I’m writing this in November, which is National Caregiver Month. It’s also Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. But regardless of when you’re reading this, if you’re a caregiver, every month is “caregiver month.” Ironi…
Category: Conditions
Uncovering the truth behind my father’s tragic end
I was the “stranger” at my father’s bedside. Shortly after his 84th birthday, my father fell and landed in the hospital with a split scalp. His metastatic prostate cancer was an incidental finding, and superimposing this wildly invasi…
The path forward for telepsychiatry: a call for permanent policy
The U.S. is facing a significant mental health crisis that has united us in our efforts to make positive changes across the health care ecosystem for those in need of care. As health care providers and experienced clinicians, we hope our joint dedicati…
Words of caution when considering the use of “terminal anorexia”: perspective from lived experience
After reading the article “Terminal anorexia nervosa: three cases and proposed clinical characteristics,” I was grateful to have not had access to the article a year earlier – when I would have personally met criteria. I was holding o…
Addressing the enormous scale of work-related burnout and mental injury in doctors
When a 24-year-old laborer’s apprentice used a chainsaw without training, they sustained a jagged laceration through their left quadriceps. When I saw them 12 months later in my general practice, their laceration was well healed. However, they re…
Time to retire quarantine: Why 5-day isolation guidelines are doing more harm than good
I’m making morning rounds on the pediatric unit today: First up, 4-year-old twins with a severe asthma flare; next an infant with bronchiolitis on supplemental oxygen; then a dehydrated 3-year-old listless in bed. These children are all hospitali…
Lifelong learning: a game-changer in diagnosing dizziness
The eyes can’t see what the mind doesn’t yet know – an axiom to remind us not just of the value of lifelong learning, but that the answers are often in the exam room with us. Though bright and committed clinical people we may be, we’r…
A difficult case managed well
As time passes, we have more new names for what we used to call quality assurance, but it appears to me to now be a public relations issue and have very little to do with quality. Years ago, I returned home about 10:00 p.m. on Sunday night. I had spent…
The harsh reality of dementia
Dementia is a general term for diseases affecting memory, thinking, or decision-making, impacting daily activities. Someone in the world develops dementia, on average, every 3 seconds. That’s 10 million new cases of dementia each year worldwide. …
Behind closed doors of traveling: the concerns often overlooked
One thing is for sure: in today’s modern world, and as we recover from the impact of a pandemic, we are busier than ever. Another certainty is just how many of us are constantly on the move, with over 900 million people traveling internationally …
