Medical

As a physician transitioning from hand-written patient charts to electronic medical records, I have observed the blooming of pop-up alerts prior to my completing each patient visit. These alerts remind me what I should do for my patients: age and gender appropriate screening tests and procedures, vaccinations, pain management suggestions, and prescription renewal reminders, to…

“We can’t un-bungle our nation’s COVID-19 response. Political leaders acted too slowly; health agencies committed unforced errors with testing kits and, amid the confusion, an information fog settled over the land. Americans remain afraid, perplexed, and chronically misinformed (despite wall-to-wall coronavirus coverage across the leading cable news programs and print publications). To counter the uncertainty,…

Over the last seven months, the state of medicine, as we have known it in the United States, has been found out.  Disjointed, disheartened, and failing.  For every ounce of energy we have put into patient safety, quality improvement, and preventing medical errors over the past 20 years, we have simultaneously drained the soul from…

A practicing anesthesiologist for the past 14 years, when COVID hit, and the ORs came to an abrupt halt, I needed to occupy my mind. An opportunity to learn about the business behind running a practice came to me via a good friend who is co-founder of an award-winning Fintech on a mission to make…

Our obstetric anesthesia team sat down to debrief after a particularly harrowing case. We had just replaced our patient’s blood volume twice over after she went into labor with a placenta previa accompanied by a placenta accreta. The operating room had been the usual controlled chaotic scene of multiple teams intensely focused on their responsibilities.…

Research conducted by the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI), a nonprofit research organization in New York, defines the three pillars of executive presence (EP) as gravitas, communication, and image. Stated differently, EP reflects how you act, how you speak, and how you look. CTI concluded that when people are perceived as capable of becoming leaders,…

I found out I was pregnant the night before a chemistry exam. I had taken a break from stoichiometry to take a very different kind of test, one I bought from the nearest Walmart to avoid any indiscretion on the family Amazon account. After the second pink line appeared, clear as day, I got up…

“Eventually, this thankfully passed. Now, almost three years later, I know that this loss will always be with us. Miriam was beautiful, she was our only girl, she was perfect for our family, and she’s always missing. Still, my memories of being in the hospital are incredibly sad but also peaceful. In part, this is…