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COVID-19: Why are blacks in America are more likely to die?

Conditions and Diseases

April 18, 2020

“We are all in this crisis together, but we are not all experiencing this crisis in the same way.”

That was how Chicago mayor, Lori Lightfoot described the jarring data from Chicago’s public health agency that showed black residents accounted for 72 percent of COVID-19 deaths in a city whose black population make up only 30 percent.

From Chicago to New Orleans, Detroit to Milwaukee, cities with large African-American populations are fast …

Love in the time of COVID-19

Sarah E. Stumbar, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 18, 2020

COVID-19 changes everything — even, or especially, love. It demands that we love differently and in new ways. For me, this is what #loveinthetimeofcovid19 looks like.

My husband, Lunan, and I are both doctors. Lunan, a urologist, is completing his final year of training in New York City, and I am a family-physician educator at a medical school in Miami.

We are living separately this year — one of the many sacrifices …

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Love in the time of COVID-19

When COVID-19 becomes blinding to other conditions

Amber Deptola, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has incited the necessary fear amongst the public and health care workers. This fear is a positive driver of social distancing and other precautionary measures that assist in protecting health care workers and patients. However, when this fear becomes blinding, patients may be more harmed than they are helped. Last week, I had a patient with a likely stroke refuse to go to the hospital due to …

How COVID-19 changed our fellowship interview process for the better

Aparajit Naram, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is fundamentally changing medical practice across the country by allowing telemedicine reimbursement, where it was previously limited, and by leveraging video conferencing technology to conduct business and educational meetings in order to comply with social distancing guidance. Necessity is resulting in innovative ways to interact with patients, colleagues, and now with prospective trainees as residency and fellowship interview season begins. While in-person interviews are a trademark of …

Residents are being sent to fight a war with no protection, no power, and no voice

Constance Chace, MD, MPH, Supraja Thota, MD, and Milla Kviatkovsky, DO, MPH

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

Three resident physicians died last week from COVID-19 and are the first known deaths of medical trainees in the United States. Dr. Chris Firlit, a 37-year-old oral surgery resident from Detroit, died from complications of COVID-19. He leaves behind his wife Sylvie and three children, Alexander, Viktor, and Katerina. Sadly, we know residents like Dr. Firlit will not be the only ones to lose their lives in this pandemic. Unbeknown …

To volunteer or to stay home? A medical student’s daily dilemma during COVID-19.

Justin Koceja

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

Wake up. Turn the coffee pot on. Stretch. Read about the latest news. Over the past several years, this same sequence of events has served as the start to my day, and it has continued to be my routine over the past few weeks. However, this early morning routine has been the only thing in my life that has remained “routine” since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

As a third-year medical student …

Turning to prayer during the pandemic

Anna Delamerced

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

Photos of health care providers in prayerful stances are being shared on the web. From nurses on helipads at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, to ER teams at Jackson South Medical Center, people have been photographed on their knees, arms outstretched, and heads bowed. In Atlanta, doctors and nurses went up to the roof of Cartersville Hospital to join …

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Turning to prayer during the pandemic

The individuals who inspire this resident physician in COVID-19 era

Hemali Patel, DO

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

As a resident physician keen on academia and research, I have many doctors and scientists who I aspire to be more like. As a future-driven person, I am constantly awed by various inspirational, well-educated, and even better-poised men and women who have changed our society and the world. But today’s situation is different. Today’s situation makes my inspirations quite different from that of a typical young physician.

As a resident doctor, …

Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, we must not neglect the needs of those with mental illness

Michael Ziffra, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

“I’m in a constant state of fear.”

“I have nothing to look forward to now.”

“I don’t know when my life will go back to normal.”

As a psychiatrist practicing in a busy urban academic medical center, I have started to see the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on individuals’ mental health. Although some patients primarily worry about the virus itself, I have been more struck by the emotional distress associated …

Nurses are not getting the protection they need and no one seems to care

Susan Shannon, RN

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

Nurses are not getting the protection they need to care for COVID patients, and no one seems to care. Where is the outrage? Nurses are at the COVID patients’ bedside 24/7.

