Category: Public Health & Policy

Dr. Glaucomflecken for president!

Is there anyone out there not familiar with Dr. Glaucomflecken? The fictional character created by Will Flanary, a practicing ophthalmologist, has entertained many on social media. If you are not aware of him, you should be! Dr. Glaucomflecken’s …

The realities of immigrant health care served hot from America’s melting pot

By the time I was in elementary school, I was Mom’s right-hand man when it came to interpreting official documents, work emails, or confusing American jokes. Like 20.3 percent of the U.S. population, I grew up in a primarily non-English speaking …

From solidarity to co-liberation: Understanding the journey towards ending oppression

Three weeks ago, I attended a diversity, equity, and inclusion conference, the Inaugural Kenniebriew Conference at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where I had the pleasure of being one of the keynote speakers. To close this conference,…

How medical student loan forgiveness can advance health equity [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join us as we welcome Katrina Gipson, an emergency medicine physician, to discuss the intersection of student loan debt and health equity. As the Supreme Court reviews the Biden Administrat…

Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

Some grim news has emerged revealing the sad decline in the health of the United States. America saw its most significant 2-year fall in life expectancy, 2.7 years, in almost 100 years. This has led to U.S. life expectancy being at its lowest since the…

Can AI solve the physician shortage crisis?

A 2021 Merritt Hawkins article reports increasing physician shortfalls in the U.S. while pointing out that almost 50 percent of all currently practicing physicians are older than 55. In some medical specialties, the “greater-than-55” physic…

Breaking down the barriers to effective bar-code medication administration

According to the Commonwealth Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the health care system in the United States continues to rank the highest in health spending, has the highest rates of avoidable deaths, and rates…

The locums industry has a beef problem

America, we have a beef problem! The inflation rate is high, and the inflation on beef is even more outrageous. At the time of this article, inflation hovers around 8 to 9 percent, while beef is priced at least 15 to 30 percent more than before COVID-1…

Canada’s health workers are sounding the alarm. We must act, now.

It is no longer hyperbole to say that we are witnessing our health system moving slowly but surely to a point where it will be very difficult to return. Despite the weighty First Ministers’ meeting with the Prime Minister on health care, complete…

Race categorizations are worsening health inequities for the South West Asian North African (SWANA) communities

The Office of Management and Budget is requesting members of the public to provide feedback on a proposal from the Biden Administration to add Middle-Eastern North African (MENA) to the 2030 U.S. Census. If the reforms pass, it would be a major victory…