Category: Public Health & Policy

We need more black cops. We need more black physicians.

I am neither black nor white. I’m brown. I can choose to stay silent and indifferent, but the human and the American in me urges me to express my feelings and opinion about the current situation in the country resulting from a series of unfortunate eve…

Why whole person care is needed for better population health management

Many health care organizations – health plans and hospitals alike – continue to debate what it means to provide population health management (PHM). Most have landed on a definition that aligns closely with what PHM means to them, rather than operationa…

The 2 calamities killing Americans: COVID-19 and racism

There are two calamities killing Americans: COVID-19 and racism. One is novel, and the other is perennial. It is not coincidental that black Americans have died of COVID-19 at almost three times the rate of white people. Both biological and socioeconom…

Health care workers need policy changes, not just applause

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been straining our health care system, public support for health care workers has never been greater. Every evening for a few minutes, neighborhoods across the country erupt into enthusiastic cheering and instrumental no…

We should be collectively tired as a society

Here we are again, mourning the death of another black person at the hands of the people that are supposed to protect and defend our rights. Another casualty in the 400+ year struggle that we have had in this country to be granted the same right to lib…

You’re outraged by police brutality and racism. OK, now what?

You are outraged. You realize you are part of the problem. You abhor rampant, unchecked police brutality and centuries of systemic, institutionalized racism. It sickens you. OK, awesome. Now what? In recent days following the death of George Floyd and …

Just what is the WHO and why does it matter?

As medical students with backgrounds in public health and global health care operations, we were shocked by the action on the part of the Trump administration to defund the World Health Organization (WHO). This decision undermines the global community&…

The economic argument for saving lives

The COVID-19 narrative is strong and pervasive: we must sacrifice either jobs or lives.  This debate has seemingly polarized our society on moral and ethical grounds. For many healthcare professionals, the intrinsic value of life is self-evident.  No p…

It is our job to change the rhetoric on who physicians are

A colleague of mine once asked me a question that haunts me to this day: “If you care about social justice this much, why are you in medical school?” I was stunned, and I had no response to offer them. That day, I walked away to preserve my peace, but …

A medical student perspective on George Floyd’s murder

Recently in Minneapolis, George Floyd was killed by Officer Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, including almost three minutes after Floyd was unresponsive. This senseless murder is now added to an already long…