Cancer patients have seen the world collapsing before their eyes, and then comes a pandemic. The American Society of Clinical Oncology estimates that this year there will be five thousand new cases of cancer per day in the United States, and COVID-19 a…
Many years ago, I was given a literary award from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Foundation. It was for $175 and was an encouragement to finish an American Indian novel I was then writing. “Not enough to quit your job,” I remember was a line fr…
Like other physicians, the past few months have left me with a multitude of feelings; helplessness, fear, anger, and uncertainty among them. As an oncologist, I’ll confess, there’s another emotion I’ve been grappling with…frustration. As of mid-May, t…
Like other physicians, the past few months have left me with a multitude of feelings; helplessness, fear, anger, and uncertainty among them. As an oncologist, I’ll confess, there’s another emotion I’ve been grappling with…frustration. As of mid-May, t…
During a recent Zoom call discussing issues of physician wellness, a common theme emerged among some of our pediatric faculty – a form of imposter syndrome. 7 p.m. cheers in New York City ring out for essential workers and medical staff. Calls,…
The coronavirus pandemic has incited the necessary fear amongst the public and health care workers. This fear is a positive driver of social distancing and other precautionary measures that assist in protecting health care workers and patients. However…
As a health care system, we have united during the COVID-19 public health threat to embrace social distancing and “flatten the curve.” In order to conserve scarce resources and limit viral transmission, we health care providers have canceled elective …
When physicians present at medical conferences, we usually start with a slide disclosing any potential conflicts of interest to our audience. I probably need to disclose two things here. First, I’m an infuriating and inexhaustible optimist. Second, I’m…
As I sit here writing this, one of my friends and colleagues is on a ventilator. He’s fighting for his life. He’s a very healthy guy who runs marathons; we even did some race training together a couple of years back. And now, he’s in critical condition…
In between snippets of conversation exchanged with my husband about how the first day of remote learning went for our 9 year old and whether the latest nanny was likely to quit given health risks associated with working in a two-physician frontline wor…
