Patients mutter words like these under their breath as they leave the office or sound off when they get home. At the nurses’ station, feelings of resignation and exasperation are in the air. When is he ever going to stop acting that way? Dr. Diss (a f…
It will not come as a surprise to my fellow clinicians that the pandemic has spurred a boom in digital health and health technology innovation, evidenced by the increasing sales pitches we receive for these new solutions. Our practice has experienced b…
Since I was a child, I have been plagued by words and thoughts (spoken and unspoken) that said, “You are not good enough.” I remember this very vividly as I walked into my new school as a fourth-grader in rural Ohio. I was so excited to sta…
Recently, a Harris Poll conducted an online among 2,055 adults ages 18+. The survey was conducted within the United States between March 25 to 29, 2021. The survey focused on individuals who had interacted with the health care system in the last year….
Interviewing for medical schools was intense, excruciating, and terrifying. Despite the difficult questions, there are three that stand out to me. The first was to differentiate sympathy from empathy, where I spent 30 minutes defending my answer to be …
“If you are happy with where you are in the current system – that is wonderful, continue what you are doing. However, if you are feeling trapped, frustrated, or like the work you are doing is no longer meaningful, then there are plenty of opportu…
In my junior year of high school, I applied for and went on an educational mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Being the son of Uruguayan immigrants, I felt at home in the rural setting while my many classmates marveled at their first view of a cul…
If your 85-year-old mother was rushed to the hospital, would you be able to get the information you need about her condition from the doctors treating her? If your college-age son showed signs of severe depression, could you talk to his therapist? What…
Health care in U.S. hospitals is suffering from three under-recognized conditions that I will refer to as “Metris,” “Severe Metris” and “Metric Shock.” Metris occurs when a health system begins to focus more on achieving certain metrics than on improvi…
“The corporatization of medicine has destroyed primary care as a specialty. The primary care physician is supposed to be your go-to doctor, your advocate, the coordinator of your health care. Now that corporations buy out hospitals and private pr…
