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COVID-19 pandemic

1,704 articles · Since 2020

Articles, page 67

Conditions and diseases

The collective consciousness of COVID-19

"Plagues are infrequent but constant, and they do not alter the conditions of mankind (everybody dies) but rather concentrate our misfortunes into moments where everyone thinks for a change that mortality is afoot." - Albert Camus In Camus' construct, there…

“Plagues are infrequent but constant, and they do not alter the conditions of mankind (everybody dies) but rather concentrate our misfortunes into moments where everyone thinks for a change that mortality is afoot.”
– Albert Camus

In Camus’ construct, there was no mass media or the internet, yet the fear of imminent death spread like wildfire in a parched California landscape. Nothing is as contagious as that type of fear, as stampedes …

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The collective consciousness of COVID-19

Conditions and diseases

Treating COVID-19 patients in their homes

Anecdotal though it may be, a team of Italian doctors and nurses, led by Dr. Luigi Cavanna, has reported apparent success treating COVID-19 patients in their homes. Realizing too many near-death patients were traveling long distances to the hospital emergency…

Anecdotal though it may be, a team of Italian doctors and nurses, led by Dr. Luigi Cavanna, has reported apparent success treating COVID-19 patients in their homes. Realizing too many near-death patients were traveling long distances to the hospital emergency room in Piacenza, Italy from their rural villages, Cavanna reasoned many of these patients might be saved if they were diagnosed and treated earlier. He also reasoned his overcrowded hospital …

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Treating COVID-19 patients in their homes

Physician finance

The importance of achieving FIRE for the physician in the age of COVID-19

Times have definitely changed. In the month of March 2020, we have seen the global economy shut down almost completely. Businesses shut down. Travel stopped. Millions filing for unemployment. Crises that used to span out over months, now happen in…

Times have definitely changed.

In the month of March 2020, we have seen the global economy shut down almost completely. Businesses shut down. Travel stopped. Millions filing for unemployment.

Crises that used to span out over months, now happen in the time span of weeks to days.

The rate of economic decline from COVID-19 is faster, more pronounced, and more pervasive than 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis combined. Unlike 9/11 and 2008, the …

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The importance of achieving FIRE for the physician in the age of COVID-19

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Conditions and diseases

Should fourth-year medical students graduate early?

Graduating medical students early is not a completely novel concept. During WWII, there was a significant physician shortage, and various medical schools initiated a 3-year accelerated MD program to produce more physicians. These programs were eventually discontinued in the late…

Graduating medical students early is not a completely novel concept. During WWII, there was a significant physician shortage, and various medical schools initiated a 3-year accelerated MD program to produce more physicians. These programs were eventually discontinued in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1918, the influenza pandemic created a similar situation. Third- and fourth-year medical students were enlisted to help …

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Should fourth-year medical students graduate early?

Conditions and diseases

The moral and ethical dilemmas of COVID-19

In all of my thirty years of medical practice, I have never encountered the degree of moral and ethical dilemmas as those created by COVID-19. None of us has experienced anything like this. At no time in our history has…

In all of my thirty years of medical practice, I have never encountered the degree of moral and ethical dilemmas as those created by COVID-19. None of us has experienced anything like this. At no time in our history has all of humanity been at risk for contracting the same potentially deadly disease. And never in my entire career could I have imagined that we would be so woefully unequipped …

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The moral and ethical dilemmas of COVID-19

Conditions and diseases

The opportunities for medical students in a pandemic

The health care system is broken. Physician burnout is at an all-time high. Patients don’t trust us. If you ask any medical student today, they will have heard at least one of these statements from their educators, often coupled with…

The health care system is broken. Physician burnout is at an all-time high. Patients don’t trust us. If you ask any medical student today, they will have heard at least one of these statements from their educators, often coupled with the phrase: We don’t know how to solve it, but your generation will find the solution. While meant as encouragement, these statements paint a gruesome future for the health professions …

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The opportunities for medical students in a pandemic

Conditions and diseases

Why you should remember your anesthesiologist’s name

13

If you’ve had surgery before, you almost certainly remember who your surgeon was. You’ve probably thanked them countless times for getting you through a scary time. Whether they excised your cancerous tissue, repaired your ACL, or removed your inflamed gallbladder,…

If you’ve had surgery before, you almost certainly remember who your surgeon was. You’ve probably thanked them countless times for getting you through a scary time. Whether they excised your cancerous tissue, repaired your ACL, or removed your inflamed gallbladder, you have likely sung their praise, time, and time again.

