Medical

“Headaches aren’t welcome here” — that’s the sign you have hanging on your brain’s front door, but the pain is barging right in. You can chalk it up to stress from world events or something you ate or drank, and you might be right. But there are a number of common triggers for migraines, tension…

As a society, we are faced with levels of uncertainty that are unprecedented for our times. This tension and fear doesn’t discriminate and permeates every corner of the globe. People might compare the magnitude of this pandemic to events like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina, but that misses a key element. The disasters we have lived…

Going through medical training is an introduction to risk. My first real risk experience happened on a third-year medical rotation where I was following a gastrointestinal (GI) specialist. We were called to a code of a young man with AIDS and esophageal varices who was experiencing a massive GI bleed. The gastroenterologist was tasked with…

On a Sunday, it started with a text to an old residency buddy. It started with a text to an old colleague. It started with a text to a current work friend. How are you? Thinking about you. How are you handling this volatile time? Are you ready to jump in where needed? Then came…

It was Christmas Eve, and where most people are home with their families, residents are all too familiar with spending holidays inside the hospital. As such, I was traveling back to Austin for an early morning shift on hospital service, when I encountered an ethical dilemma that has stuck with me since. A mere 20…

Was everyone in medical school as young, innocent, and wildly stupid as we were? The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine required superlatives: most, best, fastest … dumbest? Before each test, my friend Frank and I would scroll through our mental Rolodexes of “What are our other options?” (As opposed to being stuck inside with…

I have previously written an article on telemedicine regarding its benefits and its potential value as a component of a successful patient practice. Given the current climate in the medical community due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this seemed to be an appropriate time to write a follow-up article regarding the implementation of telemedicine within your…

We are at war with an invisible enemy: COVID-19. This enemy is only 0.125 microns in size but has infected more than 463,000 people and killed more than 20,000 people worldwide. Physicians, nurses, and allied health care providers are all on the front lines of battle every day to care for and treat patients infected…

Maybe this sounds dramatic, but the coronavirus is like a war.  The soldiers are health care workers. The enemy is the virus. The battlefield is the hospitals.  We are finding out that life can turn on a dime. I found that out 30 years ago in August 1990.  Iraq invaded Kuwait. I knew as soon…