How COVID-19 is hurting the most vulnerable mentally ill: observations from the frontline

Conditions and Diseases
May 18, 2020

“My partner doesn’t want me to come back home now that I’ve come to the hospital. He is worried I’ll come back and infect him and his parents. I have nowhere to go”. Fear and guilt were palpable in the young woman sitting before me. She had decided to follow the recommendation of the psychiatric crisis response team and come to the Emergency Room for worsening thoughts of suicide.

This dilemma …

Read more…

How COVID-19 is hurting the most vulnerable mentally ill: observations from the frontline

The mental health benefits of sharing stories

Medical Education
May 18, 2020

“But, surely offer you therapy or mental health services?” I asked an internal medicine resident and friend on the frontlines in New York City.

“No, not really. Well, there’s one person for our whole group,” they responded.

“And do people feel comfortable going to that person?” I prodded.

“Honestly, even if we had time, it could be seen as weak. Like, you don’t want to be that person that needed it. And we …

Read more…

The mental health benefits of sharing stories

Mike Pence and the Mayo Clinic’s moral failure

Physician
May 18, 2020

One of the essential ethical foundations of medicine is that there is one standard that we apply to everyone.  Everyone, regardless of their “VIP” status.  Recently, Vice-President Pence visited the Mayo Clinic, and in violation of their stated policy, he did not wear a protective mask as he visited with patients and administrators. The White House subsequently disclosed that Mr. Pence’s press secretary, Read more…

Mike Pence and the Mayo Clinic’s moral failure

The medical education question that needs to be changed

Medical Education
May 18, 2020

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

That is a common question you hear in the setting of medical education. I think I heard it for the first time on my first clinical rotation. A little background, I was a non-traditional medical student. I worked as a clinical pharmacist for ten years prior to starting medical school. When the resident asked me that question, I was initially a …

Read more…

The medical education question that needs to be changed

Physicians and the psychological trauma of COVID-19

Conditions and Diseases
May 18, 2020

In April 2020, Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency medicine physician from New York-Presbyterian Medical Center, came to the University of Virginia Medical Center, not as a physician, but as a patient. She had been working at the height of the COVID-19 epidemic in Manhattan, and was staying with her family in Charlottesville when she committed suicide. Her father described her as a hero killed by COVID-19, another casualty in the …

Read more…

Physicians and the psychological trauma of COVID-19

Amid COVID, first do no harm

Physician
May 18, 2020

I am a surgeon, mother, daughter, researcher, and ethicist. These multiple roles dancing together to a more discordant tune amid this unprecedented time. The “daughter” has managed to convince her ageing parents that they really ought to not leave the house and that she will step in to accommodate their needs. Simultaneously, the “surgeon” is surprised when her 80-year-old mother, Layla, relays that she received a phone call telling her …

Read more…

Amid COVID, first do no harm

The crisis of rotation availability during a pandemic: a medical student’s ethical conundrum

Medical Education
May 17, 2020

With COVID-19 still consistently creating setbacks in the health care community, we see yet another issue for medical students because of this pandemic. In prior years, the traditional medical student would be expected to be part of a team assisting medical professionals in the field, developing relationships with future mentors, and gaining the experience necessary to take on the difficulties presented in that given field. COVID-19 has been altering the …

Read more…

The crisis of rotation availability during a pandemic: a medical student’s ethical conundrum

How to work from home and not lose it

Physician
May 17, 2020

Your alarm may still go off at the same time, but I’ll bet what happens next is not the same as it was back in February. There is no denying our daily lives have been turned upside down in both stressful and heartwarming ways. While recent stories have made headlines of news anchors in boxers while they are giving an interview, we all have our dirty little video conference secrets. …

Read more…

How to work from home and not lose it

John Henryism and African American physicians during COVID-19

Physician
May 17, 2020

As an anesthesiologist, you are trained to not only perform but to thrive and act in emergency situations. Four years of residency builds psychological resilience, which is defined as the ability to mentally or emotionally cope or return to pre-crisis status quickly. These crises often occur when a patient’s heart stops beating, or a patient is unable to breathe. Anesthesiologists have seconds to respond to a crisis and prevent a bad …

Read more…

John Henryism and African American physicians during COVID-19

A pediatrician’s silver linings during the pandemic

Physician
May 17, 2020

A few weeks ago, while I was still seeing a full schedule of patients and the crisis was just beginning, I asked myself, “How can I reach this little person on the exam table in front of me?” It was our first meeting. He was deaf and partially blind, neither of those affecting his spirit or ability to draw me in. I’m hearing impaired, and so these littles always have …

