Category: Public Health & Policy

Election anxiety? Here’s a guide to practicing medicine in Canada.

Oh, Canada! Every presidential election cycle, my colleagues joke that if the election result is not to their liking, they will move to Canada. On election night 2016, “move to Canada” trended on Google, and the Canadian immigration website crashed. Th…

Interstate licensure for telehealth can fuel medical practice growth

When it comes to using telehealth to treat patients out of state, most physicians are mindful about licensure issues. But some are not aware that if you don’t have a license to practice medicine in a given state, it isn’t just malpractice: It’s a crimi…

Think deeply about ways you can use your power as a physician to make change

I’d cried all the tears I owned, so when I heard about hospital administrators serving pancakes, I walked down to the cafeteria hungry for comfort. A dear friend served me and asked if I was OK. She knew I wasn’t. She couldn’t stop to eat pancakes with…

Physicians choose love, science, and healing

Physicians dedicate their lives to serving their patients and the communities in which they reside.  We work tirelessly to educate and protect people, regardless of their background, political affiliation, immigration status, or gender.  Most of us hav…

Medical brutality, social media, and collective activism

George Floyd’s murder magnified attention to police brutality and inspired collective activism leading to structural reforms and demands for abolition. His death provoked a national reckoning with the racism infecting all major American institutions, i…

Patients over paperwork: Medicare has delivered lower costs and regulatory relief for health care providers

The COVID-19 public health emergency has highlighted that government rules and regulations should not hinder providers from delivering high-quality care to patients.  The Trump Administration exhibited an understanding of this principle long before the…

Filling the cavity between dentistry and medicine

Given that October is National Dental Hygiene Month, today we’re going to take a look back at the history of dentistry, its separation from medicine, and the importance of bringing them together. A 2006 article in Nature magazine describes the discover…

The rise of gender reveals: a global health perspective

Pink or blue? Expectant parents want to know, and the question of what sex their baby will be has become a major enterprise in the English-speaking world over the past twenty years. Throwing full-size parties with binary balloons and a colored cake has…

Why the preservation of the Affordable Care Act should matter to you

Were you born female? If so, do you want to conceive, need birth control, a mammogram, or an annual exam? Gender aside, do you have any underlying health problems? Do you lack employer-sponsored insurance but do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid? If…

Power at the top of health care in America

We have lost over 223,000 American lives due to COVID-19.  The pandemic response has been an atrocious mish-mash of information, disjointed policy directives, and abysmal national leadership. There are only two women out of the 27 members of the White …