But do you remember who your anesthesiologist was the day of your surgery? Probably not, and that’s okay. You may recall …

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Why you should remember your anesthesiologist’s name

Conditions and diseases

Even during a global pandemic, the human connection remains present

As I drove into work this week, I felt the elephant standing on my chest with its heavy foot in the pit of my stomach. Amidst this current global pandemic due to COVID-19, I reminded myself to breathe. The idea…

As I drove into work this week, I felt the elephant standing on my chest with its heavy foot in the pit of my stomach.  Amidst this current global pandemic due to COVID-19, I reminded myself to breathe. The idea of getting closer to the hospital made the adrenaline surge through my anxiety-ridden heart.

I think back to a time many years ago, when I was a pediatric resident, preparing to …

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Even during a global pandemic, the human connection remains present

Conditions and diseases

Understanding science means realizing that science doesn’t always have all of the answers

The impact of science on the well-being on our planet has never been more important than it is now. We are all looking to science and technology in a search for answers and resources. We keep watching television in search…

The impact of science on the well-being on our planet has never been more important than it is now. We are all looking to science and technology in a search for answers and resources. We keep watching television in search of these answers, but we are left unsatisfied because we don’t understand medical science.

A great deal of what we know as doctors comes from other doctors.

…

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Understanding science means realizing that science doesn’t always have all of the answers

Conditions and diseases

A medical student about to graduate. And a lack of closure.

In this isolated and new existence, we are experiencing a collective grief. A deep, poignant distress caused by bereavement. Apart physically, but together mourning the loss of the world we once knew. Life has distinct stepping stones. Birth, death, marriage,…

In this isolated and new existence, we are experiencing a collective grief. A deep, poignant distress caused by bereavement. Apart physically, but together mourning the loss of the world we once knew.

Life has distinct stepping stones. Birth, death, marriage, graduation. Proof that one phase of existence has ended, and another will soon begin. Traditionally, these occasions are marked by gatherings, festivities, celebrations. In the unprecedented age of COVID-19, so many …

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A medical student about to graduate. And a lack of closure.

Conditions and diseases

We must support nursing home residents during COVID-19 trauma

Two months ago, I kneeled next to Sarah – an avid drinker of chocolate milk, ex-journalist, and new hospice resident – in a nursing homeroom. We had a knack for discussing emotions, and that day, our conversation reached the idea…

Two months ago, I kneeled next to Sarah – an avid drinker of chocolate milk, ex-journalist, and new hospice resident – in a nursing homeroom. We had a knack for discussing emotions, and that day, our conversation reached the idea of suffering.

Her pain-stricken voice shared, “Did you know that we notice? When someone’s health turns for the worst, we notice. There is a special whispering that flutters throughout the building. …

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We must support nursing home residents during COVID-19 trauma

Conditions and diseases

Changes are needed to help today’s health care heroes

On 9/11, firefighters and other first responders rushed in to protect others, and for that, they will always be heroes. Today, health care workers are rushing in to heal those with COVID-19 – at great risk to themselves. Health care…

On 9/11, firefighters and other first responders rushed in to protect others, and for that, they will always be heroes. Today, health care workers are rushing in to heal those with COVID-19 – at great risk to themselves. Health care workers are the true heroes of this crisis.

On routine days, clinicians caring for patients at the bedside are at far greater risk than most people in

…

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Changes are needed to help today’s health care heroes

Conditions and diseases

During the pandemic, faith keeps us together

With the world more or less at a standstill, how do we cope with our needs as human beings? So much has changed in our world in such a short amount of time. For most of us, our rather predictable…

With the world more or less at a standstill, how do we cope with our needs as human beings? So much has changed in our world in such a short amount of time. For most of us, our rather predictable and standard routines have come to a complete standstill. It’s as if someone hit the pause button on the movie called life.

