Medical
Why states need to develop rural health outreach programs
Disparities in rural health care have been well established with respect to socioeconomic status, race, and geography. COVID-19 brought these disparities to the surface within most rural communities in the United States, highlighting the limited access to health care specialists and subspecialists. As an otolaryngologist, I have had the privilege and unique opportunity of serving…
Read MoreMedical school in a pandemic: Privileged or slighted?
Moving across the country and beginning my medical training during a global pandemic is definitely a non-ideal way to embark on what will be a very long journey. I came to medical school expecting to do all of the activities that first-year students typically engage in, like shadowing, volunteering, and other forms of career exploration.…
Read MoreThe side effect of the COVID vaccine that no one is talking about
7:42 a.m.: I got my first COVID vaccine today. I don’t feel a thing and almost wonder if I really got the injection. Then, within the first few minutes after receiving it, I feel a little lightheaded. But I realize I haven’t eaten yet for the morning. Luckily, the employee health staff had given me…
Read MoreThriving in residency: tips for your personal, financial, and professional lives
The reality is just setting in: I’m months away from finishing my family medicine residency! I want to yell it from the mountaintops, but let me also channel my elation into some advice. This is for the next generation: all you phenomenal DO and MD students who are on the cusp of becoming physicians. In…
Read MoreWhen your institution has a less than 1% hiring rate for Black residents [PODCAST]
“As soon as I realized we had so few Black residents, I began to ask around to find out if there were reasons why. One person brought up the fact that we happen to be the smaller institution between 3 other larger universities within an hour away and even bigger world-class institutions just 6 hours…
Read MoreMaximizing COVID-19 vaccine equity and minimizing death in South Carolina and beyond
That hospitals in South Carolina (SC) began COVID-19 vaccinations in mid-December of 2020 is a marvel of human ingenuity, resilience, and courage. Tragically, however, more than 5,000 confirmed South Carolinian lives have now been lost due to COVID-19. Although SC is above the national average for vaccination, many say the pace is too slow. Medical…
Read MoreThe dangers of selective empathy
I go to medical school with a girl who is universally disliked, perhaps more than anyone I’ve met before. It began innocuously enough: She was too active in the group chat, too pushy about ordering class jackets, this and that. In lecture, she barked out obscure answers like “Saturday Night Palsy” with physical force; her…
Read MoreCOVID doesn’t matter to them. Until it matters.
As I take the pups on their daily walk around the neighborhood. I come upon eight adults outside their houses, near the street, laughing and coughing and sneezing and smoking their cigarettes and huddled up close together. They didn’t say hello to me, nor did I to them. But I listened: “I ain’t gettin’ the…
Read MoreMedicine is failing rural Americans
In recent years, the divide between rural and urban areas of the United States has become more pronounced, with sharply divergent views on both social and economic policies. The results of this latest election show starkly that the divide persists, and indicate that the institutions that shape our nation are not successfully representing all portions of society.…
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