Category: Conditions

It’s time to honor those who died from COVID-19 by sharing their stories

As of this moment, 40,265 Americans have died. They loved their families and friends. They had hopes and dreams. They were moms and dads, daughters and sons, grandmas, and grandpas. They meant something to somebody. Their deaths are barely acknowledged…

If we return to normal in medicine, have we lost the lesson of the pandemic? 

My energy has been bottled up. It’s not just over the past few weeks during this pandemic.  My energy has been bottled up and backlogged in some areas of my life for decades. The recent turn of life events has just made it even more glaring and evident…

Physicians just want respect in the time of COVID-19

After speaking, working, and coaching with hundreds of physician moms, guess what their #1 request at work is. Guess. A pay raise? More vacation time? Adequate maternity leave? Any maternity leave? Hint: Now, for the first time in my many decades as a …

How small acts of kindness can inspire others during the pandemic

When the pandemic hit New York, I was lucky to have enough PPE to prepare myself, and my staff, for what was to come. After the 2014 Ebola scare, I stocked up on N95 masks, gowns, gloves, and face shields; I knew that should anything with even the slig…

A Los Angeles response to the pandemic

Introduction We are doctors. We were trained to heal, to bring relief, and on occasion, to guide patients and families through end-of-life challenges. Unfortunately, with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, places such as Italy have had to suffer f…

Capitalizing on what we know from other pandemics, with a little help from Major League Baseball

Before the age of modern understanding and drug development, HIV sparked fear, anxiety, and panic throughout the country. My eighth-grade science teacher was the first to teach me about HIV, a virus that makes so many mistakes in replicating itself tha…

A pediatrician’s tips to help you and your family during the coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus has certainly served to manifest our shared humanity and vulnerability.  As parents, many of us are facing substantial challenges in providing for our families, as we struggle to help our children with their schoolwork, all the while ho…

Going to McDonald’s in the coronavirus era

In the coronavirus era, I go most days to our neighborhood McDonald’s, where I purchase a cup of coffee and take it outside to a patio area where I sit and eat peanut butter crackers which I carry with me. Today as I stood in a short line inside …

The Hippocratic Oath versus my oath as a mother

I recited the Hippocratic Oath many years ago as I donned my new white coat and made a commitment to serve humanity through the practice of medicine.  That zeal to help others continued through a vigorous residency and fellowship.  As life was put on h…

Pandemic lessons: Social justice is not disposable medical school curriculum

With the public health emergency of COVID-19, there has been a renewed call to improve emergency preparedness among physicians. Varied proposals have arisen for how to improve medical education in anticipation of future disasters. While many of these p…