Medical

Two years ago, my wife and I spent our 20th wedding anniversary in Charleston, SC, a city steeped in national history, both good and bad. Nothing could be more iconic of good history than Fort Sumter, and nothing more iconic of bad history than the Old Slave Market on Chalmers Street. We learned a great…

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic gut-brain disorder that can cause a variety of uncomfortable gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal pain and diarrhea, constipation, or a mix of the two. IBS can reduce quality of life, often results in missed school or work, and can have a substantial economic impact. Physicians diagnose IBS by identifying…

Fear, despair, and exhaustion are emotions collectively expressed by health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Years of health care experience has not equipped us with ways to maintain our mental wellbeing in the face of current pandemic, as evidenced by painful stories of fellow colleagues who have lost their lives. An especially vulnerable group…

This article is sponsored by Medici. Telemedicine has increased exponentially since the rise of COVID-19. It reduces COVID-19 exposure risk for both patients and providers. In many ways, telehealth has become an essential service for physicians and other health service workers. Still, with the rapid rise of the pandemic, many providers have difficulty navigating the…

“We desperately want to be part of it. For most of us, this pandemic has tapped at a foundational, altruistic urge to do our part. Our friends and loved ones are on the frontlines, their faces creased by masks worn all day, their eyes bloodshot, their foreheads grooved by too-tight goggles. Our friends and loved…

Patricia, she is maybe 40.  She is mentally ill.   Her mother was shot while cooking in her kitchen with a rifle someone was fooling with, and the weapon went off.  Patricia was there to see her mother’s head just about blown off.  She was 16 then. I don’t know why I mention the long-ago shooting,…

As an Asian male, I grew up with my share of racist encounters, some very ugly and downright scary.  Yet I refuse to blame an entire segment of the population for the misdeeds of a few.  I refuse to allow circumstances to shape me as a person or my attitudes, and instead, I try to…

This is the text of the keynote graduation speech given to the child and adolescent psychiatry residents at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on June 18, 2020. Let me begin by confessing that I am not a child psychiatrist. I am an adult psychiatrist. Or, as my mother says, I’m almost a real doctor.…