In early February, I was on my family medicine rotation. This was around Chinese New Year, when many East Asians travel extensively. The hospital I worked in serves a large Chinese community, and rumors about a new pneumonia emerging out of Wuhan, China were spurring patients to seek our reassurance that they didn’t have it. One patient thought their stuffy nose might be ominous, while another was worried about a …
The trouble with medical experts
I am a female surgical resident. I signed up for this. I chose four years of medical school, five years of residency, two years of research, a year of fellowship, and finally attending surgeon life. I’d choose it again.
And I want this road to be hard. I want my training so tough that I don’t wonder while a patient’s on the table if I’m good enough. I want to know …
Maternity leave in a post-COVID world
I am an ICU nurse. I love what I do; It’s not just a career: It’s who I am. No other job could offer me the intimate opportunity to support and guide a total stranger through the worst (and occasionally best) days of their life. Nowhere else would I leave feeling humbled by what I do every day. Nothing compares to that. Simply put: You don’t find that sense of …
I am an ICU nurse. We are drowning.
Dr. Lorna Breen, who died by suicide on April 26, was the canary in the coal mine. You can see it in her eyes, and in her smile. I didn’t know her, but I’ll bet she sang. One of her causes was successful communication with autistic patients, something beyond most emergency physicians.
She was a leader in a profession and a specialty already reeling under the occupational …
Lorna Breen was the quintessential canary in the coal mine
The United States has been the most impacted country in the current COVID-19 crisis.
Is COVID, the only common denominator? What else is common to the over 100,000 deaths in the United States, who is collecting and analyzing the death data comprehensively apart from the snapshot of admission and discharge diagnosis from death certificates?
Out of the deaths so far, how many were children, healthy adults, pregnant women, long term facility residents, …
How did coronavirus become so widespread? By the time Dr. Zhang Jixian first reported the cases, it is thought that 180 patients were already infected.
The problem with this is that SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes, COVID-19, presents in many different ways and spreads in patients with no symptoms. By the time we were even able to identify that a novel virus was infecting humans, it was already too late. …
Coronavirus is an elusive enigma
Much has been written about the response of the governmental agencies in the foreseeability of COVID-19 spread and management in the United States. Travel restriction from mainland China seemed to be a very timely intervention. However, instead of considering it as an initial step in a prolonged exercise of vigilance in preventing the disease from getting a foothold on the continent, it was considered the only one. Now it is …
The economics of primary care in a COVID-19 world
To contain COVID-19 and re-open the economy, the U.S. should be performing 500,000 tests per day. We are nowhere near that number.
Widespread implementation of CRISPR-based testing would address deficits in the current testing landscape. The most common method of testing for COVID-19—reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)—costs $100 per test, takes four-six hours to run, involves Read more…
How CRISPR technology can solve our COVID-19 testing problems
Invisible and unassuming, the radioactive spider slowly descends from the ceiling, and before he knows it, Peter Parker’s life has changed forever. With that one bite, he is transformed from a normal man into a reluctant superhero. Only, that infamous spider is COVID-19, and Peter Parker is a health care worker during these troubled times.
It may surprise you to know that many of us in health care are uncomfortable being …
Health care workers in the time of COVID: reluctant superheroes?
Fighting to protect the health of the economy and the health of the people are not mutually exclusive endeavors. In fact, they are strongly related. While COVID-19 does present a significant threat to the physical health of at-risk individuals, the shut-down poses a more significant threat to the mental health of all individuals.
As a physician anesthesiologist practicing pain medicine and addiction medicine for the past 25 years. In my pain …
Opening up America for the sake of mental health
Much controversy surrounds whether or not hydroxychloroquine is effective in preventing or treating infection with COVID-19. While much of the data so far suggests that hydroxychloroquine is not effective at treating COVID-19, and perhaps that it might even be harmful, multiple clinical trials focusing both on prevention and treatment are ongoing. The controversy around …
It is unethical for the United States to send hydroxychloroquine to Brazil
More than once, I have joked with my medical student leader that I look forward to the day when she will be my boss. I have mentored hundreds of health professions students over the past ten years. Teaching young thought leaders to address complex issues is rewarding and rejuvenating; it only seemed natural to incorporate these learners during the coronavirus pandemic.
COVID has disrupted the education of health professions students; indeed, …
How this physician incorporated medical students in COVID care
The evolving COVID-19 outbreak has generated concern for students across a variety of disciplines. While some might believe the healthcare sector is protected in the setting of a pandemic, rising medical graduates are realizing they, too, are not immune from uncertainty. Third- and fourth-year medical students, in particular, are experiencing unprecedented changes to the traditional paradigm of medical education, which will surely impact their career trajectories, …
What’s next for medical students? The path is not so clear.
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I’d like to focus on a group that isn’t discussed much: the divorced health care parent. With physician marriages ending at a rate of 24 percent and over 1 million physicians and 18 million health care workers in the U.S., this topic will undoubtedly resonate with many despite a paucity of literature. Co-parenting is hard enough—adding a pandemic can put even previously stable co-parenting in extremis. Here’s my COVID-19 co-parenting …
The divorced physician parent in the time of COVID-19
While the COVID-19 pandemic has been straining our health care system, public support for health care workers has never been greater. Every evening for a few minutes, neighborhoods across the country erupt into enthusiastic cheering and instrumental noise as people show their support for us. My social media feed has erupted with posts, artwork, and hashtags praising us #healthcareheroes and #frontlinecovid19.
However, if you really want to support your “health care …
Health care workers need policy changes, not just applause
Thinking that it was time to think about what sort of long-term mask I would like to procure to wear in public as the summer approaches, I got to thinking, what sort of mask defines me as a person? Is it the stagecoach robber triangular bandana? Is it a standard medical ear-loop mask? An OR mask has to be tied, and wearing an N95 respirator in public while hospital workers …
The health effects of a bad economy may be worse than COVID-19
As the COVID-19 pandemic quickly moved across the nation this spring, state governments and health systems rushed to create or revise their crisis standards of care that contain medical rationing guidelines. In light of the crisis, how can we distribute health care resources equitably and without discrimination or bias when they are in short supply?
During a podcast interview, Kim …
Medical rationing in the age of COVID-19
As medical students with backgrounds in public health and global health care operations, we were shocked by the action on the part of the Trump administration to defund the World Health Organization (WHO). This decision undermines the global community’s progress in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and will ultimately cost the lives of thousands of individuals. To appropriately support the WHO, it is critical to understand its vital functions and limitations, …
Just what is the WHO and why does it matter?
The COVID-19 narrative is strong and pervasive: we must sacrifice either jobs or lives. This debate has seemingly polarized our society on moral and ethical grounds.
For many healthcare professionals, the intrinsic value of life is self-evident. No price can ethically be placed on the value of health and human life.
Fortunately, from an economic point of view, the choice between the economy and health might be a false dilemma.
The intersection of …
The economic argument for saving lives
Coronavirus has overwhelmed hospitals, staff, and supply chains, stripped many Americans of health care coverage along with their jobs, and affected billions of people worldwide with mounting fatalities.
Despite its massive human toll, the pandemic offers the promise of a much-improved health care system for the future. Our response to this tragedy paves the way for integrated, value-based health care systems in which patients receive the care they need without exhausting …
The COVID-19 pandemic is a catalyst for reimagining future health care delivery
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