Listen to psychiatrist Emily Watters’ work with the homeless population and how she got her start writing cartoons, educating patients using out-of-the-box communication strategies. Emily Watters is a psychiatrist and can be reached at The Cartoo…
Category: COVID-19 / coronavirus
COVID vaccines’ tragic dance [PODCAST]
“As a species, we have been an abject failure in dealing with a worldwide crisis. We politicize things for money, political reasons and some kind of weird power, even when it kills us in the process. We already have a World Health Organization (W…
You need a break from the front lines of health care
The current era of health care delivery has been aptly compared with going to war against an invisible enemy that can attack anywhere, at any time and with novel means. This invisible enemy was attacking the civilians as well as the “front line&#…
A physician’s COVID experience in spoken story
The following is a transcription of Dr. Deshpande’s spoken story. What is wrong with me? I’ve been doing this for 25 years. Why am I so scared now? That’s what I’m thinking as I drive to the hospital during the early part of the pandemic, March, …
Being the angel of death during a pandemic
I was looking forward to March 2020. My boyfriend and I had a long-awaited vacation to Aruba we were looking forward to. Everything is packed, plans are finalized, and the world shuts down three days before our trip. Frustrated, we refuse to believe th…
Human connections, cancer care, and COVID-19 restrictions
The desire for human connection is so irrevocably and putatively a tenet of the human condition. The relationships we form with one another are quintessential in adding value to our lives and in fostering loving bonds. And the way we express this conne…
Our niche world demands a new approach to health
When Elvis Presley rolled up his sleeve and received the polio vaccine backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, most Americans knew about it. At the time, the only stars hotter than rock ‘n’ roll itself were Presley, the genre’s de facto king, and Su…
COVID 1 year later: thoughts from a small-town physician
This time last year, many of us were bewildered that our country and the world had been halted by a newly declared pandemic caused by a novel virus. Reports from physician colleagues on both coasts terrified me. Fast forward to June 2021, and 272 peopl…
COVID-19 proved that diverse voices make health care better
I’ve been reflecting on how the scientific world came together over the past 15-months to take on a viral pandemic. Despite unprecedented circumstances, the field achieved one of the most incredible feats of modern medicine, and for once, we achieved i…
We need to re-examine quality-of-life metrics in nursing homes
One June afternoon, Susan came in from gardening to find that her husband, John, was missing. After a frantic scan around their wooded lot, she called 911 and soon had sheriffs, firefighters, and a state police helicopter scouring nearby parklands in p…
