COVID-19 pandemic

1,704 articles · Since 2020

Articles, page 58

COVID-19? We are not even ready for a hurricane.

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

The hurricane made landfall during the early morning hours. When I woke up, all I saw was devastation. Highway 288 transformed into a lake. The bayou running underneath was completely flooded with water spilling into the roads. The park, a place where I find solace in every day, was unrecognizable. People had abandoned their vehicles. I could see them all submerged. The garage floor was underwater, and the roads that …

Health policy

The social determinants of health during the COVID-19 pandemic

Heather Thompson Buum, MD

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

As an academic internist, over the past five years, I’ve been hearing more and more about social determinants of health. I have read countless journal articles comparing health outcomes; I’ve attended grand rounds on the subject; recently, our electronic medical record changed to incorporate a tab on social determinants of health into the patient’s chart. As a course director in the medical school, I’ve incorporated this topic into …

Health policy

How COVID-19 will close pediatric practices

Nidhi Kukreja, MD

May 7, 2020May 7, 20206

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down. It has wreaked havoc on the economy, leaving many jobless, and many industries questioning where their future lies. In my view, it has brought the weak infrastructure of the U.S. health care system to a breaking point. These deficiencies were already present: limited public health prowess, hospitals’ inefficiencies, poor coordination of care, and disjointed health care messages between federal …

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Drugs and prescribing

Scientists predicted remdesivir’s success with a simulation. Here’s how.

Cesar Padilla, MD

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

In 2002 pro baseball manager Billy Beane accomplished the impossible. He took the Oakland Athletics, a low-budget team comprised of unknown baseball players to the playoffs. The story’s magic is that he was able to compete with the Goliaths of the baseball world – the New York Yankees – with only a fraction of the budget. The idea is simple – draft players who are statistically successful in their respective …

Physician voices

How to be a better doctor? Stop being their doctor.

Silvana Barone, MD

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a slew of challenges that were previously unimaginable for many of us. Social isolation, separation from beloved family members, the daily struggle to juggle work, parenting, and teaching in times of economic and generalized uncertainty – these are just some of the difficulties arising from the current situation. Feelings of fear and anxiety stemming from uncertainty are, however, a pre-pandemic reality for some …

Conditions and diseases

From frontlines to sidelined: a resident’s experience on staying positive

Rohith Mohan, MD

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

On a gorgeous day in early March, I set out on my usual morning commute to clinic. The recent rain had turned the mountains green, there was some fresh snow atop Mount Baldy in the usually dry Inland Empire of Southern California, and the Lakers had just beaten their rival Clippers the preceding weekend. As I drove in to work, I was listening to coverage of the story I had …

Physician voices

Not visiting your loved one in the hospital is an act of love

John F. McGeehan, MD

May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

I spent many weeks as a patient in the hospital a few years ago and was encephalopathic during the entire stay. This means that I could speak and interact and, at times, especially to those who did not know me, appeared normal. I was told that I would give coherent lectures to the medical students who came to see me on rounds, only to not remember doing so an hour …

Physician voices

A story of a family physician looking for work during the pandemic

Anonymous

May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

I never expected to find myself in this position. Ironically, I, a family medicine physician, in a world grappling with a pandemic, became underemployed for the first time since high school. A unique set of circumstances led me to this…

At the end of 2019, I made a decision to leave my regular job as …

Physician voices

Wellness during the COVID-19 crisis

Beverly Joyce, MD

May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

We are more than a month into the shelter-in-place, and there are many thoughts that can come up for physicians. Our frontline workers, who are dealing with limited viral testing, inadequate treatments for ill patients, scarcity of PPE, and fear of the virus infecting us and potentially our family members, are undoubtedly fatigued and drained by what they are going through. Other physicians whose practices have had to shut down …

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Wellness during the COVID-19 crisis

Conditions and diseases

A physician-mother comforts her frightened, 6-year-old daughter

Ogechi Ikediobi, MD, PhD

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

It’s Monday morning at 7:15 a.m. Our kids, ages 6 and 9, have just finished breakfast, and they know to get their shoes on to go for a walk. We are hand-in-hand, slowly waking up as we put one foot in front of the other. We ambled down our neighborhood streets, listening to birds chirping and squinted as we looked upward to admire their flight.

Out of nowhere, our 6-year-old squeezes …

Conditions and diseases

An advertisement for COVID 2020

Jody Leng, MD

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed both at work and at home? Perhaps you’re thinking, my job as an anesthesiologist isn’t anxiety-provoking enough; I should probably homeschool my kids at the same time. When’s the last time you uttered the…

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed both at work and at home?

Perhaps you’re thinking, my job as an anesthesiologist isn’t anxiety-provoking enough; I should probably homeschool my kids at the same time.

