“The U.S. health care industry has large challenges that can be overcome if we remember why our systems and services exist. We are here to help patients, and we must obtain the needed staffing capacity to drive throughput so patients can receive …
Category: Public Health & Policy
A physician’s photo essay from his travels around the globe
An excerpt from The Bonds We Share: Images of Humanity, 40 Years Around the Globe. The Bonds We Share is a photo essay that features Dr. Losack’s photography in his travels 43 years around the globe. Dr. Losack goes on to state that racism, xenop…
Why the health care industry must prioritize health equity
There are few silver linings related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but one that stands out is the growing recognition that health equity must be an essential guiding principle for health care organizations going forward. The broader health care system suff…
Is EMTALA really protecting patients during COVID?
I am a physician at a critical access hospital. I manage both the ER and inpatient service and am the only physician in the hospital. This is the reality for many rural hospitals across the country. With no urgent care in town, and with primary care of…
The social imperative of health
As a nation, we have committed to a social imperative for education — an aspirational vision, based on its broad social benefit, for universal literacy and numeracy of our citizens — as manifested in our systems of mandatory K-12 education. While…
The real value of high-value care
When newly admitted medical students enroll in their respective programs, they participate in the cherished White Coat Ceremony, in which they eagerly vow to stop at nothing to help patients—to go above and beyond to provide the highest quality care to…
This physician is running for U.S. Senate. Here is his health plan outline.
Martin Luther King once said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” Sadly, this remains true today. Instead of simply providing the care one needs, access to care varies based on wealt…
The physician and the podcast interview
As I plug in the microphone and check the link, I imagine them on the mountain, kicking frozen boots into the night ice as the wind explodes over the ridge and rifles through the down of their parkas. I imagine the anemic glow of Jeff’s headlamp agains…
Legal challenge from Disability Rights Texas may have repercussions in schools across the country
Parents of disabled children together with Disability Rights Texas won a ruling in November that could have ramifications well beyond the state of Texas. In July, Texas Governor Abbot issued an executive order, GA-38, that prohibited schools from insti…
I am tired of the racism that remains embedded in our culture
A 2012 letter to Mr. Leonard Pitts, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. I am not sure why I feel so compelled to write you. You probably will not even see this email, but I still must do so. I am a 56-year-old Christian white male physician living in …
