“I’m not impressed with his pain.” “I only give Norco if I see a bone sticking out.” “She says her pain is a 10/10 but …” On any given shift in the emergency room, I hear some version of these said by res…
Category: Conditions
Frontline clinicians deserve hazard pay
These are interesting times. Our schools are shut down. Transportation halted. Businesses shuttered. Public spaces abandoned. Cities locked down. Stock markets crashing. It is the greatest disruption to life we have faced since 9/11, and this wi…
Innovation in the time of COVID-19
Necessity is the mother of invention, and in no time is invention more necessary than during a global pandemic. Starting with the drive-through testing clinics pioneered overseas that spread to the United States (big shout-out to the University of Was…
My colleagues are nervous. My patients are crying. And yet, we are here.
Do you remember when you were a bright-eyed pre-med student, head bowed at the computer, typing your personal statement? Type, type … backspace, backspace … type. You didn’t want to use the phrase “to help people” in your statement as your reason for w…
Pollution in China and Iran are worsening the coronavirus
The baffling spread of the novel coronavirus has given many scientists and policymakers pause. There may be some important clues in the patterns the disease is leaving that tell us quite a bit about what conditions can hasten its spread and even worsen…
COVID-19 is not a cause for panic. It is cause for action.
As many of my Facebook friends know, I have posted a great many updates about COVID-19, both public health recommendations and news updates, but this is my personal plea. As a physician with a public health degree, looking at the data, looking at what…
Preventing depression in the wake of COVID-19
As I drove back home from the hospital yesterday, I noticed that traffic was lighter. Then tonight, as I walked my dog in the early evening, I cannot help but notice the lack of foot traffic, the relative emptiness of the street. There are others like …
In the midst of a pandemic, this nurse feels betrayed
This nurse notified his hospital unit director testing availability for novel coronavirus on January 26, 2020. This nurse asked his hospital unit director if signs could be posted discouraging visitation unless necessary on March 10, 2020. The respons…
The medical basis of vampires
An excerpt from Of Plagues and Vampires: Believable Myths and Unbelievable Facts from Medical Practice. The concept of a vampire predates Bram Stoker’s tales of Count Dracula – probably by several centuries. But did vampires ever really exist? In…
COVID-19 is teaching us the value of vocation
“Suppose we did our work like the snow, quietly, quietly, leaving nothing out.” -Wendell Berry Greetings from the hospital. It’s a ghost town around here. The roads are empty. Shops are shuttered. Churches won’t be meeting for m…