Read more…

A pediatrician’s silver linings during the pandemic

The importance and power of physicians advocating for themselves

Physician
May 17, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has most of the country in isolation, but it is bringing doctors together. We are no different. After medical school, we parted ways, and thought nothing of it. We met in our first year, endured 4 of the most trying and formative years of our lives together, and then moved to opposite ends of the country to pursue residencies in entirely different fields – this is the …

Read more…

The importance and power of physicians advocating for themselves

The superpower of being present

Physician
May 17, 2020

I turned to my 2-year old daughter with a simple ask: “Can you worry about tomorrow for me?”

Blank stare.

“All I am asking is that you worry about tomorrow. Just follow the lead of us adults who make it look easy. Now, can you do that for daddy? (Don’t you know about the latest case of coronavirus?)”

Blank stare.

Now, a quick question for all of us: How much of each day do …

Read more…

The superpower of being present

ADVERTISEMENT

COVID-19 is a war on two fronts

Conditions and Diseases
May 17, 2020

“I can’t fight you anymore.
It’s you I’m fighting for.”
-Ordinary Love by U2

I’m exhausted.  As the pandemic rages on, the mental toll of dealing with COVID-19 has started to wear on me.  As a practicing hospitalist in the Midwest impacted by one of the many hotspots caused by the meatpacking industry, I have spent a fair bit of time with this virus on the frontline.  Some aspects of practicing medicine in …

Read more…

COVID-19 is a war on two fronts

4 small changes to help your practice now

Medications
May 17, 2020

This time of COVID-19 has brought us to a scenario of scale and scope that most had never planned for. Whether you are at a small practice or a large one, you are likely looking for ways to rapidly evolve your business and patient care processes to survive this global pandemic.

Many physician practices are trying to do more with less in terms of how and where they are spending their …

Read more…

4 small changes to help your practice now

What can patients do to lower the risk of errors in their electronic medical records?

Physician
May 17, 2020

In a perfect world, an electronic medical record would aggregate a patient’s medical information from all health care providers into a single, comprehensive record that could be easily accessed by any provider with the patient’s permission. This information could reduce the risk of medical errors, duplicate testing, and inappropriate treatment and the associated cost of these mistakes. It could also be lifesaving in the event of a medical emergency that …

Read more…

What can patients do to lower the risk of errors in their electronic medical records?

To the AAMC: Recommend an interview limit or else this year’s residency match may be a disaster

Medical Education
May 16, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned medical education upside-down. There has been massive disruption from exclusively virtual pre-clerkship courses to delayed clerkships to canceled graduation proceedings. After weeks of speculation, we’ve learned how the pandemic will disrupt the 2020-2021 residency application cycle. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) now recommends that all residency interviews be conducted virtually. While this is a wise recommendation, out of concern for public safety, I …

Read more…

To the AAMC: Recommend an interview limit or else this year’s residency match may be a disaster

During COVID-19, not everyone can get with the digital program

Physician
May 16, 2020

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, hospital edicts issued to protect patients would expose institutional frailties. The drastic implementation of nationwide telehealth measures would detrimentally affect patients who lacked access to health care and were unaccustomed to using digital technology. Many of these “digitally unprepared” patients were single, older, low-income, black patients who relied on landlines and flip phones to independently access the health care system.

My 82-year-old grandmother was …

Read more…

During COVID-19, not everyone can get with the digital program

A proposed public health response to facilitate continued adherence to COVID-19 restrictions

Health Policy
May 16, 2020

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, 46 million people were placed under a 76-day lockdown in Wuhan, China. The conversation around this initial story centered on the resilience of that population, isolating in the face of an unknown and deadly threat. Following the further spread of the virus, countless messages of unity and hope poured in from many corners of the …

Read more…

A proposed public health response to facilitate continued adherence to COVID-19 restrictions

Game of Thrones from a urological perspective

Conditions and Diseases
May 16, 2020

Game of Thrones has become a focus of American pop culture over the last eight years. Even now, almost a year after the finale aired, people are still discussing the impact of the show and the controversial last season. Many of us were hoping to finally get answers to questions we have been asking since the beginning, and the final season provided us with some answers, although not necessarily satisfying …

Read more…

Game of Thrones from a urological perspective

1562
pages