As we sat at home watching our physician colleagues on the news draped with masks and PPE calmly explaining their dire situations last year, one cannot help but wonder what kind of environment and community cultivated these heroes. Were their commonalities in how we physicians were all raised that led us on the same path? During medical school, I was intrigued by how such a diverse group of people could …
Family principles of COVID-19 heroes
I’m a cardiology fellow on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many, I know suffering. In 2017, I lost my father to rapidly progressive dementia. I was postpartum at the time, and he did not even know I was ever pregnant. My stepfather — my father since I was eight years old — the only man who appreciated me and celebrated all my uniqueness and success, passed away …
Quotes and songs to help you survive COVID-19
My baby was crying non-stop as soon as we got her home. She tried to latch and did well, but I had no way of knowing how much nutrition she was getting. I counted the diapers, and the numbers were just barely on track, and she was making small quantities. I was trying to Google more tips with one hand and nurse her with the other. She was suffering, and …
The story of a new physician mother
The medicine model has changed since our predecessors practiced medicine in the days of Dr. William Osler. These days, medicine is a commercialized industry. The hospital makes this clear by prioritizing charting and patient satisfaction over patient care. Also, patients are accountable for making it feel this way. Some patients want to dictate their care completely, like making an order at Burger King. Physicians are encouraged to please patients, because …
Imagining a world where Amazon runs hospitals
This is a very controversial essay, but I am going to express how some women physicians, like myself, feel at the VA hospital.
I came home one day after my clinic and was perturbed. I called my significant other and the emotion of the day unraveled. I was reporting an uncomfortable interaction I had with an older male patient. During this patient encounter, his tone and comments became sexually charged and …
A culture of misogyny at a VA hospital
Although we are all very similar, there are genetic differences between us that can affect our health. In different populations, people share different frequencies of certain genes. These gene variants can explain differences in medication responses, incidence of disease, and protection from illness.
For example, warfarin is a widely prescribed medication that is used to prevent clotting and ischemic stroke. The dosing of this medication was previously generic and does not …
There is a health care disparity in human genetics
The number of African-American physicians in academic medicine is dismal, and this leads to an abundance of problems. Academic hospitals (teaching hospitals associated with universities) generally do not have a proportionate representation of underrepresented minority faculty as compared to the surrounding population. According to a U.S. News & World Report article, the number of African-American faculty increased by 0.2 percent in ten …
Analyzing the deficit of African-Americans in academic medicine
While reading the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, I was mesmerized by her insight about the self-perpetuating difficulties women face during their careers; however, something was missing.
Mrs. Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, wrote an enlightening novel about the differences in mindset between the genders and how this hinders women in their career. I found that she was spot on with my experience as a woman pursuing medicine. Like Mrs. …
As an under-represented medical professional: Lean in
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