Category: Public Health & Policy

How world leaders’ health has shaped history and the role of modern medicine in leadership

The health of world leaders has often played a critical role in shaping the course of history. Decisions made while under the influence of poor health or illness can have far-reaching consequences, and the untimely demise of some leaders has altered th…

Here’s how to fix the public health system in the U.S.

Today, the current health care ecosystem is broken and in need of an overhaul. To start, this country’s high cost of health care is not sustainable, preventing millions of Americans from accessing important health care services. The recent ruling…

Poverty: America’s disease with devastating consequences

I need to tell you about John (not his real name). He is a Cameroonian immigrant who came to the U.S. on a student visa. He waited tables in a popular pub in downtown Houston to earn a little change and support himself through school. Hardworking, cour…

America’s ailing health care system: How it’s failing patients and doctors

As painfully revealed by the coronavirus pandemic, the American health care system is ailing, plagued by the inefficiencies and greed of big business and for-profit medicine.   It is not unlike the virus, attacking vital organs one by one until the who…

Why HIPAA isn’t enough to protect your health data

After all the hours spent in HIPAA training over the years, physicians and other health care workers might think of HIPAA as a powerful regulation. It’s true that HIPAA does require health care workers to follow a number of rules, with pretty har…

The truth about hard cases and abortion: Separating fact from fiction

Though celebrated by anti-abortion advocates across the country, the overturning of Roe v. Wade by no means closed the book on the abortion debate. However, it was a victory for both human rights and federalism. The decision reinforced that the U.S. is…

How lack of access to clean water is devastating developing countries

Maybe dogs aren’t the only ones drinking water from a toilet bowl. In the United States, we have easy access to clean water. We use culinary water to do our dishes, bathe, wash our cars, and even fill our toilets. Most Americans don’t ever …

Transparency and honesty: the keys to fixing America’s broken health care system

When I was growing up,  I remember my father saying the phrase, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”  In today’s world, I find myself often recalling those words. Most of life these days should not be taken at fac…

To improve health care, respect doctors’ humanity with a living wage

“What should we do?” I asked my partner. I looked down at our dog, who was limping in pain and whose treatment was just quoted at nearly $1000. Just yesterday, our brakes collapsed, and repairing our car would also be a hefty expense. He si…

Medicine and history: a seemingly unlikely but necessary duo in understanding COVID-19 disparities 

“Hispanic community makes up more than half of coronavirus cases in Southwest Michigan county” was the headline in the newspaper that caught my eye in August 2020 – that infamous year that the nation went into lockdown to prevent the spread…