Category: Conditions

What does it mean to be responsible during the COVID-19 pandemic?

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. Until …

Technological change and mental health: How will the workforce of the future cope with the fourth industrial revolution?

Work is a necessary part of life. More than simply a means to a paycheck, work gives individuals a sense of dignity and accomplishment. Feeling as though one is participating in meaningful work, whether it is contributing to a massive project or an ind…

Are you a mask wimp? Get over it.

As the reopening was being evaluated, I found myself contemplating the routine use of a mask in public. I was already wearing it 12 hours a day in the hospital. On one of the clinic days, after constantly conversing while wearing the mask, I also found…

Dissecting systemic racism in health care

A couple of months ago, I had a lecture on the “Principles of Epidemiology and Public Health.” I remember looking at the graphs taken from the American Heart Association and noting that the incidence of developing coronary heart disease or …

4 things people should know about COVID-19 antibody testing

1. Not all antibody tests are the same. There are currently over a hundred different antibody tests – in different phases of development. Only a small subset of these tests has FDA approval for diagnostic purposes and emergency use authorization. A maj…

When COVID hits memory care

“Have you ever been on a cruise?” Betty asks. It’s a strange question in the age of COVID-19, where thousands of people have been stranded on large ships over the past few months. I’m a wound physician who rounds at nursing homes, and my gloved hand ho…

What could go wrong with the coronavirus vaccine?

What could go wrong with the coronavirus vaccine? I have opinions. I am not a virologist or an infectious disease specialist. I am just a doctor who has been following the pandemic in the journals and in the newspapers. But I am worried because there i…

A social worker remembers a tortured soul

By profession, Donna Dillon is a photographer.  She wouldn’t like to be described as a “professional” anything, but the quality of her photos make her deserving of the term. But disarray and inertia characterize Donna now, by her own …

There’s a code for pain, but what’s the code for suffering?

Opiates relieve pain and can transport people to their apparent happy place. So does marijuana.  Lyrica, the seizure-turned-pain medication, caused enough of a buzz in early study participants that it became a controlled substance. The anesthetic ketam…

We can’t breathe: black and brown trauma in COVID-19

The sirens wail as the ambulance approaches, bouncing off New York City skyscrapers and empty storefronts. They swirl around one building, sweeping up old paint chips and dust from centuries-old stairs. Inside on the third floor, a family paces around …