"Each patient I have seen over these four decades has made me a better doctor. Books do not impact long term memory the way a real patient can. I once heard the chair of medicine at a teaching hospital say that the worst thing about being on call...
"We know that the past two months haven’t been easy. We know about the sleepless nights, anger, tears, depression, and anxiety. We know all of this because we know what trauma does to a person, and you are in the middle of experiencing a repeated...
"The COVID-19 pandemic has upended health care, with telemedicine emerging as a strategy to reduce risk exposures for patients and clinicians. Video visits, in particular, can be effective for many types of clinical care and offer convenience and...
"Faced with the prospect of not being able to provide all COVID-19 patients with the life support that they may need, physicians and nurses are working in conditions that have been described as 'hell.' How are providers to cope with the trauma they...
"After almost 30 years in this profession, I have come to the conclusion that there is some truth to that, as no day or week passes that I do not have a depressed, anxious or suicidal teen on my 'to see list.' Could it be my own personal history of...
"Where did the myth of vampires come from? Like many myths, it is based partly in fact. A blood disorder called porphyria, which has has been with us for millennia, became prevalent among the nobility and royalty of Eastern Europe. A genetic disorder,...
"As women physicians, especially physician-moms and women physicians of color, we have handled and achieved more than the vast majority of the population, in order to reach our current status of physician. We do because we can. We are Superwomen....
What are the challenges facing psychiatry? How does psychiatry need to innovate the continue to thrive? What is the future of psychiatry What's your #1 tip for those considering the profession? What advice can you give to primary care clinicians as it...
"Death is not meant to be rushed. Saying goodbye shouldn’t be rushed. Celebrating a life once lived cannot be rushed. And yet, we must. Taking a moment, a minute, an hour, maybe a day to feel something that normally takes far longer. Because we...
"Over the last 100 years, the U.S. has had to respond to five avian flu pandemics. The most severe was the 1918 avian influenza infecting 1/3 of the world’s population and killing 650,000 Americans. It was also the last time wide-spread containment,...
"The unparalleled and pervasive nature of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of us in some way. There is limited, albeit growing, research on the mental health effects of disasters. A recent review article pointed...
"Recent articles have accused some physicians of hoarding medications for themselves during our international medical crisis. Authors such as these should be ashamed of their coverage and wasted ability on sensationalism when they could be spending...
"This pandemic presents a unique opportunity for senior anesthesiologists to see the benefit of accommodating the health care needs of our workforce. Just as I tried to avoid the teratogenic effects of certain cases when pregnant, we should consider...
"Being present is a wonderful thing. It relieves stress caused by focusing on failures of the past and worries of the future. Both realms are unreachable, largely unchangeable. But at the same time, they both entice and tease our minds such that we...
"Recently, I realized that something needed to change in my family life. With three busy daughters at three different schools who participate in multiple activities along with my full-time job as an anesthesiologist, my life depended on accurate and...
"All too often, physicians and other health care providers have tried to do the right things for our patients to ultimately have had our hand slapped. So pause for a second, get the questions answered, know what future implications are for today’s...
"Obesity is a topic that literally hits home for me. For the past two years, the website WalletHub has voted the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission TX metroplex as the 'fattest city in America.' As a health care provider, this is deeply...
"We are in the midst of a crisis in humanity. While we are still dealing with COVID pandemic and its deleterious health, economic and societal consequences, our troubling past of racism and inequality is rearing its ugly head. The senseless killings...
"With my passion for writing and connecting digitally with others in health care and the general public, this ‘downtime’ has allowed for an expansion of these interests. I’ve begun recording on my podcast, a multidisciplinary conversation...
"I had been trained to be this way. No panic, just a calm journeyman’s approach to any affliction, like a mathematician working an equation. Years of preparation, acquiring a skill set, building up my vault, had readied me to stand in the lounge...
How do racial issues affect patients' physical and mental health, and how do we address them during regular visits? For those without the lived experience of the black community, how can we learn and educate ourselves? How are the current protests...
"Physicians have struggled and sacrificed to develop the clinical judgment and skill needed to provide competent clinical care. They have undergone over a decade of schooling and training, taken on excessive student loan debt, worked backbreaking...
"Sitting in front of my laptop with both of us on the screen, I can maintain decent eye contact even if I look something up or type something into the medical record. The patient sees me as paying more attention than when I couldn’t effectively both...
Physicians are finding out that their jobs aren't as secure as they thought. Many have taken salary acts, are furloughed, or worse, laid off completely. It comes as a financial shock to many doctors. In this episode, gastroenterologist and certified...