Category: primary care

The art of asking where it hurts

Norman Grant was a new patient. He had chronic back pain, not helped by surgery or a dozen injections after that. It all started with an industrial accident in 2001. He had settled his case and was on chronic OxyContin, which far from kept him function…

The art of asking where it hurts

Norman Grant was a new patient. He had chronic back pain, not helped by surgery or a dozen injections after that. It all started with an industrial accident in 2001. He had settled his case and was on chronic OxyContin, which far from kept him function…

The troubling similarities between primary care physicians and MLB relief pitchers

When I was young, my father told me that baseball is a metaphor for life. As a lifelong fan, I’ve found professional inspiration and valuable lessons in this game, time after time after time. This year was no different. Throughout the 2021 MLB playoffs…

Professional gay: Charting a career in LGBTQ health [PODCAST]

“After much searching, I was fortunate to find a fellowship that though inexperienced in LGBTQ health recognized an opportunity. Faculty and mentors worked from a growth mindset rooted in finding what I needed to succeed rather than what they kne…

The unique agony of being a Black female doctor

It was as if my four-day-old daughter’s condition was not critical. It was as if I was not a clinician who could confidently assess and identify seizure episodes. It was as if there were no monitors blatantly showing critically low oxygen levels….

Grieving our collective loss with compassion

What can we learn as we experience turmoil, change, or as we grieve a loss? Is there something we can focus on to help us go through difficult times in our lives? This can be a minor occurrence in our life, or it can be what we have all lived through c…

Are collagen supplements good for you? A physician’s deep dive answer.

I was asked this question at least three times this week, so I think there must be something going around.  It doesn’t help that a Kardashian with 140 million Instagram followers recently signed a deal to become an equity partner and global spokeswoman…

How to heal and revitalize our beloved profession [PODCAST]

“We have to heal ourselves first. That begins with caring for our own minds and bodies, and souls. It means not avoiding (as I did) caring for our own physical and especially our mental health. It means we must be a part of the lives of our famil…

Yes or no questions may be hazardous to healthy relationships

A common communication problem: Although important questions often have complicated answers, sometimes we ask things in a way that shuts people down.  When someone poses a question that calls for “yes” or “no” as the expected an…

America is failing primary care doctors

While the pandemic sparked a renewed (if only temporary) appreciation of the medical profession, this alone wasn’t enough to induce change in the system overwhelming them – a fact blatantly revealed to me this year at the annual conference …