Medical

My friends ask me how I’m doing.  The short answer is always, “We’re OK.”  But the real answer is much longer. I feel a lot of anxiety these days.  It’s always there, sometimes with more intensity than others.  But a constant, ever-present, lurking beneath our routine. Like everyone else, sheltering in place is a component…

On Doctors’ Day, my hospital celebrated our work by giving us each a pair of cheap headphones, and also announced the death of an attending. Though the personal risk to each of us was highlighted by the recent death, the administration did not give hazard pay, or PPE comparable to other countries’, or even a…

On the front lines, America’s emergency departments (ED) are currently in at the center of a crisis treating patients with COVID-19.  Emergency physicians and other clinicians are placing themselves and their families at risk. Yet, there is also another important crisis facing hospital-based EDs: surprise billing legislation. Certain forms of surprise billing legislation have the…

Depression affects about 20% of Americans in their lifetime, and is one of the leading causes of disability. The rates of depression are even higher in those with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Depression affects 38% of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and the risk of depression is three times as high in patients who…

Update: On April 1, 2020, the FDA requested manufacturers to withdraw all prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) ranitidine drugs (Zantac, others) from the market immediately, due to the presence of a contaminant known as N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). Although the FDA did not observe unacceptable levels of NDMA in many of the samples they tested, they have determined…

Testing for novel coronavirus is still a serious issue in the U.S. due to a lack of lab capacity, test reagents, nasal swabs, and even personal protective equipment for health care workers. Due to these shortages, the CDC is recommending that COVID-19 testing should not be performed on patients without symptoms and instead be prioritized…

In times of disaster, marginalized groups often become even further marginalized. Both those of lower socioeconomic status and those with disabilities often are left out of emergency planning, as is evidenced by the current COVID-19 pandemic. From access to testing to ability to acquire needed goods and services to triage policies being adopted from community…

During the influenza epidemic of 1918-1920, my great-grandfather, Ralph Norton Mitchell, was in the military. He helped stack the corpses of those who had died from the infection. I shudder to think about what type of personal protective equipment he used. However, his survival reminds me of a feature of all epidemics–some individuals have or…

About a decade ago, I had my first doctor-client. And part of what they wanted to discuss was budgeting in order to save more. They just got new jobs and wanted some general planning for the sake of making good decisions. Software for budgeting and spending history didn’t exist the way it does now. I…