Medical

I write to the health care workers and other essential hospital personnel who are at the center of efforts to care for our neighbors during the novel coronavirus pandemic. I am a pulmonary specialist and critical care physician.  I am trained to manage organ failures, including diseases of the lung that require life support with…

Two months ago, I kneeled next to Sarah – an avid drinker of chocolate milk, ex-journalist, and new hospice resident – in a nursing homeroom. We had a knack for discussing emotions, and that day, our conversation reached the idea of suffering. Her pain-stricken voice shared, “Did you know that we notice? When someone’s health…

On 9/11, firefighters and other first responders rushed in to protect others, and for that, they will always be heroes. Today, health care workers are rushing in to heal those with COVID-19 – at great risk to themselves. Health care workers are the true heroes of this crisis. On routine days, clinicians caring for patients…

With the world more or less at a standstill, how do we cope with our needs as human beings? So much has changed in our world in such a short amount of time. For most of us, our rather predictable and standard routines have come to a complete standstill. It’s as if someone hit the…

Both clinical and direct-to-consumer genetic testing have become significantly less costly and more common, providing people with access to a wealth of information about everything from their ethnicity and family lineage to their risk for certain diseases and how they will respond to medications such as blood thinners and antidepressants. But before you decide to…

When physicians present at medical conferences, we usually start with a slide disclosing any potential conflicts of interest to our audience. I probably need to disclose two things here. First, I’m an infuriating and inexhaustible optimist. Second, I’m a cancer doctor but also a recent cancer patient myself, and I understand intimately how it feels…

The first five liver transplant recipients were all dead within 23 days. The year was 1963, the surgeon was Dr. Thomas Starzl, and the operations were actually deemed a success for their surgical complexity. Since then, liver transplant (LT) has evolved from an experimental, often fatal procedure to the standard of care for end-stage liver…

I took an oath when I graduated from medical school. The ancient, powerful words of the Hippocratic Oath are seared into the brain of every physician: “First, do no harm.” I, along with every physician who has come before me, hold myself to that standard. Every time I go to work, my goal is to…

The social media posts exhaust me.  I see parents with colorful schedules for children to abide by during this pandemic and others who have made a zillion fabric masks to donate. Meanwhile, I’m trying to test the technology to see patients from my new home “office” and train my children that they cannot join the…