Category: Public Health & Policy

The medical profession must address the injustices Black patients suffer

Before he was another Black man shot by police, Jacob Blake could have been my patient. In Waterbury, Connecticut, where I practice as an internist, his shooting has left me to consider the health effects of the exposure of violence on his sons, who wa…

This is what a successful health care system looks like

If a core goal of our nation is to have the healthiest population possible, then we need to rethink, regroup, and restore our commitment to health practices and processes that are aligned with this mission. We are currently investing our precious socia…

Care is no longer personal. Care is political.

Care. I do not believe we have ever heard more about care at a presidential nominating convention than in this year’s Democrat convention. “Patriotism,” “justice,” “bravery,” “strength”?  For sure. …

Is now the time for single payer? [PODCAST]

“Single payer is the solution. And the time for it is now. A single-payer system would guarantee health care coverage immediately to every American. So whether a loved one gets sick from COVID, has a heart attack, or gets in a car accident, she w…

Patients alone cannot combat high health care prices

After three months of physical therapy, her doctor told her that it was time to get an MRI. She had already paid off her annual deductible, meaning the imaging test would “only” cost her the $150 co-pay. An imaging center near where she worked charged …

The only way to save medicine, save our country, and to save ourselves is to pivot

A few months ago, I signed up for a virtual conference for women in medicine. Its a group of women, over 10,000 of us, who have watched me and supported me through the past two years of my career. Two years of struggle. Two years of personal and profes…

What if health care went through a mindset shift?

Very few people sit down and think about their mindset. And even fewer doctors or health care workers contemplate mindset. But if there were ever a time in human history to think about our minds and how we use them to process what is happening around u…

Connecting health care, voting, and our communities

It has been eight years since I registered patients to vote in the Bronx. I remember the clinic, nestled in a busy commercial neighborhood with its modest windowfront facade. Inside, the flyer was posted everywhere. Among quilts of signs and reminders,…

Why are so many community hospitals transferring children to larger facilities?

A recent edition of Pediatrics has some disturbing research: “Trends in Capability of Hospitals to Provide Definitive Acute Care for Children: 2008 to 2016.” What the paper really does is document what many of us who work in referral hospitals have not…

Analyzing the Biden health plan. Will it work?

If the Democrats capture the White House, keep the House, and take over the Senate, the Biden health care outline stands a good chance of being enacted. The Biden health care proposal directly takes on the big things that haven’t worked in Obamac…