Author's posts
Questions you should ask before elective surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic
Many states are beginning to reopen, and hospitals are once again scheduling elective surgeries. The question on many patients’ minds is, “Should I undergo elective surgery right now?” Although 31 percent of people have chosen to delay care and 50 perc…
What can patients do to lower the risk of errors in their electronic medical records?
In a perfect world, an electronic medical record would aggregate a patient’s medical information from all health care providers into a single, comprehensive record that could be easily accessed by any provider with the patient’s permission. This inform…
Genetic testing: Could there be unintended consequences?
Both clinical and direct-to-consumer genetic testing have become significantly less costly and more common, providing people with access to a wealth of information about everything from their ethnicity and family lineage to their risk for certain disea…
Mental health and college students: What parents can do to support their children
The percentage of U.S. college students who are living with mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, substance, and alcohol misuse, and self-harm are significant. Approximately 39% of college students experience a signific…
When an aging parent says no to much needed help
The first signs are often subtle — missed appointments, unpaid bills, or a once immaculate home that now has an unmowed lawn and dirty dishes on the counter. It’s easy for adult children of aging parents to miss these first signs that their parents nee…
How to manage the side effects of prostate cancer treatment
Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer diagnosed in men in the U.S. According to statistics gathered by the American Cancer Society, approximately 191,930 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in this country in 2020, with on…
Navigating the holidays when you’re a caregiver for a loved one living with dementia
The holidays bring friends and family together for celebrations and the chance to reconnect with people we may not see regularly during the rest of the year. But for people who are the caregivers for a parent, spouse, partner, or other family member wh…
Vaping-related illness highlights the complexities of diagnosing rare conditions
When patients started showing up in doctors’ offices and emergency departments with coughs, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, chills and weight loss, physicians’ first instincts were that th…
Overcoming the challenges prosperity can bring to teens and young adults
They received a call that their 19-year-old son had been transported to the local hospital, extremely agitated and intoxicated, with a blood alcohol level of .245. What they learned over the next few days was that this wasn’t the first time their son h…
What to consider before undergoing stem cell treatment or banking stem cells
It can be difficult to tease out the evidence-based science amidst the claims of successful adult stem cell-based treatments for a range of health problems from joint pain to Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, and spinal cord injury. Even a num…
