Medical

COVID-19 essentially shut down my in-person primary care practice, and we immediately turned to telemedicine (“seeing” a patient virtually either through a phone or video-based visit). My primary care group did this out of necessity, but nobody predicted how much we would like it, or how effective it can be for patient care. The most…

COVID-19 has upended the medical community. Nowhere more so than in the intensive care unit. Life as an intensivist with two young children and a working spouse is never dull. I liken it to tight-rope walking with a pole for balance. I wake up every morning and balance the clinical responsibilities, teaching, reviewing journals, learning,…

In writing this, I feel a bit strange to contribute my thoughts on a pandemic I’ve had mostly a peripheral experience with dealing first hand. In my brief month on the medicine ward, I did interact with a patient who then was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (the official name for COVID-19), and subsequently, I was…

I am as nervous about writing this as I was when I first started my YouTube channel. Let me take you back to when I first decided to pursue medicine; I was a senior in high school, deciding between international business school or a pre-med degree. I was never one of those docs who had…

“Over a period of about two years, our city experienced a very large influx of seniors. One nearby town grew by over five thousand people. This, in turn, created a surge of patients coming to the hospital. As most were older, they often had multiple medical conditions. They would almost always require more complex care.…

Whatever method you have been using for video conferences these days, we have had an unprecedented look into the lives of our colleagues, children’s schoolmates, teachers, professors, and even famous folks. While this pandemic has allowed the opportunity for a paradigm shift in the way we think about communication and the work environment, it has…

What should you do if you get a call from a contact tracer letting you know you’ve been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19? Even our best efforts to stay well — by maintaining distance, washing hands often, restricting the size of our social circles, and wearing masks — may not keep the…

An excerpt adapted from Being Authentic: A Memoir. Our existence is fragile. I learned that in many intricate ways, long before the COVID-19 pandemic, so I do not take today for granted. I do not know what tomorrow will bring. I do not even know if tomorrow will come. On the eve of Thanksgiving 2016,…

I am not a black mother. I am white. I am a mother. I am also a pediatrician. Every day I work with mothers and their babies—black, brown, and white, as a newborn hospitalist on a busy, urban maternity unit. I know firsthand that the postpartum period is challenging and overwhelming for mothers. Are we…