As we move through life, questions of identity echo through our minds—bouncing like a pinball, scattered and relentless.
Am I a doctor? A friend? A colleague? A leader? A husband? A parent? A son? These questions don’t just arise—they linger. Because every day, we’re asked to balance who we truly are with who we’re expected to be. We carry the weight of responsibility, chasing clarity, meaning, and success. We show up …
In the high-stakes, knowledge-driven world of medicine, we’re taught from day one to project an aura of certainty. From the anatomy lab to the hospital wards, the message is clear: know the answers, lead with confidence, and never let them see you sweat. But what if that fixation on “knowing” is holding us back? What if the very traits we’ve been trained to cultivate—the resolute certainty, the surgical precision, the …
An excerpt from Heal Your Wound: A Doctor’s Guide For Hard-To-Heal Wounds.
Chronic wounds are more than just a medical issue, they can be a daily challenge that can impact every part of a person’s life. From physical discomfort to emotional stress, these wounds often linger for weeks or months, especially when tied to conditions like diabetes, poor circulation, or limited mobility.
But here is the good news: With the right …
Specialist pain clinics and addiction management services are vital in addressing some of the most complex and costly health care conditions. However, their success depends on stable and robust primary care systems. Without strong primary care as a foundation, these health care initiatives risk fragmentation, poor continuity, and low patient accountability. Stable primary care ensures timely access, coordinated care, longitudinal monitoring, and patient engagement, all essential elements for the value-based …
It’s July—the official new year for medicine.
You’re either a brand-new intern, wide-eyed and exhausted, equal parts proud and terrified, or maybe you’re stepping into fellowship, wondering how you’re suddenly supposed to be the expert. You’re navigating hallways you haven’t mapped yet, still figuring out whether your badge works on the north wing or the south elevator, trying to remember where you parked, and already questioning if you made a huge …
As lawmakers debate cuts to Medicaid and restrictions on care for undocumented immigrants, the question isn’t just what America covers—it’s who.
Proposals like the No Medicaid for Illegal Immigrants Act of 2025, and related attempts to embed its provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, aim to block federal funding for Medicaid services to undocumented families. Some state plans go further, threatening to remove children from CHIP if …
An excerpt from The Doctor is Out—Justice vs Injustice in America.
In the hug of a crisp autumn morning, with the world adorned in the warm hues of changing leaves, the seed of an idea took root within me—an idea born from the necessity of expanding my medical practice to accommodate the growing needs of my patients.
Crossing the convoluted corridors of administrative tasks and logistical considerations, I found myself confronted …
Take a moment—not just to see where you are, but to remember how far you’ve come.
Through obstacles that once felt impossible.
Through stress that nearly broke you.
Through moments when the weight of it all made you question everything.
But still—you kept going.
Because medicine isn’t just a job. It’s a calling.
And here, decisions aren’t just professional—they’re life and death.
You meet people at their most vulnerable, in their most intimate realities.
There’s no room for …
When the full-scale war broke out in Ukraine, the country’s health care system was suddenly thrown into chaos. Hospitals were destroyed or severely damaged by missile attacks. Medical professionals were forced to flee, relocating to relatively safer areas in the western regions of the country. Millions of civilians became internally displaced. Amid this disruption, doctors in western Ukraine found themselves facing unprecedented challenges, trying to reorganize services and adapt rapidly …
When ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, many clinicians glimpsed the future then ran smack into a wall of red tape labeled “HIPAA.” Since then, large-language models (LLMs) have matured from clever chatbots into workhorse tools that summarize admission notes, draft prior-authorization letters, and even suggest antibiotic dosing. Yet most models still sit outside the guarded perimeter of protected health information.
Grok 4, the next-generation model from xAI, could …
I’ve been working with women physicians intensively now for six years, and I’ve noticed a few things.
The women I work with are amazing. They are altruistic and caring. They are resilient, independent, and able to put others’ needs before their own. They are smart, detail-oriented, and care about getting things right.
If you’re a patient (and we all are at some point), this is exactly what you want in your doctor. …
I had a stroke at the age of five.
It was an ischemic event, rare in children, difficult to diagnose, and often missed in early stages. I experienced a sudden loss of motor function that led to a long period of rehabilitation. I spent months relearning how to walk, balance, and perform basic movements, guided by physical therapists and the steady structure of routine. I was too young to understand what …
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Physician coach Nicole Perrotte and physician advocate and physical therapist Kim Downey discuss their article, “Love, empathy, and the triangle of exhaustion: Why humanity must come first.” Nicole introduces her powerful framework, …
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In elementary school, my teachers always told us it was important to understand math because “you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket.” That sentiment hasn’t aged well, given that my iPhone and Alexa are always within reach. But no one said, “You better learn this because one day you’ll be teaching your own kids during a plague.” That was where the real value lay. In medical school, I …
Brick-and-mortar stores must deal with online competition. Even health clinics face disruption from telemedicine. Yet optometrists have special protection in South Carolina.
When a telehealth company invented a safe and effective way for doctors to renew vision prescriptions remotely, political insiders rallied in Columbia to ban the service in South Carolina. Now, nine years later, the state-sponsored favoritism could end.
The South Carolina Supreme Court, which already rejected an attempt to …
The FDA is failing rare disease patients. I’m one of them.
I’ve been on elamipretide for three years now. It is the only treatment that has made a meaningful difference in my life with primary mitochondrial myopathy—a degenerative genetic condition that impairs how my cells convert food and oxygen into energy. Mitochondria provide over 90 percent of the energy our bodies need; when they fail, the highest-demand tissues—like muscle, brain, and …
More than 78 million Americans rely on Medicaid or CHIP for their health care. Yet many still cannot access FDA-approved digital therapeutics because their state does not include them in covered benefits.
Prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) are software-based treatments authorized by the FDA. They are delivered through smartphones or tablets and are used to manage conditions such as substance use disorder, ADHD, diabetes, and chronic insomnia. For people who face long …
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Pediatrician Arti Lal discusses her article, “Why ADHD in women is finally getting the attention it deserves.” She explores why new ADHD diagnoses nearly doubled for adult women from 2020 to 2022 …
When I was a young bonnie lad of just 16, I was lucky enough to score a meeting with Sandy Napel, PhD at Stanford University’s Radiological Sciences Laboratory (RSL). I demonstrated a prototype algorithm that automatically identified the position and course of arteries on CT scans. It was the first shot in a nearly decade-long academic research career that included early publications on using neural networks (the precursor to today’s …
When so many children and adults struggle with obesity, it’s easy to see why weight loss is often celebrated. Unfortunately, health care professionals sometimes apply those same social narratives to clinical decision-making, and the consequences can be dangerous.
I’ve developed two distinct clinical niches: metabolic dysfunction and tuberculosis. A colleague once asked me to review the chart of a patient with a history of obesity who had been admitted to an …
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