Author's posts
Why in-person care still matters in the age of telemedicine
There’s a patient who comes to see me every week. Every time we part ways, I say, “OK, Susan (name changed)! See you in a month!” But inevitably, she’ll call on a morning when she knows I’m in the office, and my staff will…
Why pelvic floor disorders deserve more attention
She’s the reason I pee when I sneeze. She’s the reason I fart when I walk. And yet, I would give birth to my daughter again, a thousand times over. And that, I think, is the crux of the cross we bear as mothers — bearing children and, speci…
The unseen work of women surgeons
I always said yes, taking on numerous tasks and roles, but now question the value of unpaid work in my career trajectory as a colorectal surgeon. I always said yes. That’s what you’re supposed to do, right? Always say yes because you don…
The secret superstitions of surgeons: How rituals impact surgical success
“Man is a dupeable animal. Quacks in medicine, quacks in religion, and quacks in politics know this, and act upon that knowledge. There is scarcely anyone who may not, like a trout, be taken by tickling…there is scarcely a disease for which a cha…
I am one of those women who left academic medicine
Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, anecdotal evidence and small survey-based studies show that women were leaving academic medicine in droves and were not returning— up to 40 percent of women leave medicine or go to a part-time position within six yea…