When’s the last time you uttered the phrase, “This is the most stress I’ve ever experienced” multiple days in a row?

Come on over, COVID 2020 has got you covered!

First, we’ll start with the existential threat of a global pandemic—one …

Read more…

An advertisement for COVID 2020

Conditions and diseases

The plausible positive alternative to COVID-19

K. Maravet Baig-Ward, MD, PhD

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

Do you remember those old cartoons with the angel or good guy on one shoulder and the little devil or bad guy on the other? Of course, the good guy was always trying to keep the character out of mischief, and certainly, the little devil was doing quite the opposite. Sometimes, especially now during these uncertain times, it’s easier to see the negative, “hear” that little bad guy over the …

Physician finance

How COVID-19 is forcing physicians to rethink the concept of job security

Christopher H. Loo, MD, PhD

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

Prior to 2000, a practicing physician was almost guaranteed a prosperous economic livelihood. The guaranteed future meant that a physician could take on financial risks such as using student loans to finance their education, purchase a house during residency, and…

Prior to 2000, a practicing physician was almost guaranteed a prosperous economic livelihood.

The guaranteed future meant that a physician could take on financial risks such as using student loans to finance their education, purchase a house during residency, and start building a family.

After becoming an attending, affording the million-dollar house, saving for retirement, financing their kids’ education, a physician could then use the remainder to afford the luxuries of life. …

Conditions and diseases

The exacerbation of social isolation among the elderly

Vismaya Bachu

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

COVID-19 has rapidly spread across the nation, leading to the implementation of stringent social distancing guidelines by local and regional authorities. In a desperate effort to limit infection rates, in-person social interactions have been reduced, and many have turned towards…

Still, this solution to mitigate the spread of the virus deeply impacts vulnerable groups. Specifically, social isolation of the elderly …

Conditions and diseases

Who should we really be testing for COVID-19?

Michael Wolfson, PhD

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

The Canadian federal government recently announced it would fund at least one million blood tests to track the novel coronavirus over the next two years. This is a step in the right direction. But is it enough? How do we…

How do we know if we are testing the right number, and the right people, especially as the pressure to ease up on the lockdown and

…

Physician voices

Vulnerability is challenging but necessary for health care professionals

Tracey O'Connell, MD

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

As someone trained in Brené Brown's curriculum for helping professionals, vulnerability is my jam. As a physician? Not so much. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown already burned-out health care providers into the arena with more than just a shortage of…

As someone trained in Brené Brown’s curriculum for helping professionals, vulnerability is my jam.

As a physician? Not so much.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown already burned-out health care providers into the arena with more than just a shortage of equipment. We are now expected to risk our own lives caring for others, which was not part of the original job description. Medical providers are not Marines, nor do we work for …

Physician voices

COVID tells us to have “the conversation” now

Ylfa Perry, MD

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

Insurance companies require doctors to ask dozens of questions and click on carpal-tunnel inducing boxes during a yearly physical. However, none of those questions or boxes address one of the most important aspects of a person’s life, their death. So, as a family doctor, I encourage people to think about it, have “the conversation” with loved ones, and complete the paperwork.

I’m also married to a doctor, so the conversation is …

Physician voices

COVID-19 is becoming boring

Karyn P. Grant

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020

Radical statement. I know it may sound crazy. We’ve been at the COVID-19 battle for what seems like forever. The fight is not going away for a long time; it’s going to morph into keeping the virus contained while we…

Radical statement. I know it may sound crazy.

We’ve been at the COVID-19 battle for what seems like forever. The fight is not going away for a long time; it’s going to morph into keeping the virus contained while we get the economy back in full gear. Get people back to work and play, kids back to school and reconnect with our family and friends.

So, for many, this becomes yet another …

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COVID-19 is becoming boring

Health policy

An outdated law is limiting our coronavirus response

Leah Hampson Yoke, PA-C

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to expose shortcomings in our health care system, an outdated law in many states limits the ability of specific health care workers, physician assistants (PAs), to deploy and provide emergency care. In Washington State, a PA must have a delegation agreement filed with the Department of Health, which identifies a supervisory physician for that PA. The scope of practice of each PA is defined by …

Physician voices

Are we letting our hearts rule our minds in the time of COVID-19?

Sue Royappa, MD

May 4, 2020May 4, 20205

One month ago, I made a video telling people to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19. Today I'm making a video telling people to not stay home with life-threatening symptoms of other diseases. This is because patients are…

One month ago, I made a video telling people to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19. Today I’m making a video telling people to not stay home with life-threatening symptoms of other diseases. This is because patients are now more terrified of getting the virus than dying of a heart attack or stroke. I fear that I, and other physicians, in our efforts to warn people about the …

COVID-19 pandemic

Articles, page 58

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