He was a logical man. A northeast Ohio man. Who worked all his life and worked hard. I can see it in his hands. They are entirely calloused with traces of grease impervious even to pumice soap.
A family man. His wife and sons and daughters are at bedside. And proud grandson, just a man, not dry-eyed, stands in the corner, in his college jacket, the spitting image of his bedridden …
Proper endings like this feel right
If you open Google and do a search for “Caribbean medical schools,” it will quickly become clear to you that not everyone is a fan, but just because something doesn’t work for one person doesn’t necessarily mean it hasn’t worked for hundreds. Established, upper-tier Caribbean medical schools are credible alternatives for hardworking students unable to secure seats at U.S. schools. That’s a provable fact. Thousands of students across multiple Caribbean …
How can you determine a Caribbean medical school’s quality?
Three months ago I got a Peloton bike. Overnight I went from a boring, 30 minute, mildly aerobic grind on an elliptical while listening to podcasts to getting my rear end handed to me by Peloton instructors, all in recorded classes I take on demand.
Yesterday my instructor was Cody Rigsby, a guy with a great sense of humor who says things like “if you need to regroup, namaste your ass in …
How to manage the transitions of your day
I am a board-certified internal medicine physician practicing in a small outpatient clinic with a highly reputable academic organization in the greater Boston area. Regarding COVID-19, I am not panicked, but I am concerned– concerned for our patients, concerned for our workforce and health care providers, concerned for our parents and loved ones.
The situation in Massachusetts and across the country is evolving rapidly in response to COVID-19. In the past …
Prevent the spread of COVID-19 with telemedicine
Some advice as an emergency physician, daughter, mother, and concerned citizen.
Help keep older relatives and neighbors self-quarantined at home. Same goes for those of any age who are immune-compromised (cancer-patients, on immune-suppressant meds for autoimmune diseases, etc.) Pick up and deliver their groceries and prescriptions to their front-door for them.
Health care workers (physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers, pharmacists, environmental services, EMS, etc.), law enforcement, and other public agency workers …
An ER physician’s advice to the general public: How to flatten the curve
A guest column by the American College of Physicians, exclusive to KevinMD.
Although I work for the American College of Physicians, I’m writing this as a general internist who has practiced both primary care and hospital-based medicine for over 25 years.
Hopefully by now, you are aware of Better is Possible: The American College of Physicians’ …
Reclaiming the future of health care
She is 11, a fifth-grader, as prepubescent as nature allows, and utterly terrified.
She hasn’t eaten normally for nearly a month, her mother reports. She sleeps poorly, reports nightmares, and cleans her hands so obsessively that she is literally bleeding raw.
Her fifth-grade peer group typically does not guard its language nor govern its remarks, so every utterance is attention-demanding, black-and-white, dripping with drama. And she hears the constant drumbeat reporting of …
COVID-19 coronavirus needs apolitical truth-telling
Most physicians have spent decades training for the day that they see their first patient or perform their first surgery. This extended time involved to become a physician does not leave a lot of spare time in college or medical school for most physicians to take any significant coursework in economics, finance, or investing. Yet, physicians have a tremendous amount of knowledge with regards to all aspects of health …
A physician in the venture capital world
I became a physician to help people. So isn’t fighting for issues that help protect my patients such as racial equality, LGBTQ rights, gender pay equity, access to health care, and education all part of patient care?
Don’t my patients want to have a doctor who is fighting for them both in the office and outside it?
When I started working as a resident physician and later went on to my attending …
Why doctors should get political
February is a short month. Even this year with leap day. So short. Maybe that is why I am so mad at what Company X did to me.
My health insurance company stole eight hours and six minutes from me in February. I will never get it back.
This is my story of trying to get Company X to pay its part of two drugs I take for seizures. Very important drugs. …
Health insurer: I want my 8 hours and 6 minutes back
The current COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the availability and the results of medical diagnostic tests. As a physician, I treat the results of lab tests like I treat movie recommendations from a friend – I am always skeptical. For the movies, I need to consider my friend’s suggestion in the context of their mood, tastes, current life crises, and track record. A context also needs to be created for ordering and interpreting test …
The accuracy of COVID-19 tests
Does care fall short or go higher when the patient is one of our own?
It depends on who you ask: We, the medical team, believe we try hard for everyone, but go the extra mile when it’s one of our own. Perhaps to family/outsiders, we’re not doing enough.
A recent case illustrates this phenomenon: a gifted physician colleague, a new diagnosis of advanced cancer. Needs control as part of a coping …
We can’t deny death, even if it’s a colleague
A New Jersey physician assistant who was the state’s first COVID-19 patient is speaking out from his hospital bed, calling his illness “severe” and raising concerns about his treatment.
James Cai, a 32-year-old non-smoker with no other health conditions, has been at Hackensack University Medical Center for about a week and says his illness has worsened significantly over that time.
“In the …
A previously healthy clinician, now critically ill with COVID-19
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Last week, I saw a patient who may have contracted COVID-19. The patient had come into the emergency department overnight due to respiratory distress and overseas travel history. While his clinical picture and history were cause for concern, due to limited testing reserved for “highly suspicious” cases, the initial decision was to hold on testing for COVID-19, and the patient was removed from isolation precautions. Several hours later, I was …
I’m an infectious disease doctor and I’m in quarantine
In 2019, residents organized coast-to-coast to protest low pay, unsafe working conditions, and insufficient benefits. Residents at the University of Washington and UCLA walked out of the hospital in reaction to stalled contract negotiations. Residents at Yale interrupted a meeting to introduce a “Resident and Fellow Bill of Rights,” outlining basic rights such as …
I am a retired union plumber with the state of Illinois. I’ve had laparoscopic surgery on both knees, a lower back surgery that required two stainless rods, and I’m not sure how many screws, and three cervical fusions. I now suffer from neuropathy (nerve dysfunction) in my feet.
They’re painfully numb: A shoe could come off, and I wouldn’t know it. I find it difficult to get around — not to …
Here’s what it’s really like to live in pain
The U.S. response to coronavirus reminds me of recent disasters when official facts were at odds with the reality I encountered.
Governments have a long history of lying to their people about the risks of illness, either as a way to minimize political damage or to drum up hatred for “the other.” China was accused of covering up the true breadth of the SARS epidemic in 2003, …
COVID-19: Don’t listen to the political spin of either side
When I first landed this job as a case manager (social worker), I was given Robert R. as a client. He was at his worst then, soiling himself virtually every day, with no change of clothing available. I remember him wearing a piece of colored cloth around his waist, which served as a belt.
When he would come in in such a condition, sometimes even tracking in feces on his shoes, …
This patient is more than just a street person
I have been getting lots of requests for my opinion about where we are and what is coming.
The first question is: How bad will the coronavirus epidemic be in the U.S.?
The short answer is, we don’t know – but it could be pretty nasty. An important point, though, is that we are not helpless here. This is not like predicting a weather event where we cannot control where the hurricane …
A doctor’s coronavirus straight talk
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy in which the body’s immune system attacks peripheral nerves. Clinical and epidemiological evidence seems to indicate that most cases are preceded by an infection such as Campylobacter jejuni enteritis, but in many cases, no cause is identified.
GBS is characterized by symmetrical muscle weakness that begins in the legs and ascends. The degree of weakness can vary from mild difficulty with ambulation …
Learn about Guillain-Barré syndrome with a Medcomic rap
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