Health policy and public health

Do politics have a place in medicine? [PODCAST]

March 5, 2021Mar 5, 2021

"In addition to being a pediatrician, I am Jewish and the granddaughter of a sole Holocaust survivor. My grandfather’s family perished in Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland. My grandfather alone escaped, skiing through the night, to his safety and…

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“In addition to being a pediatrician, I am Jewish and the granddaughter of a sole Holocaust survivor. My grandfather’s family perished in Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland. My grandfather alone escaped, skiing through the night, to his safety and ultimate survival.

The request from my hospital, the presidential debate, and the seeming dismissal of parentless children reminds me of a quote …

Inside the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill is a political time bomb for Republicans

Robert Laszewski

March 4, 2021Mar 4, 2021

Contained inside the Democrats' $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill is a political time bomb for Republicans. Included in the bill's long list of stimulus spending is a provision that delivers on President Biden's promise to strengthen the Affordable Care Act…

Contained inside the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill is a political time bomb for Republicans.

Included in the bill’s long list of stimulus spending is a provision that delivers on President Biden’s promise to strengthen the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.

Obamacare’s big failure has been what it did not do to help––and actually hurt––middle-class buyers of individual health insurance. Since the health law’s inception, consumers, who are eligible for little …

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Health care from the trenches: Change must come from us [PODCAST]

March 3, 2021Mar 3, 2021

"We, as a profession, must accept some blame for many of the developing problems in health care delivery. No, I am not suggesting that we caused the problem. I am stating that we have had ample opportunities to manage the…

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“We, as a profession, must accept some blame for many of the developing problems in health care delivery. No, I am not suggesting that we caused the problem. I am stating that we have had ample opportunities to manage the debacle and even to reverse some of the disturbing trends, yet we rarely allow our voices to be heard.

Is health care …

Why environmental justice is integral to the future of medicine

Mehtab Sal & Olivia Glatt

March 3, 2021Mar 3, 2021

This past year has been one of overwhelming extremes: global pandemic, a national reckoning on racism, devastating wildfires and storms, and political disarray. To some it was perhaps just a difficult year. But to those who can identify the common thread of injustice, it is clear that this was the product of decades of systemic inequities. It is also clear that if these inequities are not addressed, what we have …

How physicians can emerge stronger after 2020 [PODCAST]

March 2, 2021Mar 2, 2021

"With 2020 behind us and the pandemic still raging, it is incumbent upon us to take a close look in the rear-view mirror. While the vaccines’ approval gives us all hope, the vaccination initiative’s slow rollout should worry us. Physicians,…

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“With 2020 behind us and the pandemic still raging, it is incumbent upon us to take a close look in the rear-view mirror. While the vaccines’ approval gives us all hope, the vaccination initiative’s slow rollout should worry us. Physicians, health care providers, nurses, and essential workers, and patients and family members have borne the brunt of the pandemic. On the …

Emergency departments need to claim their role in the social safety net

Caitlin Ryus, MD, MPH

February 28, 2021Feb 28, 2021

A patient once told me, “I sit on the side of the road asking for change. People look right through me like I’m invisible. Food stamps aren’t enough. I can’t afford to exist and I want to die.” A man is dying of poverty — this is an emergency, but not one I have been trained to fix. I am an emergency medicine physician; I care for people on the …

3 ways health plans can help providers

3 ways health plans can help providers

Martin Lustick, MD

February 26, 2021Feb 26, 2021

Just as providers have reimagined their clinical and business models in light of the pandemic, there is an opportunity to reimagine their relationship with health plans. Particularly in the context of evolving value-based contracts, there are a variety of “asks” that are likely to find receptive health plans. Three issues that are particularly important to health plans are administrative efficiency, quality measures, and overall cost of care. Each one creates …

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Joshua Wiedermann, MD & Sarah Yeakel, MBA & Theodore Klug, MD

Gender disparities in medicine: How popular literature mirrors 2020 society

February 23, 2021Feb 23, 2021

I’ve been looking for anything to take my mind off of 2020. During these tumultuous times of COVID-19, racial injustice, social unrest, and outright political upheaval, I’ve found myself turning back the clock to one of my favorite pastimes: reading.…

As I settled down into my favorite comfy chair on that rainy, quarantine-filled April day, I was reminded of some unsettling themes I’d discovered back in 2012. At that time, I …

An open letter to the medical community at large regarding the termination of Dr. Princess Dennar

Angela Weyand, MD & Eve Bloomgarden, MD & Regina Royan, MD, MPH & Sacharitha Bowers, MD & Shikha Jain, MD

February 22, 2021Feb 22, 2021

Deeply entrenched racism, rooted in the foundation of white supremacy, has had a stronghold in medicine for hundreds of years. Its legacy of harm against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities, particularly its atrocities against Black Americans, is undeniable. Yet significant change eludes us. For decades, these communities have borne the disproportionate burden of public health short-comings from police brutality, gun violence, infant and maternal mortality, and

…

The pandemic exposes critical gaps in Canada’s health workforce planning

Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, PhD

February 20, 2021Feb 20, 2021

Health workers in Canada experience endemic levels of burnout directly related to understaffing and work overload. Leaves of absence from work for mental health and stress-related issues are 1.5 times higher among health workers than the rest of the population. Increasingly, health workers are significantly reducing their hours worked to cope or leaving their jobs altogether.

