Medical

“Someday, I suspect I will recount this time of fear with mixed emotions.  Sadly, there are people who have died and more to come, and this time will also lead us to reassess our way of life and make changes for the better.  I work from home, juggling the management of patients by telemedicine with…

It was April 5, 2020. In the months prior, I imagined, she had been grappling with the isolation of her newfound unemployment.  The pandemic’s solidarity was possibly a relief: the rare solace of the permission to take a pause.  Her new days were partly spent with long walks near Baker Beach, saluted by the loyal,…

August 1 to 7 is National Breastfeeding Week. I wish it wasn’t. I said it. I’m a family medicine physician with experience in working with moms and newborns in their feeding journeys. I don’t support a breastfeeding week. I wish it was something else like “Moms/Dads/grandparents/caregivers Newborn Feeding Week.” When my daughter, Wendy, was born…

Choice is always available to us. Choice is a charged word – fueling political debates and challenging concepts of freedom. Many would argue that there are unavoidable obligations, legal and cultural limitations that revoke choice, but at the core of human existence is free will that cannot be revoked. While there may be consequences for…

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, on the other hand, appear to be extremely profitable. A single month’s treatment with the newer diabetes drugs, COPD inhalers, or blood thinners…

“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 stories from people who have successfully managed infection with COVID-19. They need to hear that, as their physicians, we are…

She started crying. This tough, capable, juggernaut of an ICU nurse looked just a little broken for a second while she cried. “It’s not fair. It’s immoral—or unethical. I don’t know—I know it’s the right thing. We have to protect the patients and staff but … if it were my dad! I just … I…

“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 to tell families that their loved one…