When I found out that health systems across the country contract with prisons for hospital laundry and other services, the same systems that train medical students like myself, someone dear to me was in prison. Each time I walk into a patient’s room an…
Cancer patients have seen the world collapsing before their eyes, and then comes a pandemic. The American Society of Clinical Oncology estimates that this year there will be five thousand new cases of cancer per day in the United States, and COVID-19 a…
Recently, the White House unveiled its ambitious plan to develop a coronavirus vaccine before year’s end. While many immediately questioned the feasibility of this timeline, we worry that not enough attention has gone to a different but equally importa…
An excerpt from It’s All In The Delivery: Improving Healthcare Starting With A Single Conversation. On that night when the desperate call came to pick up the critically ill baby with MAS, I felt very fortunate that Dr. Cunningham was my supervisor. Whe…
The recent pandemic has confined people all over the world to the indoors to try to keep the virus from spreading. Older adults have been the most commonly affected age group with the virus, but more recently, a strange presentation of COVID-19 has bee…
Recently, I was part of a virtual panel discussing ways to help kids and teens manage their digital technology use. The audience, parents from around the world, felt blind-sided about how all of this extra time at home has led to significant increases …
In the 1800s, smallpox ravaged the world. Fortunately, a vaccine had been developed that could protect individuals. This vaccine left a scar at the site of injection and identified the individuals as “immune.” As we look towards the future of the COV…
Around three weeks ago, my 72-year-old patient, Mr. J., woke up feeling severely short of breath. He felt unusually tired, noticed a dry cough, and felt achy in his arms and legs. Suspicious of COVID-19, he and his wife called an ambulance and went to …
Many years ago, I was given a literary award from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation. It was for $175 and was an encouragement to finish an American Indian novel I was then writing. “Not enough to quit your job,” I remember was a line fr…
COVID-19 is taking a toll on my mental well-being in a way I had not expected. I have a rather high distress tolerance. I am a pediatric emergency psychiatrist. Now I am a wounded healer battling anxiety and fears from the constant unknown taking place…
