Medical

As I finished the endless clicking, the clinic day came to a close. Clicking to begin and end phone visits. Clicking to get on and off Zoom visits. The endless video game clicking that is life as a physician documenting electronic health records. Too bad I have never been a gamer; maybe some who are…

High or abnormal cholesterol levels, inflammation, and endothelial dysfunction play a key role in atherosclerosis and plaque buildup, the most common cause of heart attacks and strokes. (Endothelial dysfunction refers to impaired functioning of the inner lining of blood vessels on the heart’s surface. It results in these vessels inappropriately narrowing instead of widening, which…

Part of your job as a parent is to teach your children, and there’s no way for a child to learn anything without making a few mistakes. Actually, a lot of mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes can be infuriating. They might be self-destructive mistakes. They might be mistakes that can cause harm to their siblings or…

“Something had to give, and it would either be clinical medicine, or my business. I finally had to admit I was no longer fulfilled to the same level doing hospitalist work. So I made the decision to leave my clinical job. It was so terrifying that I put off making a decision for months. I…

I opened the exam room door and hit something. Peeking around the door, I saw an elderly woman wearing a pink sequined hat who was perched in a motorized scooter parked awkwardly in front of the door.  I slinked around her to my stool and sat down as I introduced myself. I was running behind,…

Every physician has had the experience.  The moment you ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” It could be when you look into the waiting room where there are more patients to be seen and know if you take a break, it will set you back even further. It could be on the final stretch…

Coronavirus vaccines are crucial to taming the pandemic. Everyone should get one. Please, please, get vaccinated. Now, that’s out of the way—I’m no anti-vaxxer. I am a huge supporter of vaccines and believe vaccination will help bring an early end to the worst global health disaster in modern history. But there is something strange happening.…

Hemorrhoids are painful, unpleasant, and, um, well, difficult to talk about. But they actually are quite common: about half of people over age 50 have had them. However, they’re easy to treat and manage. “Hemorrhoids can be troublesome and embarrassing, but they often shrink on their own with simple self-help care and over-the-counter remedies,” says…