“We need full transparency and empowerment of patients and doctors to make wise decisions. We must renew and restore the sanctity of the patient-doctor relationship. We need to stop pretending that health care can be ‘free,’ stop call…
Category: Public Health & Policy
Why parents send their children on a potential death march
“There will be a knock at the door,” says Rene, an El Salvadoran pastor and my close friend, “and they will say, ‘Give us your daughter, or we will kill you and your family.’” He continues: “Gangs control many of the villages. They are in the schools; …
Retrospective refusal of payment based upon final diagnosis compromises patients’ welfare
My patient was very upset. The 34-year-old mother of two young children had come to the emergency department (ED) with abdominal pain despite her COVID-19 concerns. I had just told her that she had a benign ovarian cyst rather than the life-threatening…
No mass shooting is “worse” than another mass shooting
It is a macabre fact. The easing of COVID shutdowns has brought back mass shootings in the U.S. With almost no packed schools, movie theaters, malls, airports, and fewer packed workplaces during the last year, mass shootings did not lead the news. Now …
The rise and fall of Hahnemann University Hospital
In March, thousands of medical students received their residency match results. For most specialties, match rates for graduating U.S. MD seniors have typically remained above 90 percent. This almost certain job security is what allows most medical stud…
Racism and health: the life expectancy gap
Since the national election of 2020, racism at the polls has become a hot topic that Democrats hope soon to remedy with the election reform bill, H.R.1. I imagine many health care practitioners are wondering what is wrong with so many of our political …
Words matter: Definitions ground us in our profession and in our world [PODCAST]
“Definitions ground us in our profession and in our world. Definitions matter because they help us pause, give our body a moment to settle, and our breath time to move in and out. Our racist actions, inactions, and comments are invasive throughou…
Is it time to consider social determinants of health in Medicare payments?
Eta was a 76-year-old woman with a recent heart attack in and out of the hospital over the last several months. Her course had been complicated by social determinants of health, in that she lacked reliable transportation for necessary follow-up, had un…
More than a “bad day”: Asian-American medical trainees need your support
On March 16, 2021, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long had a “bad day,” in the words of Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department, and went to three different spas or massage parlors to kill eight people, including six Asian-America…
More than a “bad day”: Asian-American medical trainees need your support
On March 16, 2021, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long had a “bad day,” in the words of Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department, and went to three different spas or massage parlors to kill eight people, including six Asian-America…
