“My own dream-induced pain started at the same time this child was mowed down. Then and there is when and where my faith in God died because God, the higher power, had allowed this unspeakable nightmare to happen. My hope for the future evaporate…
Category: Public Health & Policy
How health care organizations can tackle racism in patient care [PODCAST]
“The new American Medical Association policy recognizing racism as a public health threat and providing an anti-racist approach to equitable care will have no effectiveness unless health care organizations get their own houses in order and active…
Medicine in the shadow of the Confederacy
To get to my primary care clinic in Richmond, VA, my patients and I must walk past the Confederacy’s White House. Our emergency room sits in its shadow. Each day, I walk past the three-story white building surrounded by my hospital on three sides…
Medicine in the shadow of the Confederacy
To get to my primary care clinic in Richmond, VA, my patients and I must walk past the Confederacy’s White House. Our emergency room sits in its shadow. Each day, I walk past the three-story white building surrounded by my hospital on three sides…
There’s a doctor in the house, and maybe also a physician: a view from osteopathic medicine
The Wall Street Journal’s decision to publish an attack on Dr. Jill Biden’s right to be called “doctor” has appropriately unleashed a firestorm. According to Joseph Epstein, the editorial’s author, Biden should drop the title because she isn’t what peo…
As both patients and physicians, women face discrimination
My first clinical rotation as a third-year medical student was in orthopedics. I remember the excitement of being scrubbed into the OR, with the gloried task of suctioning while the fellows did the real work. About 30 minutes into the surgery, when thi…
A real-life example of irrational health care spending
This week at work, I had a patient in the hospital who had been through a pretty challenging illness, and he was going to have to be discharged to a skilled nursing facility (SNF) to rehab for a few weeks. Sadly, SNFs in my area do not currently allow …
The answer to hate speech or false speech is not censorship
I am at a loss. While trying to explain the events to my children since January 6, I feel profound sadness and fear. Our country is built on freedom, yet the latest in a parade of crisis’ is being used by those in power to remove our freedoms at an a…
It is not enough to say we are anti-racist. We must address glaring disparities in treatment.
Sometimes structural racism surfaces in a way that even those of us who would like to be “color-blind” cannot help but see. In the spring of 2020, the video-recorded death of George Floyd (who was Black) at the hands of a law enforcement officer (who w…
Dear medical community, it’s time to engage in the climate movement [PODCAST]
“I plan to reach out to climate organizations and see what I can do to get involved. Whether that means writing more op-eds like this one or writing to legislators, I now recognize that as part of the medical field, especially in regard to mental…
