I work as an emergency physician in the emergency department at a Level 1 trauma center. Because time is of the essence, when we get a trauma into the ED, they are automatically deemed a Doe – John or Jane. Due to the number of traumas we see at our trauma center in a given year, another word gets added to the Doe to make them easier to identify. It …
Let’s be honest. Most frontline clinicians don’t wake up worrying about CDC updates. They’re worrying about whether the ED has enough staff, or whether the patient they discharge will receive the follow-up care they need.
So when another vaccine recommendation or public policy update drops, often contradicting the last, it’s no wonder people roll their eyes. The problem isn’t that clinicians don’t care about public health; it’s that the messaging often …
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Emergency physician Resa E. Lewiss and health care executive Jake Horowitz discuss their article, “Why women ER doctors earn $21,000 less than men.” They reveal staggering new data that shatters the myth …
When Americans decide something is right, political inertia does not prevent us from acting, and now is the time for health care. Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 60 percent of Americans had employer-sponsored coverage, 20 percent relied on public programs, and the remaining 20 percent had to obtain insurance on their own, a difficult task because the individual market was unsustainable. But the ACA stabilized these issues by expanding …
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Pediatric emergency medicine physician Bronwen Carroll discusses her article, “The childhood risk we never talk about.” Bronwen explains the staggering data showing child sexual abuse is far more common than many other …
On July 6, 2025, in Nanjing, China, a construction worker plunged onto a steel rod that pierced him from pelvis to chest. That night, doctors fought millimeter by millimeter through a five-hour battle against death.
The call at midnight
The phone’s shriek tore through the heavy summer silence just after midnight.
Professor Ji Zhenling, president of Nanjing Jiangbei Hospital, surfaced from sleep, the warmth of his pillowcase still pressed against his cheek. His …
The day before the attack, a senior physician at a Catholic university hospital in Taiwan sat with young medical students at noon, talking not about lawsuits or hospital finances, but about Brahms. He loved four-hand piano pieces, especially Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, and he would explain how two players must breathe together, listen to one another, and balance passion with discipline. For him, this was also a lesson about medicine: You …
Picture this: It’s your second month of residency, and you’re deep into a hectic ED shift. The pressure is on; you’re managing patients, making decisions, and trying to get better. Then, a mistake happens. Not one that results in significant harm to the patient, but maybe you miss a diagnosis, fumble a procedure, or are just overwhelmed in general. You know failure is part of growth, but that doesn’t make …
Parents are inundated with advice and guidance on all manner of topics from an array of sources, but as a pediatric emergency medicine physician, I have been astonished to realize that parents hear almost nothing about the risk that actually poses the greatest threat of causing serious harm to their children. Approximately 10 percent of children in the United States experience sexual abuse, with one in four girls and somewhere …
The numbers are staggering. Americans made 139.8 million emergency department visits in 2024, that is 42.7 visits per 100 people, with behavioral health issues driving an unprecedented surge. Behind these statistics lies a harsh reality: depression, a leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, is overwhelming our emergency departments with cases they were never designed to handle. This tsunami of mental health crises creates a vicious cycle. …
Two emergency physicians with similar training work at the same hospital. Both have twelve years of experience. Both are contracted to work 2,000 hours per year, see roughly twenty patients per shift, and supervise staff. One is a man, the other is a woman. The same work, the same training, the same conditions. Not the same salary: The woman earns about $21,000 less each year.
That is not a hypothetical. That …
On October 7, 2023, more than 1,200 people were murdered in a single day in the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel, and over 250 individuals were taken hostage. This was the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Holocaust. For many Jewish health care workers, it marked a devastating shift: Our hospitals and clinics were no longer safe, not because of external conflict, but simply because we are Jewish. We had …
Emergency medicine has evolved far beyond what its founders envisioned. Once an afterthought of the health care system, it is now the gateway to care for millions. Every day, our emergency departments serve as the front door of the hospital and, for many, the only door into health care.
This is why I argue that emergency medicine safeguards human rights.
Consider the patient mix of any emergency department: we care for the …
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Professional development practitioner and veteran emergency nurse Kristen Cline discusses her article, “America’s ER crisis: Why the system is collapsing from within.” Using the TV drama “The Pitt” as …
Emergency medicine residency: where the pager announces before your coffee cools, and your personal life takes a number far behind sepsis alerts and trauma activations. Amidst this storm, there’s an unexpected survival manual—not found in Tintinalli’s or Rosen’s, but in Mark Manson’s self-help book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
Manson argues that life’s meaning isn’t found in chasing positivity, but in embracing struggle, choosing your battles wisely, …
We had been trying, but the moment you see the word on the test strip, reality hits differently. My career was on an upward trajectory—I had just been offered a major promotion. And all I could think was: Why now?
When I told my husband how nervous I felt, he assumed it was about my body changing, or how our family of two would soon become three. He was wrong—and visibly …
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Independent emergency physician Kenneth Ro discusses his article, “From survival to sovereignty: What 35 years in the ER taught me about identity, mortality, and redemption.” He shares his deeply personal journey, from …
Every ED has patients who become part of the landscape. They come in once or twice a week, for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes they have chronic medical conditions they are unable to manage. Sometimes they are on the outskirts of society due to mental health or substance abuse disorders. The ER promises a few hours of sleep in a safe place and a meal. I formed an uneasy alliance …
The ED is swamped with new patient arrivals. As a result, the 20-year-old who told the triage nurse he is having difficulty breathing waits an hour before his turn in the triage room. The emergency department technician hands me the ECG—sinus tachycardia—and takes the vitals.
Me: “What brings you to the emergency department today?”
Him: “I feel like I cannot breathe. It started all of a sudden at work.”
As I scroll through …
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Emergency physicians Resa E. Lewiss and Courtney M. Smalley discuss their article, “Why point-of-care ultrasound belongs in emergency department triage.” Amid the crisis of overcrowded waiting rooms and long wait times, they …
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