Before I started medical school, I used to pass the same government hospital every day on my way to school. It was one of those places that offered “free treatment,” but even as a teenager, I could sense that the care was often just for the name. I remember going to school the next day at around 6:30 a.m., I saw a man sitting outside the hospital, the same man …
What I learned about health care by watching who gets left behind
As doctors, we often tend to focus on solving the problem at hand. We identify the issue, make a diagnosis, and try to treat the condition to the best of our capabilities. And in this pursuit to achieve our textbook level of homeostasis, we often forget that it is the patient who requires us. As rightfully pointed out in the posters outside the palliative care center, sometimes we may encounter …
Why palliative care is more than just end-of-life support
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Public health advocate Kathleen Muldoon discusses her article “Why congenital CMV should be on every parent and doctor’s radar,” revealing how congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) remains the most common viral cause of disability …
Few people realize this common infection can cause serious complications [PODCAST]
In today’s health care system, primary care is stretched thin. Patients face longer wait times, providers are burned out, and practices are under constant pressure to do more with less time in their hands. In the middle of this strain, I have noticed a troubling trend, divisions between physicians (MDs, DOs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) or physician assistants (PAs).
I strongly believe that …
Unity in primary care: Why I believe physicians and NPs/PAs must work together toward the same goal
I have always despised the trope of the patient who pulls through against all odds, despite all evidence to the contrary. Yes, diagnoses can shift and treatment plans evolve, but the ultimate trajectory rarely strays far from the original suspicion. Still, I understand why those stories resonate.
As a resident, I cared for a teen who got a night off from treatment to get married, and another who went to prom …
My improbable survival of stage 4 cancer
Filipino Americans are one of the fastest-growing and most diverse Asian American subgroups in the U.S.—yet they remain one of the most misunderstood, especially when it comes to mental health. Whether due to the myth of the “model minority” or the aggregation of Asian health data that obscures subgroup differences, Filipino Americans face a growing but overlooked mental health crisis.
Despite strong cultural values rooted in resilience, family, and faith, Filipino …
How Filipino cultural values shape silence around mental health
Leadership training in medicine is often framed around titles and administrative skills, preparing students to one day manage teams or step into academic or hospital leadership roles. While these skills are important, they miss the deeper, more urgent need in medical education: helping future physicians understand themselves, navigate complex health care systems, and make intentional career decisions aligned with their values.
Why traditional leadership training falls short
Countless physicians enter practice only …
Why leadership training in medicine needs to start with self-awareness
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Physician leader Janet Jokela discusses her article “How federal actions threaten vaccine policy and trust,” highlighting the unprecedented removal of expert members from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and its replacement …
Federal shakeup of vaccine policy and the battle for public trust [PODCAST]
Over the past couple of years, advanced technological development, adoption, and implementation have grown exponentially across industries, including health care. What started with the adoption of advanced electronic health records (EHRs) — 96 percent of hospitals and 88 percent of physicians have adopted EHRs within the last decade — is now developing into the rapid growth of AI to support administrative tasks and data analytics. A 2024 survey found …
Why clinicians must lead health care tech innovation
Sunlight is essential to life. It stimulates the production of Vitamin D, a hormone that plays a crucial role in bone health, immune function, and possibly the prevention of several chronic diseases. Sun exposure also influences our circadian rhythm, improves mood through serotonin regulation, and has been linked to better mental health outcomes, including reduced risk of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
In moderation, sunlight can be deeply beneficial, especially in populations …
The truth about sun exposure: What dermatologists want you to know
When I started medical school, I imagined long nights memorizing anatomy, shadowing physicians, and, eventually, walking hospital hallways in a white coat while trying to solve the intricate puzzles that patients carry in their bodies.
What I didn’t expect was that some of the most important lessons wouldn’t come from a professor or a textbook but from conversations about algorithms, data, and machines that learn.
Artificial intelligence felt distant at first, something …
Learning medicine in the age of AI: Why future doctors need digital fluency
“Are you going to be wearing a white skirt and a hat from now?”
That was one of the first things I heard when I told relatives I had been accepted into nursing school. It was a joke — at least that’s how it was delivered. But the meaning behind it wasn’t funny.
In my South Asian community, nursing is seen as women’s work — important, but low-status. For a man to …
How a South Asian nurse challenged stereotypes in health care
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Physician advocates Alae Kawam, Kim Downey, and Nicole Solomos discuss their article “True stories of doctors reclaiming their humanity in a system that challenges it,” sharing firsthand accounts of the cultural rift …
Doctors reclaiming their humanity in a broken system [PODCAST]
When I found out about the summary suspension of my medical license in February, I was terrified and shocked, but I knew it was a mistake. There had not been any hearing. I was not even aware they were charging me until I got the letter.
The allegations involved three patients. I had the cases reviewed by four independent spine surgeons, leaders in the field from stellar institutions; all agreed that …
Guilty until proven innocent? My experience with a state medical board.
I’m often asked about how to pursue a physician entrepreneurial career pathway. Like Peter Medawar opined in his “Advice to a young scientist”, allow me to offer some advice:
You will not learn about innovation or entrepreneurship in medical school or residency. Medical education is designed to teach students clinical care and research methods. If you have an entrepreneurial interest, you will have to pursue it using alternative …
How to balance clinical duties with building a startup
At any given time, about five percent of men and nine percent of women, just like you and me, suffer from incontinence. This means that they cannot hold their urine or feces until they reach a bathroom. In other words, that affects one in twenty men and one in ten women. Incontinence in adults can be caused by old age, injury, neuromuscular disorders, and cancer, to name some of …
When life makes you depend on Depends
The question is not where one is born, because birthplace—whether a country or continent—is never chosen by oneself, but always determined by others and the surrounding environment.
Nor is the question where one lives, because even though the place, country, or continent may seem self-chosen, it is often influenced or guided by others and external circumstances.
The real question is where one belongs, because the feeling of belonging—to a place, country, or …
Could ECMO change where we die and how our organs are donated?
Every 24 hours, at least one person dies from a preventable medication error. Every hour, countless others suffer complications that could have been avoided with better systems. Yet despite billions invested in health care technology and training, these numbers are not improving.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: We have been solving the wrong problem.
For decades, health care has treated medication errors like individual failures — a tired nurse, a distracted doctor, a …
Every medication error is a system failure, not a personal flaw
We are informed by the Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, and poet George Santayana, that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
That has never been my problem.
I grew up immersed in family stories from both parents — some of them true, and some not so accurately remembered. Starting at about age three with Little Golden Books that my mom bought for a nickel each at local thrift stores, …
From Civil War tales to iPhones: a family history in contrast
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Board-certified pediatrician and certified coach Jessie Mahoney discusses her article, “Why self-care must become medicine’s new standard.” She challenges the long-held belief in medical culture that self-sacrifice is noble and that self-care …
Reframing self-care as required maintenance for physicians [PODCAST]
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