What has the medical community, once thought of as the “ultimate team,” finally come down to in 2019? The “back in my day” sigh I often hear from more senior physicians has inspired me to read several books about the history of medicine. As I devoured …
Take one-half tablet three times per day with meals, increasing by half each week until reaching a maximum of three tablets three times per day. Did you get a new prescription from your doctor? If so, there is a 50 percent chance you will not adhere to…
Back in 2006, I settled into my career as an emergency room physician. It was then when I started working in multiple hospital groups in several cities in Arizona and Texas to maximize my earning potential. The strategy worked. I was able to make enoug…
I was a 22-year-old intern, just about to finish my public health internship. I had an ambitious career ahead of me. I was trained as a public health educator. I was doing wellness fairs, writing newsletters, and excited to get to the next stage of my …
Toward the end of my clinical rotations, I met Salma, a 34-year-old woman who came from Egypt with her family to the U.S. two years ago. Wearing a latte-colored hijab, she was here at the hospital to care for her father, who had a case of congestive he…
Prior to my 10-year-old son being diagnosed with leukemia, I worked as a diabetes nurse educator at a local hospital. I had been an RN for over 15 years and was able to balance home life with work; I loved educating patients on how to deal with their d…
Recently I visited a lady at her home who was a palliative care patient. She was seated on the couch in the living room with a turban on her head and a look of anxiety and depression. Her husband was quiet during the entire visit. He was seated in a ch…
While “trust” sounds like it would be an inherently good thing to have between two people or in a team, that is not always the case. Depending on what “trust” means to you, it can also be harmful at times. While it may not at first seem pertinent, driv…
Ten years ago, I wrote an essay on the primary care shortage. I argued that more money and better working conditions would help decrease the shortage. Unfortunately, things have worsened over the last decade. The AAMC now predicts a shortage of betw…
This year, I learned that to have success and fulfillment, you don’t just do, sometimes you have to undo. What do I mean by that? The process of undoing — or editing — it a key part of different areas of our lives. For example, we edit in m…
