Physicians with nonclinical careers can do as much good for humanity as those with purely clinical careers

An excerpt from 50 Nonclinical Careers for Physicians: Fulfilling, Meaningful, and Lucrative Alternatives to Direct Patient Care. Our profession, as physicians, is medicine. This holds true regardless of career path or job title. The knowledge earned through medical training is ours to keep. Barring significant brain injury or dementia, our medical experience will always shape…

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Is there a right way to break bad news?

An excerpt from It’s All In The Delivery: Improving Healthcare Starting With A Single Conversation. On that night when the desperate call came to pick up the critically ill baby with MAS, I felt very fortunate that Dr. Cunningham was my supervisor. When I arrived at the hospital in New Jersey, it was apparent that…

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COVID-19 is not a Chinese virus, nor an Asian virus. It is a human virus.

“Chinese virus.” The term shocked me the first time I heard it, and since then, racial slurs and hate crimes against Asian Americans have broken out across the country. Dr. Clara Lee, a pediatrician in New Jersey, recalls, “At the grocery store, I got strange, accusatory looks; for wearing a mask or for being Asian?”…

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A child psychiatrist’s tips for digital parenting during COVID

Recently, I was part of a virtual panel discussing ways to help kids and teens manage their digital technology use. The audience, parents from around the world, felt blind-sided about how all of this extra time at home has led to significant increases in screen use for most people. On top of everything else, this…

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I’m ready for the change COVID-19 will bring

I am a graduating fourth-year medical student and new internal medicine resident — one of many newly minted physicians that will be thrown into the frontline to take care of COVID-19 patients in a little over a month. It’s a strange time to be graduating – we have spent years training to get to this…

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COVID exposed this state’s mangled health care system

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it revealed a troubling paradox in Vermont’s healthscape. Monopoly-creating laws and regulations (like the Affordable Care Act and the Certificate of Need program) have artificially reduced the state’s health facilities and resources. Vermonters must contend with fewer hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers, and reduced access to medical imaging technology. On…

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Child abuse in the time of COVID

“I used to only have to deal with him touching me after school — now it’s all the time.” “She’s doing drugs more because she lost her job last week; she started hitting me again.” As a pediatrician-in-training, I’ve been concerned about my patients’ safety with schools closed, jobs lost, and family stress at all-time…

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Don’t forget the power that words and acts of kindness and comfort carry

Abraham Verghese’s must-read book, Cutting for Stone, addresses powerfully the human side of medicine. It is a poignant reminder of the sacredness within medicine created by the unique bond that is the doctor-patient relationship. We are allowed into that most intimate space, the life of a person at their most vulnerable and frightened time. In…

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