Category: Public Health & Policy

Senators are killing children by failing to enact gun control laws

Nineteen children were killed in a mass shooting in Texas. I have barely escaped the pandemonium of the pediatric emergency department to scarf down a bowl of pasta when I hear the announcement on the breakroom TV. My stomach drops. Again? How is it po…

The Buffalo mass shooting and food deserts

On May 14, 2022, ten people were fatally shot with three injured at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, NY, constituting the second most deadly mass shooting this year at the time of writing. As the number of mass shootings and fatalities continues to climb…

A gun message for woke corporations

It is too early to hear the narratives from the families of the 19 children slain this week at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, near San Antonio, Texas. But narratives from the 1993 Long Island Rail Road shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre in Newto…

The visionary pediatrician may soon be an endangered species

If I were writing a book about what it’s like to be a visionary pediatrician speaking up for children’s health, I would title it, The Hate We Get. A few months ago, I received a death threat comment on a TikTok video I posted advocating for COVID vacci…

Automatic refill and 90-day fill programs don’t improve medication adherence

Health care has fooled us into believing a number of myths that—taken at face value—sound logical and true. Here’s one of the most pervasive and dangerous myths: Pharmacy’s value comes from convenience and access. And here’s another one: 90-day fills, …

Only patients can save U.S. health care [PODCAST]

“Having a physician partner who knows us well, who we can trust, and whose judgment we value exponentially increases the odds of accurately making the distinction between self-limited illness versus a significant disease process. This will also a…

The J-1 work exemption: a flawed solution to the physician shortage

A few years ago, my rural town expected the addition of a “J-1,” or foreign, physician. This addition was meant to alleviate the work of my father, who had been the only neurologist at our underserved hospital for the past few years. And ye…

Oral health is justice for all

Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine published “Oral Health for All — Realizing the Promise of Science,” authored by some of the most respected officials in dentistry and medicine, including the U.S. Surgeon General. They declared …

A specific way to improve our health care delivery system

This spring, in my culminating semester of PA school, I took a course entitled “Health Care Delivery Systems.” After 30-something months, the end was in sight, and I was not particularly excited for another serious class while I was wrapping up rotatio…

Gender inequality is making burnout worse

The 2022 Medscape poll on physician burnout confirms what has been painfully obvious to doctors on the frontlines of COVID-19: Their burnout is intensifying. According to the survey of 13,000 doctors, the nation’s most burned-out physicians are t…