Category: Infectious disease

I am an emergency physician. I risk my life for the future of our world.

I am a frontline health care worker.  I am an emergency physician.  I am also a mother to two glorious, growing, miraculous children and wife to a handsome triathlete stay at home dad.  Additionally, I am one of three daughters to a pair of still pract…

Lessons from evolution of telemedicine in response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened our physical and mental health and the very fabric of society. Social isolation has devastating consequences on small businesses, but it has also opened doors to remote business opportunities in the virtual world. M…

Medical students: It is time to stop being spectators

On July 21, 1861, spectators traveled to Manassas, Virginia to witness the first battle of the American Civil War. The rich citizenry of the Union wanted to see how easily the Confederacy would collapse against the Federal Army, giving a quick end to t…

Physicians and health care workers are expendable pawns in the game of corona roulette

When did physicians and other health care workers become expendable pawns? When did they become unwitting participants in corona roulette? When hospital systems began to mandate that, in spite of known exposure, in spite of even a positive COVID-19 tes…

PPE policies must reflect the needs of frontline staff

Physicians are leaders.  As leaders, we are focused on how to ensure safety for our coworkers while also acknowledging a need for stewardship of scarce supply of resources, namely, personal protective equipment (PPE). I have a particular interest in th…

Words of courage for medical students and residents

About 15 years ago, I spent a few weeks at a small community hospital in Zambia, helping to staff the primary care clinic and attend some of the rounds on the small inpatient units there.  The inpatient pediatrics unit was full of young children suffer…

After the pandemic, telemedicine will be here to stay

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other health care providers (HCPs) transitioned their clinical practice to telemedicine in the last few weeks.  As recommendations from the Centers for Diseas…

Medical students are living life one day at a time during the pandemic

My friends’ weddings have been postponed, even my own cousin’s. Step 1 exam dates have been moved, much to the shock of many students I know. My brother’s third-year rotations have also been delayed, and the curriculum has unexpectedly changed from the…

The world is a scary place right now, and that’s OK

As a society, we are faced with levels of uncertainty that are unprecedented for our times. This tension and fear doesn’t discriminate and permeates every corner of the globe. People might compare the magnitude of this pandemic to events like 9/11 or H…

During the pandemic, doctors have to guide the public through the concept of risk

Going through medical training is an introduction to risk. My first real risk experience happened on a third-year medical rotation where I was following a gastrointestinal (GI) specialist. We were called to a code of a young man with AIDS and esophagea…