In today’s world, the term “obesity” is more than just a medical diagnosis—it’s a complex issue intertwined with personal experiences, societal norms, and systemic challenges. As a seasoned family doctor, I’ve witnessed fi…
Category: Conditions
Women of color face biases in endometriosis diagnosis and surgical treatment
March is endometriosis awareness month. Endometriosis, a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside of the uterus, affects 1 in 10 women, or 190 million individuals worldwide. Although endometriosis leads to chronic pain …
Beyond the workout: the hidden struggle of diabetic gastroparesis
The final three minutes of my hour-long elliptical workout were not easy. Pain spread across my stomach, causing me to row in a half-sitting motion, and my chest vacillated between violent coughs and the sorts of deep breaths people take when they thin…
Sepsis protocols coupled with rapid host response technologies are the key to improving patient outcomes
Patients come into the emergency department (ED) with symptoms, not diagnoses. That’s when time is of the essence. Clinicians must quickly triage patients and establish an appropriate care pathway to obtain the best possible outcome. The time-sen…
A doctor’s journey: from student to healer, facing a mentor’s illness
I had a teacher in my third year of med school. His name was Dr. T. He taught us pediatrics. At that time, he was the head of the department of pediatrics in the busiest teaching hospital in our city, where I was working. Every day, hundreds of childre…
Assisted suicide: Safeguards debated as bioethicist warns of unintended consequences
At a time when many states are considering assisted suicide legislation, I was interested to encounter the perspective of the well-known bioethicist Arthur Caplan who recently expressed his support for these laws on these pages. While I appreciate Capl…
Inside the cancer waiting room where hope hangs in the balance
I sat there, frozen in time, full of fear, full of anxiety. Waiting for my time to “face the music,” but this wasn’t a dance party. My fellow patients, complete strangers, were seated about me, and each of us kept a safe distance apar…
From overdose to ICU: a doctor’s battle for a young woman’s life
An excerpt from Adventures of an American Medical Student. I can still remember Ms. Osborne’s long, messy, brown hair and pale, attractive face like it was yesterday. She was young, and she presented to the Brighton Medical Center Emergency Depar…
The humorous essay that predicted today’s medical anxiety epidemic
In elementary school, we read an essay named ‘The Man Who Was a Hospital’ by Jerome K. Jerome. This is a humorous essay in which the writer describes his misadventure in a humorous way. He says that once, he was reading a liver pill circula…
America’s nurses have PTSD: Will anyone listen to them?
My first clinical rotation as a nursing student was on the same floor where my mother died of cancer. And my very first patient was a young Hispanic man with four children. I was asked to tell him that he had pancreatic cancer and very little time left…