Learning the new normal in these unusual times has …

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During the pandemic, faith keeps us together

Conditions and diseases

An oncologist’s prescription for managing fear and chaos in the COVID-19 pandemic

4

When physicians present at medical conferences, we usually start with a slide disclosing any potential conflicts of interest to our audience. I probably need to disclose two things here. First, I’m an infuriating and inexhaustible optimist. Second, I’m a cancer…

When physicians present at medical conferences, we usually start with a slide disclosing any potential conflicts of interest to our audience. I probably need to disclose two things here. First, I’m an infuriating and inexhaustible optimist. Second, I’m a cancer doctor but also a recent cancer patient myself, and I understand intimately how it feels when your world unexpectedly spins out of control.

With the arrival of COVID-19 on our shores …

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An oncologist’s prescription for managing fear and chaos in the COVID-19 pandemic

Conditions and diseases

Please don’t make physicians choose

I took an oath when I graduated from medical school. The ancient, powerful words of the Hippocratic Oath are seared into the brain of every physician: “First, do no harm.” I, along with every physician who has come before me,…

I took an oath when I graduated from medical school. The ancient, powerful words of the Hippocratic Oath are seared into the brain of every physician: “First, do no harm.” I, along with every physician who has come before me, hold myself to that standard. Every time I go to work, my goal is to deliver the best treatment to any patient who seeks my care. Yet I worry I …

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Please don’t make physicians choose

Conditions and diseases

During the pandemic, it’s OK to be a “good enough” parent

The social media posts exhaust me. I see parents with colorful schedules for children to abide by during this pandemic and others who have made a zillion fabric masks to donate. Meanwhile, I’m trying to test the technology to see…

The social media posts exhaust me.  I see parents with colorful schedules for children to abide by during this pandemic and others who have made a zillion fabric masks to donate. Meanwhile, I’m trying to test the technology to see patients from my new home “office” and train my children that they cannot join the visits (not successful so far). The constant barrage of emails notifying me how my children …

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During the pandemic, it’s OK to be a “good enough” parent

Conditions and diseases

CMS needs to permanently eliminate barriers preventing routine use of telemedicine

On March 6, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided a temporary waiver to expand telemedicine services, whose use was previously limited to specific circumstances. However, as the United States grapples with the unprecedented impact of the…

On March 6, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided a temporary waiver to expand telemedicine services, whose use was previously limited to specific circumstances. However, as the United States grapples with the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our nation’s health care system, CMS should permanently eliminate barriers limiting the routine use of telemedicine.

As clinicians, we can …

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CMS needs to permanently eliminate barriers preventing routine use of telemedicine

Conditions and diseases

Please remember that patients with COVID-19 are human beings

I am a cardiology fellow at a large hospital. I plan to keep anonymity even though I don’t think there would be repercussions from my story, but in this day and age, you never know. I was on call recently…

I am a cardiology fellow at a large hospital. I plan to keep anonymity even though I don’t think there would be repercussions from my story, but in this day and age, you never know.  I was on call recently and was paged by our ED about a teenager with chest pain. OK, teenager with chest pain, big whoop. They later described that this pain was positional in that it …

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Please remember that patients with COVID-19 are human beings

Conditions and diseases

Wisconsin and Anthony Fauci prove physicians need to and can be national leaders

If one of your patients told you he is going to go spend a few hours hanging out in the cold this week with a bunch of people who might have coronavirus, what would your advice be? That is exactly…

If one of your patients told you he is going to go spend a few hours hanging out in the cold this week with a bunch of people who might have coronavirus, what would your advice be?  That is exactly the situation thousands of people in Wisconsin faced on April 7, as the state decided to push forward with their election despite an attempted delay by their governor in the …

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Wisconsin and Anthony Fauci prove physicians need to and can be national leaders

Conditions and diseases

I’m sorry: a letter from a pathology resident on the frontlines

I hope that this letter finds you (and myself) alive and well after all this COVID-19 craziness ends. I never really got the chance to explain everything when I was taking care of you. It wasn’t your fault you ended…

I hope that this letter finds you (and myself) alive and well after all this COVID-19 craziness ends. I never really got the chance to explain everything when I was taking care of you. It wasn’t your fault you ended up at the hospital when you did, and you deserved so much better.

First of all, I was a pathology resident. A redeployed pathology resident. Actually, redeployed

…

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I’m sorry: a letter from a pathology resident on the frontlines

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