We all know the medical staff is not wearing the proper gear at all. If supplies were adequate and protocols were being followed, they would be wearing N95 masks or PAPRs. If they do have N95s, they are being told …

Telemedicine in COVID-19 is a unique challenge for homeless patients

Matthew A. Crane, Tiffany Lian, and April Banayan

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

COVID-19 cases in the United States are continuing to rise, with some regions of the country entering a stage of peak infection. Despite growing resources allocated to our public health response, a substantial gap exists in our approach to the care of homeless patients at this time. Various solutions have been proposed to improve access to care and temporary sheltering in this …

The art of the doctor-patient relationship in the COVID-19 era

Michael C. Luciano, MD

Physician

April 17, 2020

This a famous painting named “The Doctor” from 1891 by Luke Fildes. I was first introduced to this by my grandfather, the first physician in our family, an old school traditional family doctor. He cared deeply for his patients, and they loved him for it.

My grandfather gave me this painting on the day of my graduation from medical school. I always …

Is there a doctor on board? Yes, but we might not be the right doctor.

Andrea Bischoff, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 17, 2020

My husband and I travel internationally at least three times a year to give courses with live surgical demonstrations of colorectal conditions in children.

During the past 13 years making those trips, we had our share of hearing the famous announcement in the plane: “Is there a doctor on board?”

Those have happened in many different scenarios including having been on call the night before and therefore being on an almost semi-coma …

Ventilators are only part of the story: We need critical care trained practitioners

Eric Bressman, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 16, 2020

The media and policymakers have spent a lot of time focusing on the shortage of ventilators in the country. Elmhurst Hospital in Queens – one of the hardest-hit locations in the country, and where I work – received a donation of 40 desperately needed machines from Tesla a couple of weeks ago. There was a brief moment to rejoice before putting these to use.

Healthcare workers and the …

I am a physician, and I will heal when I can, but I will always provide hope

Sergey Moldavskiy, DO

Conditions and Diseases

April 16, 2020

I don my PPE in the hallway, while the patient is watching the increased commotion outside of their room. They see me enter their room, introduce myself, and then position myself behind their bed. They are covered with a plastic wrap or an intubation box to protect us from their cough and secretions. They feel a burning sensation in their arm as propofol enters, while the nurse is holding it, …

Physician burnout in the wake of COVID-19

Rosemary Eseh-Logue, MD

Conditions and Diseases

April 16, 2020

A doctor who has a contagious disease is not only suffering in terms of their health but also about being incapacitated in performing their life-saving tasks. Doctors with COVID-19 likely increase the community’s disease burden, so the frontline staff in the fight against COVID-19 crisis cannot be sick or ill-equipped. Yet, that has been happening. With the surge in COVID-19 cases, physicians are overworked. I have an infectious disease colleague …

We must care about our doctors. Especially now.

Peggy A. Rothbaum, PhD

Physician

April 16, 2020

We are all traumatized by the unfathomable devastation caused by the coronavirus. What can we expect as a result of this national and worldwide trauma?

The trauma approach uses posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as a frame to understand trauma. PTSD is a normal reaction to abnormal situations, which can be ongoing, according to the American Psychological Association. It is normal, not abnormal or pathological, to feel emotions, even extreme ones, from …

There is no place for USMLE Step 2 CS during a pandemic

Anna Goshua

Medical Education

April 16, 2020

As American cities continue to shelter-in-place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, thousands of medical students are in limbo as they wait to see when they will be able to take their licensing examinations. The growing backlog of test-takers is particularly problematic for the Step 2 Clinical Skills examination, a one-day clinical performance exam which is held on limited dates at one of five testing locations across the …

From a clinician on the frontlines: I can’t stop mentally drafting my obituary

Anonymous

Conditions and Diseases

April 16, 2020

I can’t stop mentally drafting my obituary. A coworker snaps a picture of me in full protective gear, holding a respiratory swab, and I wonder how this photo will age. I wonder about the folly of our actions now, four health care workers seated together at a computer bank in the emergency department. Likely seeding toxins back and forth as we idly banter during our shift, trying to stay calm …

Unmatched: a setback or a step forward?

Rohit Nallani, MD

Medical Education

April 16, 2020

I still remember the morning of Monday, March 11th, 2019, with vivid clarity. I was on my last rotation of medical school. My medical ICU team was preparing for morning rounds. Vital signs and lab results suddenly seemed less important as my rotation friends, and I anxiously awaited “the email.” At precisely 10 a.m., we would learn if our years of hard work had paid off with a residency position. …

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Unmatched: a setback or a step forward?

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