Unethical policy: Resuming federal lethal injections during a global pandemic

Health Policy
July 21, 2020

The United States government has resumed capital punishment after a 17-year hiatus. Even setting aside questions of whether the death penalty is legal, ethical, or humane, the renewal of the practice of lethal injection poses some grave concerns, particularly in the context of the global pandemic. According to Department of Justice documents, the government is using the drug pentobarbital to carry out the executions. The government’s …

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Unethical policy: Resuming federal lethal injections during a global pandemic

Discrimination kills: What to do about implicit bias training

Physician
July 21, 2020

An African American female had been to the hospital three times in the last week for severe abdominal pain. Yelling for pain medication, she returned with the same complaint. The abdominal imaging two weeks ago was normal, and doctors had labeled her a “drug seeker.” Now, after a few hours, the physician reluctantly ordered another abdominal scan that showed ischemic colitis, a serious illness. She was taken for emergency surgery …

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Discrimination kills: What to do about implicit bias training

Be an upstander and not a bystander

Physician
July 21, 2020

I am a female immigrant gastroenterologist from Pakistan, practicing in the city of Minneapolis. Having lived in this country for 22 years and married to a white man, I generally feel that I fit in pretty well. A couple of weeks ago at work, I walked into a procedure room and introduced myself to a 66-year-old white male from St. Cloud that I was about to do a procedure on. …

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Be an upstander and not a bystander

Medicine is real, tangible, and helps people. Don’t forget that.

Physician
July 21, 2020

Burnout is a huge problem in medicine. There are a lot of reasons for that, the most commonly cited of which are overwhelming bureaucracy and administration work and perceived under-compensation. Many doctors say the same thing: “I just want to take care of patients, but all of this stuff gets in the way.” I think reflecting on our “why” is critical to help fight burnout. Here are some of my …

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Medicine is real, tangible, and helps people. Don’t forget that.

The withdrawal of effective sexual offender treatment during COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
July 21, 2020

Public health safety measures in the wake of COVID-19 have transformed health care into virtual medicine overnight.  From psychiatry to surgery, all of the medical specialties have adapted technology-enabled virtual appointments.  The support for health care providers has been pervasive in the past few weeks-from celebrity shout outs to presidential gratitude.  It certainly is a daunting time to be a physician.  As physicians remind themselves of their ethical duties enumerated …

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The withdrawal of effective sexual offender treatment during COVID-19

A physician’s struggle with mental illness [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 20, 2020
YouTube video

“Was I that different? I had severe anxiety necessitating medication, compounded by stress, my own narcissistic tendencies, and a series of life choices—but Jason had something much worse. It all gave me pause. I was now twenty-four, just barely older than Jason when the committee took residence. Would I soon begin hearing voices as well?

I supposed that beginning the long and …

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A physician’s struggle with mental illness [PODCAST]

Why clinicians should consider the power of prayer

Conditions and Diseases
July 20, 2020

As a nurse practitioner, I have the privilege of helping people achieve their health care goals. But in light of recent events surrounding social justice, I find that I am increasingly challenged in new ways. Ways that my training and likely other nursing or medical schools did not address. I have that uncomfortable feeling of being ill-prepared to address the ramifications of social justice on the health of my patients. …

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Why clinicians should consider the power of prayer

What it’s like to write about COVID-19 while it’s killing your mom

Patient
July 20, 2020

My mom was beyond vulnerable to the virus. May of 2020 marked two years since she’d become a nursing home resident—receiving care for several chronic illnesses. She died of failure to thrive due to Coronavirus 2019 on June 1, 2020, at the age of 75.

As her oldest child, her health care proxy, and a health care writer for more than 15 years, I knew that a positive result in a …

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What it’s like to write about COVID-19 while it’s killing your mom

Food allergies are not funny

Conditions and Diseases
July 20, 2020

It seems that adults need to be reminded and educated of the dangers life-threatening food allergies possess. If you think taunting people that have life-threatening food allergies occur only with very young children, you would be sadly mistaken. Case in point, comedian Jimmy Fallon’s in his recent sketch “Masculine Man Masks Commercial” states that his character’s masks “don’t have to make you look like a big sissy with a shellfish …

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Food allergies are not funny

Fighting back against Dr. Patriarchs

Physician
July 20, 2020

The COVID pandemic has revealed chasms between health care delivery system tectonic plates, revealing disparities of care and treatment of people of color and underrepresented groups. I write this from my own feminine perspective in hopes of cultural change. We have to start with us, the doctors and other health care workers. We have to see the inequities.

