Medical
The COVID winter is coming. The time to prepare is now.
The motto of the House of Stark from Game of Thrones is “winter is coming.” The meaning is a warning to remain vigilant as there are troubling times ahead. This motto applies to both mental illness and the COVID pandemic. There was a brief time where we saw improvements in case numbers and deaths. People…
Read MoreHow to balance family and professional needs during the pandemic [PODCAST]
“The reality of being a medical practice owner is that we are small business owners and very vulnerable to the impact of COVID. Having previously worked in the telemedicine industry and because I am a psychiatrist, I initially felt that I was in a good position to adapt to this crisis – and this has…
Read MoreYou have options when it comes to board certification
It’s good to have options, isn’t it? So why isn’t there an option when it comes to taking your boards? In other words, can’t residents have a say with which board to become certified with once they’re done with their residency? Well, there’s good news for you. The answer is yes. You definitely have options.…
Read MoreThe trauma of a combat doctor in Iraq
An excerpt from Universal Death Care. Machine gun fire ripped me open—From Left to Right. There were too many bullets. No way could I feel each wound. They blended together like a single strike of lightning. I was paralyzed by pain. It had taken root in me. The sorrow at what I had lost was…
Read MoreThe benefits of early clinical exposure in medical education
Medical schools are increasingly emphasizing early clinical exposure for their medical students. While the traditional medical education format — in which the basic sciences are taught during the first two years, and clinical rotations are stressed during the latter two — are still generally followed, many schools provide their students with exposures to the hospital…
Read MoreDoes lupus or arthritis affect your prognosis if you get COVID-19?
Soon after the coronavirus pandemic began, we learned that older adults and people with certain chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, are at increased risk for severe COVID-19. One condition on that list is an immunocompromised state (a weakened immune system). This can be due to a number of conditions, including having…
Read MoreIt is overwhelming hopelessness that crushes caregivers’ collective souls
I started my medical training in the late 1990s. This was after the AIDS epidemic; that is to say, by that time, the human immunodeficiency virus was known, and there were already proven treatments. So, for doctors of a certain age, this is the first time we have battled an emerging disease. This has created…
Read MoreElection anxiety and post-election depression
To know our history is to predict our future. We’ve been here before. To be more specific, we were in this very position in 1920. It was an election year amidst a pandemic, the Spanish flu that began in 1918. The Republican nominee, Warren Harding, claimed victory. Given the circumstances at the time, it is…
Read MoreMedical aid in dying is not assisted suicide [PODCAST]
“To help the reader understand the issues better, I would like to relate some stories. A friend of mine was dying of pancreatic cancer. He had an implantable morphine pump and was on both hospice and palliative care. Still, he found that his suffering was unbearable and wanted to die sooner. Doctors told him that…
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