Category: Infectious disease

Breaking the stigma: Making HIV and COVID screening routine in primary care [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, we welcome clinical research assistant professor, Maranda C. Ward, to discuss the importance of routine screening for both HIV and COVID-19 in primary care. During the COVI…

Mostly miserables: a physician-mother’s struggle during COVID-19

It was the year 2020 — the month of March. The world shifted on its axis in ways we could not imagine. The job of a physician-mother is one of never-ending tightrope walking while juggling batons on fire and crystal figurines, all while herding cats. Y…

Golden years, golden risk: the startling increase of STDs in seniors

An excerpt from Never Too Late: Your Guide to Safer Sex after 60. The sexual revolution that began in the 1960s challenged social norms and traditional concepts, promoted acceptance, and liberated individuals from sexual repression. It effectively tran…

Navigating the new norm: a physician’s perspective on caring for sick patients in the age of COVID

I have three adult daughters, all college graduates. All are in long-term relationships with men, children, dogs, and careers. I am “Dad” and will always be Dad. I additionally happen to be a physician who cares for adult patients. If they …

The rise of at-home STI testing: a solution to America’s growing problem or a risky gamble?

In 2021, I spent the year before starting medical school calling and counseling the patients of a busy urban emergency department on the results of their sexually transmitted infection (STI) tests. “What exactly is gonorrhea?” some would as…

A physician’s journey with COVID-19: reflections on mental coping mechanisms and seeking care [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! In this episode, we hear from Alen Voskanian, a palliative care physician, who shares his personal experience with COVID-19. Dr. Voskanian reflects on the mental coping mechanisms he used t…

The isolation of the COVID ICU: the need for patient advocates

The COVID ICU is abuzz with monitors beeping and doctors and nurses rushing from bed to bed to care for critically ill patients, most on ventilators. The machines – dialysis, vents, pumps – sound off their rhythmic repetitions; breaths are pushed in an…

Saying goodbye: the tragic impact of COVID-19 on families

“No, no, no! I’m having a nightmare!” She shrieked through the phone. I couldn’t bear to hear it as words fell clumsily out of my mouth. “Your husband couldn’t breathe on his own. We had to put him on a ventilator. I…

The worst illness this physician ever had

An excerpt from Fifty Years a Doctor: The Journey of Sickness and Health, Four Plagues and the Pandemic. Our favorite internist and chairman of the internal medicine department was lecturing us on sensitivity to patients’ suffering when they have…

Let teens self-consent to vaccines

I still remember the exhilaration I felt upon learning that my peers and I could finally return to our in-person classrooms. After a year of Zoom lectures, asynchronous exams, and more, the prospect of seeing each other again thrilled us. However, we h…