During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, hospital edicts issued to protect patients would expose institutional frailties. The drastic implementation of nationwide telehealth measures would detrimentally affect patients who lacked access to health…
“Would an STI cause abdominal pain?” someone in a class discussion asked. “Well, when I had chlamydia, I didn’t have abdominal pain,” I responded truthfully. Instantly, the group went silent. “OK, Jay. That’s … TMI,” someone else in the group quickly r…
“Hey, doc,” our new patient grinned at me without teeth. He wears his teeth to eat peanuts, he explained, but today was hankering for a ham sandwich, so left the teeth at home. Here in the clinic straight from the logging job that he had worked for the…
In the last six weeks or so, the practice of medicine has been turned topsy-turvy by the COVID pandemic. Those weeks seem like an eternity. We have been so consumed with testing and treatment coronavirus, flattening the curve, and figuring out how to …
Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has challenged our health care industry in profound and irreversible ways, creating massive pressure that has exposed system-wide inefficiencies and inequalities. It has also fundamentally shifted the way first responders, …
Annie’s brows drew together at the unfamiliar word in her third-grade history lesson. She swiveled from her screen to face her mother. “What are doctors?” “They were people specially trained to care for sick people.” Annie was still perplexed. “What’s …
I never expected to find myself in this position. Ironically, I, a family medicine physician, in a world grappling with a pandemic, became underemployed for the first time since high school. A unique set of circumstances led me to this situation, but …
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to expose shortcomings in our health care system, an outdated law in many states limits the ability of specific health care workers, physician assistants (PAs), to deploy and provide emergency care. In Washington S…
I was in medical school when the world saw the news of the Zika and Ebola viruses, but never have I seen mass hysteria to this level for COVID-19. No longer is coronavirus what is depicted in a copy of First Aid for the USMLE Step 1, where it says coro…
Two years ago, I shared my thoughts on the joy of family medicine. Two years ago, I was a senior resident working in Ann Arbor, thinking about who I will be when I graduate. Two years ago, my biggest worry was if I could finish my notes in time for s…
