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 …
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
Webster’s Dictionary defines trauma as a “disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe emotional stress.” An article in MarketWatch describes the reality of a doctor after being on the frontlines in Wuhan for two month…
It was the middle of March when I came back to my work shift. I got the news my floor would be COVID-19 floor that meant all patients coming to the ER with COVID-19 symptoms would be placed solely under my supervision. I was all ready for it — at least…
