Adil Shahzad Ahmed is an orthopedic surgeon.

Academic medical centers under threat: the impact of funding cuts

Policy
April 5, 2025

A familiar ding echoes from blue scrub pants. My conditioned frontal cortex reflexively shoots my hand to the back pocket. Fingers encircle a black smartphone. A ricochet of notification vibration still tickles my right buttock. Several semi-autonomous thumb swipes ensue. The joy of Microsoft Outlook’s blue glow reveals a new email—one of nearly a hundred emails jostling for self-importance that day. But this one is different. The ominous phrase “Effective …

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Academic medical centers under threat: the impact of funding cuts

A surgeon without health care

Physician
November 4, 2023

I’m squished in an unnaturally upright seat. My elbows slowly develop pressure sores atop rigid armrests, with my wife on one side and a semi-uncomfortable stranger on the other. I stare at my lopsided gray tray table, sporting a Styrofoam cup of lukewarm coffee, the chalice special of Sky Chefs. My ears have become one with the perpetual background hum of engines, a prelude to the impending orchestra of jet …

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A surgeon without health care

Orthopedic eponyms: Where are the women?

Physician
January 31, 2022

Bunnell. Colles. Dupuytren. Erb. These and countless other names litter the lexicon of orthopedic surgery. Eponyms abound from the moment one enters residency, providing prime “pimp” fodder for senior surgeons to accost trainees.

Besides striking fear into the hearts of residents in morning conferences, eponyms do serve another purpose. They preserve our history.

Contributions of giants in the field are immortalized, perpetuated every time one glimpses a characteristic X-ray or particular pathognomonic …

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Orthopedic eponyms: Where are the women?

Bezos and Branson: a cautionary tale for space exploration

Physician
July 27, 2021

A rocket launch. The tall vessel, akin to a solitary skyscraper, stands alone on the launchpad. The thunderous roar of thrusters travels across miles of empty concrete. The ground shakes. The audible roar in your ear and the palpable vibration underfoot steadily rises, in unison with the overhead countdown. Hundreds of on-lookers stand in excitement, witnessing the launch at a safe distance.

Seated in the capsule, confined by restraints, are the …

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Bezos and Branson: a cautionary tale for space exploration

A surgeon’s take on the WSJ’s Jill Biden doctor debacle

Physician
December 21, 2020

When you flick a domino, a chain reaction is inevitable. Joseph Epstein succeeded in creating such a reaction. His inflammatory Wall Street Journal op-ed deriding Dr. Jill Biden’s academic title has become a call to arms across the social media landscape. The armies of Twitter and Facebook have assembled across the pixelated landscape. Hasty battle plans in forum posts are drawn, ignoring the decorum of discourse …

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A surgeon’s take on the WSJ’s Jill Biden doctor debacle

Fasting for Ramadan and being the on-call orthopedic trauma resident

Physician
June 20, 2019

A patient groans in agony lying atop a rigid spine board, carried by paramedics into the ER, his neck in a protective collar. The paramedics shout a summary of the accident. Monitors are attached to the man, flashing and beeping the cadence of vital signs. Nurses and physicians swarm. Gloved hands comb through brown hair for bumps or lacerations. They remove his clothes, feeling for pulses in the neck and …

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Fasting for Ramadan and being the on-call orthopedic trauma resident