&D suites. This was a private Catholic hospital run by the nuns. The computer system was new and a foreign object.

Sister Ursula* (name changed) of medical records was so overwhelmed by the volume of paper charts that she hid …

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A CEO with the keys to the kingdom. And the pharmacy.

How do you know which doctors are essential?

Physician
September 9, 2020

This is a time of change and uncertainty in medicine. Being a resident right now during the pandemic of 2020 is even more unpredictable, especially in a field that is not necessarily directly on the frontlines, so to speak. Two years ago, I was choosing between psychiatry and emergency medicine after a long-standing interest in the latter, having no idea that during my training, we would experience a crisis of …

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How do you know which doctors are essential?

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