“What exactly is my obligation to medicine? Am I supposed to practice medicine forever? Is it my duty? Do I have to continue serving my patients, the hospital, and society because of these expectations? The answer is simple: You get to decide. Mo…
Category: Public Health & Policy
The path to gender-affirming care is closing: We need to open it
Imagine losing control of your child’s life-saving care. The mental anxiety is overwhelming enough – then suddenly, all the decisions that should be up to your child, you, and your child’s physician are snatched out of your hands by f…
Mental health issues and the African American community
Death is a topic that most people try to avoid. Death by suicide is also something that that remains rarely discussed. This is probably because suicide is scary, particularly if we have thoughts of being the loved one left behind. People considering su…
How to close gaps in social determinants of health [PODCAST]
“As a doctor, it is pretty humbling to reflect on the fairly minimal impact our health care system has on individuals’ overall health. One study I find particularly intriguing shows that socioeconomic factors (e.g., education and income), and phy…
A physician was bullied and fired by the bully
I don’t think I became a whole person until my mid-30s. When you spend the majority of your life in school, training, and building a practice, everything else goes on hold, or autopilot. There are very few things that I made conscious decisions a…
Those with the power to reform our system have little incentive to act
It is no surprise that burnout is surging along with this latest pandemic wave. Exhaustion—both physical and moral—is the ashen heart of burnout. Even as the flood of patients recedes in some areas, health care operations are hardly back to normal as m…
Health care and the Latinx experience [PODCAST]
“Knowing that an important number of Latinx are not yet fully vaccinated and understanding the health care gaps and social disparities that affect this group, it is reasonable to assume that the Latinx community will be disproportionately affecte…
5 ways that health IT can improve health equity
On March 10, I had the distinct privilege of presenting to the ONC Health IT Advisory Committee at their meeting titled “Health Equity by Design.” The presentation highlighted five areas of focus for health IT in reducing health disparities…
Family medicine and the fight for the soul of health care [PODCAST]
“Overall, the health system in the United States is still not tilting its axes in favor of either primary care or family doctor. What is worse, family doctors as a collective are more balkanized and less cohesive than ever. There is a sense among…
Kids are not OK: Health care is failing them [PODCAST]
“Our children are not OK. Our pediatricians are not OK. Please, let us not further ignore and jeopardize the future health of our society. Pediatrics needs a transformational change to direct primary care and other models that transition from tra…
