Category: COVID

Why the WHO’s pandemic accord is critical for global health care

In a recent article in Health Affairs, U.N. Foundation vice president Peter Yeo and former Director of The Global Fund Mark Dybul, MD, broke down the elements and imperatives of a process underway to develop a better approach to pandemic preparedness. …

How chronic illness and disability are portrayed in media and the importance of daily choices for improved quality of life

An excerpt from Long Illness: A Practical Guide to Surviving, Healing, and Thriving. Copyright ©2023. Available from Hachette Go, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc. Let’s say that you have it all together: you are accepting your illness and …

Processing grief: a vital step for health care workers during COVID-19 [PODCAST]

 Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, our guest Susan MacLellan-Tobert, a pediatric cardiologist and physician coach, delves into the challenges faced by healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despi…

Transparency and honesty: the keys to fixing America’s broken health care system

When I was growing up,  I remember my father saying the phrase, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”  In today’s world, I find myself often recalling those words. Most of life these days should not be taken at fac…

Understanding the end of the COVID public health emergency

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented event for worldwide health care. The call to action for organizations included setting up mass testing sites to serve their communities. I helped set up multiple locations across several counties using a …

Medicine and history: a seemingly unlikely but necessary duo in understanding COVID-19 disparities 

“Hispanic community makes up more than half of coronavirus cases in Southwest Michigan county” was the headline in the newspaper that caught my eye in August 2020 – that infamous year that the nation went into lockdown to prevent the spread…

A medical advocate’s role in the COVID ICU [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, guest Sara L. Merwin, co-author of The Informed Patient: A Complete Guide to a Hospital Stay, shares her experience helping a family navigate their loved one’s hospit…

Healing from the pandemic: a journey to recovery

While it appears we are on the downhill slope of COVID-19’s integration into everyday life, burnout rates are rising, and organizational trust is taking a nose-dive. Aren’t we supposed to be in the post-disaster recovery phase? What is the …

The vaccination dilemma: Protecting patient rights or caregiver freedom?

Recently, I heard a news report regarding several state attorneys general suing the federal government to eliminate the requirement that health care providers be immunized against COVID. They argued that as fully immunized individuals still contract CO…

Gratitude takes practice. How come health care workers aren’t better at it?

Like interest rates and food prices, burnout among health care providers continues to rise. From my perch—as a hospitalist in a large tertiary hospital—the sheer terror of the early days of the COVID pandemic has been replaced by a grinding fatigue fue…