I have one regret about my career as an obstetrician/gynecologist. I regret my …

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Fighting back against Dr. Patriarchs

The genius within a schizophrenic mind

Conditions and Diseases
July 20, 2020

She was naked in her seclusion room — a padded cell — with her gown on the floor and drenched in her urine.

I was her nurse.

I gave her lithium.

She put the pill in her mouth and then spit it at me in my face. Then her tirade began:

“I’m Jesus. The FBI is watching us. The computer chip in my head said to kill, kill, kill you.

They’re watching me. They’re watching …

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The genius within a schizophrenic mind

How this physician discovered the power of mindfulness [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 19, 2020
YouTube video

“Could COVID-19 be an opportunity that brings the plight of health care professionals finally to the forefront? Protect us so we can protect you.  Do your part and stay home.  Flatten the curve to give health care professionals a chance.  Donate PPE. Donate food.  And yet through this war, we, health care professionals, along with the entirety of humanity, are united …

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How this physician discovered the power of mindfulness [PODCAST]

COVID illuminates silent fear

Conditions and Diseases
July 19, 2020

It’s scary. Like 9/11, we have a new reference point touching everyone on the planet: life before COVID-19 and life after. Regardless if you get it or don’t, the unknowns and secondary consequences are scary. Life before COVID was scary, too, minus the urgency.

Before COVID, we sensed the weight of living on a sick planet. We felt powerless to change the tide of forces affecting our lives for the worst. …

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COVID illuminates silent fear

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Why medical students should be taught the business side of medicine

Medical Education
July 19, 2020

The field of medicine is always changing. In fact, half of what students learn in medical school will either be wrong or outdated five years after they graduate. As future physicians, medical students must learn to adapt to these changes. In fact, the medical school curriculum itself has evolved greatly over the years. In addition to basic science, pharmacology, and clinical medicine, curriculums now include content …

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Why medical students should be taught the business side of medicine

COVID is not what women expected when they were expecting

Conditions and Diseases
July 19, 2020

Reproductive psychiatry, also known as perinatal psychiatry or maternal mental health, focuses on mental health concerns in pregnancy (also including planning and IVF), delivery, postpartum, and parenting. As a reproductive psychiatrist, I try to imagine myself in the situation of my patient, to conceptualize the stresses she’s dealing with, who can support her at home, and, on top of any needed meds—what sort of therapy, self-care, what strategies she would …

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COVID is not what women expected when they were expecting

Second victim syndrome in the time of COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
July 19, 2020

Every physician I know has a story about an unanticipated patient event.  A story that was traumatic at the time and easy to now recall in fine detail.  A story that was so impactful that it still haunts them.  When a patient suffers an adverse event, many people are affected — the patient, his or her family, and the health care providers. The physicians and their team who are most …

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Second victim syndrome in the time of COVID-19

Public health, not medicine, is what will save us

Physician
July 19, 2020

In a small community not far from my hometown, Paul sat peacefully in his self-built abode on a July day like just about any other. Happy to experience the peace of his bucolic life far from the hustle and bustle of the city, he rarely visited a doctor despite a festering back ailment that limited his ability to work. He had no retirement savings and no plan for life after …

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Public health, not medicine, is what will save us

How hospitals allocate scarce resources [PODCAST]

Podcast
July 18, 2020
YouTube video

“We are grateful to be avoiding the need to use draconian measures for resource allocation. We have been afforded the blessing of lead-time here in Los Angeles and have the chance to learn from other parts of the world, as well as other areas within the United States. We are preparing our personal protective equipment, re-organizing team structures and hospital workflow, …

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How hospitals allocate scarce resources [PODCAST]

Making time for patient advocacy is more important now than ever

Patient
July 18, 2020

“Time is generally the best doctor,” according to the Roman poet Ovid. But these days, in the middle of the pandemic, what doctor has time?

Health care professionals already have 29-hour days. In many places, hospitals are at or near capacity because of Covid-19 cases. Some hospitals and staff are functioning in crisis mode; chaos reigns, particularly in areas where the surge came on suddenly.  As a result, clinicians are stretched …

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Making time for patient advocacy is more important now than ever

Mask up like you buckle up

Conditions and Diseases
July 18, 2020

In this world of misinformation, fear, social media overload, and mistrust, seek counsel from your health care provider.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have witnessed the bravery of my colleagues on the front lines treating patients and putting themselves and their families at risk, heroic nurses swabbing hundreds of patients tirelessly in 100-degree heat in full PPE, the selflessness of volunteers donating time and funds to those in …

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Mask up like you buckle up

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