Medical

The worst of our peers now represent us to the public. Today, whether they are the subject of legal action after their abuse of women is revealed, or dragged into the spotlight through the courage of the patients they assaulted, male gynecologists are becoming notorious in American medicine. While the history of our profession is…

If you have chronic arthritis pain, you may be wondering about cannabidiol (CBD) as a treatment. CBD, along with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other chemicals, is found in marijuana. But unlike THC, CBD is not “psychoactive” — that is, it does not cause the intoxication or high associated with marijuana use. There’s a good chance you’ve…

I am a professor and cardiac anesthesiologist who practices at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Like the majority of health centers across the world, our leaders are working around the clock to treat COVID-19 in our community. We on the front lines are preparing, educating ourselves daily on rapidly changing plans…

Out of the blue, a new virus popped up, and ten weeks later, it is a pandemic. Within the last ten weeks, doctors have identified this new disease, figured out how it is transmitted, identified what body fluid we need to test to determine who has contracted the disease, developed a test for it, mass-produced…

I have been writing columns for physicians for twenty years.  And year after year, I have had physicians say this: “I’m glad you said what you did. If I said it, I’d be fired.” There are variations on the theme, but they’re much the same.  Twenty years, and far more than 20 years, during which…

With so many of us wrestling with fears and unknowns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, every throat tickle, nose drip, or cough is suspect: do I have coronavirus? By now, we all know that COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus, can cause severe, life-threatening symptoms, although the majority of people who have it will experience a…

With COVID-19 raging through the nation, and limited supply of PPE at hospitals, doctors and other critical care personnel are at high risk due to their increased and daily exposure to the virus. For health care workers, the need to plan for a possible worst-case outcome for themselves and their families has become an immediate…

Infectious diseases have been a scourge of mankind since time immemorial. I am a keen reader of history, and anyone who does so, knows that infections have not only caused billions of deaths and untold suffering—but have also brought down kings, armies, empires, and entire civilizations. Previous pandemics have literally changed the course of human…