“We pass through the present with our eyes blindfolded … Only later when the cloth is untied can we glance at the past and find out what we have experienced and what meaning it has.” – Milan Kundera Two days ago, during a clinical skills session on lym…
A career in health care provides an incredible life full of experiences, challenges, and heartbreak, mixed with incredible satisfaction. With the rapidly shifting global economy, health professionals retain a large degree of flexibility and geographic …
For pediatric cardiologists, February, National Heart Month, is a special time. We share health tips in the hospital and talk about heart health with those looking for advice, especially with patients and families impacted by CHD. It’s also a time to l…
Medicare for all is one of the leading campaign issues among the Democratic presidential candidates. Michigan Rep. John Conyers first introduced the idea in Congress in 2003. It went nowhere, but as the one-time party of JFK morphed into something much…
The news that beloved game show host Alex Trebek has advanced stage pancreatic cancer hit his millions of fans hard this week. His illness has elicited heartbreak and support. As a clinician who treats pancreatic cancer, I anticipated the reaction that…
We have embarked upon a unique strategy to assess and manage pain. “Opioids Rarely Help Bodily Pain” is not a catchy phrase but a mnemonic related to educational learning which serves as the cornerstone of a new acute-pain management paradi…
My elderly patients miss the days when, in an emergency, they could call their family doctor at home, and they’d be cared for. Retired doctors reminisce about the “good old days” when they were in charge of their own schedules and could prescribe whate…
What is self-awareness? A quick Google search says that it is “conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.” In other words, my worldview is different than yours. Hypothetically, I am a Republican, and you are a Dem…
A simple Google search is all you need to do to gauge the difficulty individuals have with asking for help. “How to ask to shadow someone.” 43.1 million results. “How to ask for a letter of recommendation.” 66 million results. “How to ask for help,” 3….
Her name was Callie (identifying information changed). She was four years old. She loved glitter and princesses and anything sparkly. She was affectionate and silly, and I fell hard for her. She was a patient, my patient, on the pediatric oncology unit…
