Our nation and the health care industry have been in shock following the assassination of the CEO of one of the largest insurance companies in the U.S. The brazen killing of Brian Thompson and the suspected shooter Luigi Mangione has captured America&#…
Last September, NBC News aired a one-sided report on the arrangement between a county coroner and a medical school apropos the transfer of unclaimed corpses with reportedly inadequate effort to find family. In addition to a grieving family, an academic…
In the United States, as many as 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage (before the end of the twentieth week of pregnancy) and approximately 1 percent in stillbirth (after the twentieth week, including time of delivery). Parents who experi…
My parents were born on the same day, six years apart, Depression-era babies. My dad died on Christmas Eve, 2016. Nearly every Christmas season after that, for the next seven years, I hoped Mom would follow him. Was I wrong to wish that? Dad played San…
“Almost everyone I know has either quit” – my friend paused, “… or died.” She said the “or died” part with a bit more resignation than horror. We were having this conversation outside of our busy local pub a few week…
Imagine two patients are diagnosed with liver cancer on the same day. Both have similar tumors and overall health. The only difference? Their zip codes. While we’d like to believe that all patients in the United States receive standardized care r…
At-home hormone testing kits have surged in popularity, offering individuals unprecedented access to tools they believe will help them understand their bodies. Marketed as convenient, empowering solutions to monitor fertility and general hormone health…
As an employee assistance program (EAP) therapist at a hospital, I am often called upon to help people navigate the emotional fallout of life’s most challenging moments. The wildfires devastating Los Angeles bring a unique layer of grief, stress,…
I implore all physicians to watch the film Tipping the Pain Scale. Invited by a friend to view from the perspective of recovery, I accepted in support and out of curiosity for the proposed approach to the treatment of pain. As an osteopathic neuromuscu…
We recently resolved a complex peer review case involving a surgeon in a Midwestern state. The case arose as the hospital began transitioning to an employed-physician model, seeking to phase out its non-employed, voluntary medical staff. Our client, a …
