Medical

I am a practicing emergency medicine physician in Indianapolis, IN.  I work in a county hospital whose mission is to serve the underserved.  I, like you, was born into a life of privilege with white skin and parents with the means to provide all that was needed and more. My college education was paid for,…

I am a frontline health care worker.  I am an emergency physician.  I am also a mother to two glorious, growing, miraculous children and wife to a handsome triathlete stay at home dad.  Additionally, I am one of three daughters to a pair of still practicing exceptional pediatricians in their late 70s, and sister to…

The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened our physical and mental health and the very fabric of society. Social isolation has devastating consequences on small businesses, but it has also opened doors to remote business opportunities in the virtual world. Medicine has long been ready to launch telemedicine. However, bureaucratic red tape has prevented this from happening…

On July 21, 1861, spectators traveled to Manassas, Virginia to witness the first battle of the American Civil War. The rich citizenry of the Union wanted to see how easily the Confederacy would collapse against the Federal Army, giving a quick end to the secessionist slave-owning states. Unfortunately, the Union Army came decidedly unprepared, and…

When did physicians and other health care workers become expendable pawns? When did they become unwitting participants in corona roulette? When hospital systems began to mandate that, in spite of known exposure, in spite of even a positive COVID-19 test, physicians (and their colleagues) continue working. When hospital workers are informed that if they are…

Physicians are leaders.  As leaders, we are focused on how to ensure safety for our coworkers while also acknowledging a need for stewardship of scarce supply of resources, namely, personal protective equipment (PPE). I have a particular interest in this topic since I am an emergency physician with a high-risk newborn at home (who spent…

About 15 years ago, I spent a few weeks at a small community hospital in Zambia, helping to staff the primary care clinic and attend some of the rounds on the small inpatient units there.  The inpatient pediatrics unit was full of young children suffering from malaria or measles, often both.  One particularly stark evening,…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other health care providers (HCPs) transitioned their clinical practice to telemedicine in the last few weeks.  As recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) cautioned that older adults, 65 years or older, were at a higher risk for illness with the virus,…

My friends’ weddings have been postponed, even my own cousin’s. Step 1 exam dates have been moved, much to the shock of many students I know. My brother’s third-year rotations have also been delayed, and the curriculum has unexpectedly changed from the original schedules he and his classmates had. My fourth-year friends’ Match Days and…