It’s 2022. COVID-19 is still here, and there is little evidence that it’s going away. Coronaviruses have been here longer than us and will be here after us. For centuries, we have co-existed with viruses, and our God-given immune systems have evolved, perfecting our macrophages which fight the nasty microbes. Cytokines or killer chemicals usually put many viruses at bay during our lifecycle, without us even realizing their magnificent work. …
The murder of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minnesota has awakened a country out of hibernation and put Black Lives Matter on the national platform. Practicing primary care in Springfield, Massachusetts, I have known for a long time that Black lives do matter. It is important to understand that Black health matters and blank education matters as well. The Black on Black violence needs attention as …
Black lives will not start to matter until Black health matters
The euphoria of becoming a physician did not last long. My scrubs did not even lose the fresh scent, and I was already under attack by the administrators. Over the next few years, I was injured, morally hurt, not able to fight back, sad, and disheartened. After finishing my residency, I experienced physician abuse and attacks on my self-esteem in every job I took through administrators who did not understand …
The scrubs must rise against the suits
I am scared as I sit down to write about our journey as a small practice as we fight along with the rest of the world against the unthinkable force of nature in the form of a COVID-19 pandemic. My small primary care practice is only two years old. In a time when medical practices are already dying, the financial consequences of social distancing as a response to COVID-19 can …
The small practice primary care response to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened our physical and mental health and the very fabric of society. Social isolation has devastating consequences on small businesses, but it has also opened doors to remote business opportunities in the virtual world. Medicine has long been ready to launch telemedicine. However, bureaucratic red tape has prevented this from happening in real-time. Archaic regulations have stifled growth. However, necessity is the mother of …
Lessons from evolution of telemedicine in response to COVID-19
Migrating to the U.S. as an international medical graduate, I was shocked by the health care culture of excess. Initially, it felt good to order a CT scan on everyone who had a fall or cardiac enzymes on anybody who had atypical chest pain. I felt powerful and light years ahead of the system I left behind, where you would have to very cautious about ordering diagnostic tests as, mostly, …
Medicare for all advocates are in for a rude awakening
The backbone of a great health care system is its primary care task force. From Singapore to France, elite health care systems rely on these cerebral doctors to provide preventive, urgent, and acute care along with chronic disease management. Primary care doctors have a broad-ranging impact from health care access, cost control, and impact on mortality and morbidity rates.
I was a graduate of a class of 50, of which only …
Moral injury from a primary care perspective
Being a primary care physician, I was afraid to start my own practice. There was discouragement from fellow physicians, hospital leaders, business colleagues, and even patients. Many said that the small practice model was not viable. With insurance mandates, mounting bureaucratic pressures from Medicare and Medicaid, increasing regulations by DEA, higher volumes of paperwork, and the health IT requirements, the task of setting up a private practice with primary care …
Physician Strong: a private practice journey
A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.
Chronic pain is a silent epidemic
Chronic pain is a significant public health burden, but one that is not talked about enough. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine estimated that approximately 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. But chronic pain is not just …
Education as an intervention for the chronic pain epidemic
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