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Join us in this episode as we hear the remarkable story of Tami Burdick, a patient advocate and author of the book Diagnosis Detective: Curing Granulomatous Mastitis. Tami takes us on …
Unraveling the mysteries of granulomatous mastitis: a patient’s inspiring journey [PODCAST]
An excerpt from Outbreaks and Pandemics: The Life of a Disease Detective.
The importance of disease detectives in solving and controlling outbreaks and pandemics must be recognized. We are the backbone of our public health system. We are scientifically savvy, inquisitive, detail-oriented, and able to follow the data wherever it leads, hopefully to answers and solutions to public health problems. Disease detectives are important in characterizing diseases in terms of …
The unsung heroes of disease detectives: Controlling outbreaks and pandemics to save lives
This is a story of headlines and the power they wield for good and evil (apologies for the melodrama). Words matter, and I, for one, am frustrated with the words in headlines often doing more harm than good.
I am a family doctor whose passion in life is preventing disease. I don’t want to see my patients suffering from diabetes or heart failure, nor from a contagious disease that is preventable …
Unveiling the truth: How headlines shape our world and the urgent need for reliable news
I never envisioned a business trip could result in a diagnosis of a rare, under-practiced, poorly understood, and emerging chronic inflammatory breast disease affecting 2.4 women per 100,000 and growing. Two months after my return from that business trip, I started experiencing a multitude of symptoms, including breast pain. During a self-breast exam, I discovered a lump. Wasting no time, I called my primary care physician, who ordered both a …
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Join us as we chat with medical writer Steven Marshall about the evolving health care landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss the transformative effects on health care delivery, the availability …
COVID-19: Unveiling the transformative shifts in health care [PODCAST]
As the current COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the globe, many are left wondering when the next pandemic will occur. The reality is that pandemics are not a new phenomenon, and throughout history, we have seen numerous instances of infectious diseases causing widespread devastation.
While we cannot predict with certainty when the next pandemic will occur, there are certain circumstances under which they are more likely to occur.
One such circumstance …
Unveiling the global pandemic threat: insights into risk factors and urgent measures for prevention
My husband, a physician, and I have four wonderful children – a son and three daughters. I look back over the past decade and wonder, “Why?” Why did my daughters contract Lyme disease and not my son or husband? Why was it so difficult to establish a diagnosis? Why are doctors specializing in treating patients with Lyme disease considered pariahs, while conventional doctors may not consider the diagnosis and often …
An excerpt from Fifty Shades of Gray Matter.
He was Hitler. Not the evil Nazi dictator returned somehow from the Inferno to which he had been consigned. Apparently, as with the witches in Oz, there were both good and bad Hitlers. He informed me that he was, in fact, a good Hitler, having been unfortunately named for the infamous German monster. That a parent would name a child Hitler …
An excerpt from Long Illness: A Practical Guide to Surviving, Healing, and Thriving. Copyright ©2023. Available from Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Let’s say that you have it all together: you are accepting your illness and it is enriching your life. Now turn on the TV, pick up a book, watch a play, or listen to a song. How illness and disability are portrayed in our culture …
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In this episode, we delve into the story of Lazarus, a man who died and was raised from the dead by Jesus Christ. Our guest is William Lynes, a urologist who …
Uncovering the medical mystery behind Lazarus’ resurrection [PODCAST]
Mr. Sanchez had been feeling unwell for days before he decided to visit the emergency room. When I walked into his room, I immediately noticed that he was scared and anxious. His sore throat had been persistent for five days and was now so severe that he couldn’t eat or drink anything. He had also developed a rash covering his entire body, which was only getting worse. The lymph nodes …
Surviving monkeypox: a story of compassionate care and an emerging disease outbreak
Editor’s note (2026): Several details in this article need correction. Bethany lies about 2 miles east of Jerusalem, not south. John 11 describes the raising of Lazarus, not the resurrection of Jesus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines sepsis as the body’s extreme response to an infection, not an infection in the bloodstream. Heart muscle begins to die within about 20 to 40 minutes of losing its blood …
Lazarus: the dead man brought back to life
While it appears we are on the downhill slope of COVID-19’s integration into everyday life, burnout rates are rising, and organizational trust is taking a nose-dive. Aren’t we supposed to be in the post-disaster recovery phase? What is the bottleneck holding us back from moving toward our new horizon? On the surface, issues like operating losses, staffing shortages, and scarcity of supplies appear to be a few of the big …
Healing from the pandemic: a journey to recovery
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The World Health Organization (WHO) first declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020, when, outside of China, there were fewer than 100 cases, and there were no deaths. This formal declaration by the WHO has been renewed 12 times, most recently last month the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee advised the WHO that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to be …
COVID-19 is still a global health issue but we can responsibly live with it
Recently, I heard a news report regarding several state attorneys general suing the federal government to eliminate the requirement that health care providers be immunized against COVID. They argued that as fully immunized individuals still contract COVID, and that allowing unimmunized people to be rehired would relieve provider shortage, the regulation was unhelpful.
Initially, I agreed, as rehiring these individuals would generate some relief for those staff members who have worked …
The vaccination dilemma: Protecting patient rights or caregiver freedom?
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In this episode, we welcome clinical research assistant professor, Maranda C. Ward, to discuss the importance of routine screening for both HIV and COVID-19 in primary care. During the COVID pandemic, …
Breaking the stigma: Making HIV and COVID screening routine in primary care [PODCAST]
It was the year 2020 — the month of March. The world shifted on its axis in ways we could not imagine. The job of a physician-mother is one of never-ending tightrope walking while juggling batons on fire and crystal figurines, all while herding cats.
You see, the physician and mother are so intertwined in our being, one cannot leave either role for the other at their respective doorway. There is …
Mostly miserables: a physician-mother’s struggle during COVID-19
An excerpt from Never Too Late: Your Guide to Safer Sex after 60.
The sexual revolution that began in the 1960s challenged social norms and traditional concepts, promoted acceptance, and liberated individuals from sexual repression. It effectively transformed society and how we, in the United States, thought about sex. Today, those same people are helping us see that sexual exploration in the Golden Years remains as vigorous as it was …
Golden years, golden risk: the startling increase of STDs in seniors
I have three adult daughters, all college graduates. All are in long-term relationships with men, children, dogs, and careers. I am “Dad” and will always be Dad. I additionally happen to be a physician who cares for adult patients. If they are ill or have a medical problem, their first phone call is to my cell phone. If it’s not a phone call, it’s a text message. I do not …
Navigating the new norm: a physician’s perspective on caring for sick patients in the age of COVID
In 2021, I spent the year before starting medical school calling and counseling the patients of a busy urban emergency department on the results of their sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests.
“What exactly is gonorrhea?” some would ask. “Is there a cure?”
“No one ever taught me about this,” one older gentleman lamented when we discussed using condoms to prevent the transmission of infection.
Stories like his reflect our society’s hesitancy to discuss …
The rise of at-home STI testing: a solution to America’s growing problem or a risky gamble?
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