A few weeks ago, I became a full professor of medicine. The grand moment happened 28 years after graduating from medical school. The week after the promotion letter, my daughter’s MCAT results were in, and she was hitting submit on medical school…
Category: Public Health & Policy
COVID-19 adds a new health care gap: internet disparity
Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) targets older ethnic and racial minorities with lethal precision, establishing irrefutable evidence that inequality kills. Nearly one-third of those who have died from COVID are Black, while Blacks represent about 14% of th…
The future of whole-person care: high-tech holistic medicine
When we think about holistic medicine, many assume that it requires human-to-human touch points and, therefore, doesn’t lend itself well to technology and innovations such as artificial intelligence. In fact, holistic medicine and whole-person care adv…
There is endless profit potential to treat chronic diseases
I have noticed several articles describing how antibiotic development has bankrupted some pharmaceutical companies because there isn’t enough potential profit in a ten-day course to treat multi-resistant superbug infections. Chronic disease treatments,…
The impact of COVID on the Hispanic community [PODCAST]
“All of our patients, but especially our most vulnerable Spanish-speaking patients, need to hear concrete, meaningful, and practical instructions on how to care for each other when they live in large multi-generational families, and positive stor…
Health care, we have a problem
“I live and die by waveforms and not just a snippet. I need to see the entire waveform and what led to an event to determine an intervention or root cause.” The intensive care specialist told me this with desperation in his voice. He’s the one who has…
Perceptions of risk and coronavirus: thoughts of an epidemiologist
As a physician epidemiologist and former public health official, I find myself confused by people’s perceptions of risk related to coronavirus, particularly as we struggle to reopen our economy amidst a surge of cases. I’ll meet an older ad…
Physicians of America, unite! You don’t have to work for hospitals.
A recent report by Merritt Hawkins, the physician recruiting firm, includes two key revelations about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on physicians: Merritt Hawkins’ searches on behalf of prospective employers have dropped by 30 percent since March 3…
A Southern California outbreak highlights failures of the American health care system
As CNN and other outlets report, rates of COVID-19 have been overwhelming Imperial County, California, for the past two months. Bordered to the west by San Diego County, to the east by Arizona, and to the south by Mexico, the rate of new infections and…
Stop using false public health claims to attack immigrants
Earlier this summer, the Trump administration announced new rules that would eliminate asylum eligibility for people arriving from countries where COVID-19 is “prevalent,” even if they are fleeing for their lives. This is the latest in a st…