That was before the pandemic. With COVID-19, we are witnessing levels of stress, overload, and burnout …

How do we talk about race, racism, and white supremacy without screaming at each other?

Jacques Ambrose, MD, MPH

February 19, 2021Feb 19, 202111

In the recent impeachment trial, many Americans, alongside U.S. Representatives and Senators, are reliving the Capitol riot's chaos and confusion. For us, that infamous day showcased a unifying emotion: anger. We can see the anger in the aggression and tumult…

In the recent impeachment trial, many Americans, alongside U.S. Representatives and Senators, are reliving the Capitol riot’s chaos and confusion. For us, that infamous day showcased a unifying emotion: anger. We can see the anger in the aggression and tumult of the rioters, in the fleeing representatives, in the senators’ testimonies, and most recently, in the trial’s highly debated decision.

Interestingly, this anger’s strained undertones seem intimately connected with another pervasive …

Children cannot afford to wait: We need to all work together to help schools reopen

Lekha M. Rao, MD

February 19, 2021Feb 19, 2021

I hesitated to write this because I am just a pediatric neurologist and epidemiologist. Plus, I didn't have any time until I dropped my kids off at school. Yes, you read that correctly. I just dropped my kindergartener and third-grader…

I hesitated to write this because I am just a pediatric neurologist and epidemiologist. Plus, I didn’t have any time until I dropped my kids off at school.

Yes, you read that correctly. I just dropped my kindergartener and third-grader off at school. Because they are extremely privileged to go to a private school that acknowledged the science last summer and worked hard to put procedures and policies in place to …

Why teachers aren’t going back to school: a physician’s take

Bernard Leo Remakus, MD

February 13, 2021Feb 13, 20214

All across the United States, elementary and secondary school teachers are refusing to go back to school. Before you join the growing lynch mob that’s going after these teachers, you may want to consider why they’re staying home. For starters,…

For starters, many school boards make their decisions based not on what is best for students, teachers, or the community they’re supposed to serve, but on the vested interests of the

…

With poverty rates now highest in 50 years, America needs a poverty czar

Janice Phillips, PhD, RN

February 12, 2021Feb 12, 202111

According to a newly released study, by the end of 2020, the United States experienced its sharpest rise in poverty rates in 50 years, leaving eight million more people nationwide in a state of poverty. As we usher in a new Congressional session, perhaps America needs an anti-poverty czar who can serve as a key resource for addressing the growing poverty rates in

…

Medical education

The rural health care crisis and medical education

Evan Chen & Jacob Riegler & Nick Richwagen

February 10, 2021Feb 10, 2021

Decades of job loss, the opioid crisis, and the current pandemic have all shaken the already tenuous health care system of rural America. This is happening in the wealthiest nation on Earth, with a GDP of over 20 trillion dollars. Why is this happening? And how can the medical education system better prepare future physicians to meet rural patients’ needs?

Despite our country’s …

Voting and vaccination are 2 sides of the same coin

Nicole Blum

February 8, 2021Feb 8, 2021

In the past year, the United States has faced compounding challenges as it struggled to control the COVID-19 pandemic and grappled with significant civil unrest. The American pandemic response has been primarily determined by the guidance—or lack thereof—of elected officials and enacted policies at the local, state, and federal levels. Now, with the development of vaccines to combat COVID-19, the interconnectedness of civic health and public health is increasingly clear. …

Kristan Langdon, DNP & Timothy Lee, MPH

Why health care fails to deliver better value in patient care

February 8, 2021Feb 8, 2021

There is a strong push for health care to move towards greater value-based care (VBC) arrangements. The prospect of VBC holds the opportunity to re-create partnerships designed to increase health care sustainability by strategically improving processes, care delivery, and patient outcomes to achieve higher quality output at a decreased cost. Furthermore, the held potential will not be optimized until providers, payers, patients, and communities are connected in this common goal …

Stop the us vs. them mentality in medicine

Dr. Mrinalini Garv

February 8, 2021Feb 8, 20215

As a foreign medical graduate and a multiple-time career changer -- from being a doctor to a hospital process improvement and leadership coach to a business professor to a transformational career coach for female physicians -- I have closely examined…

As a foreign medical graduate and a multiple-time career changer — from being a doctor to a hospital process improvement and leadership coach to a business professor to a transformational career coach for female physicians — I have closely examined the U.S. health care industry from various lenses.

The one thing that stands out for me is the us vs. them attitude. Us being physicians and them being administrators.

I have seen …

Why the preservation of the Affordable Care Act should matter to you [PODCAST]