Doctors, nurses, ministers, first-responders and many individuals have interrupted their daily lives for weeks and months at time to lend a helping hand. To show solidarity communities have thrown parties, organized fundraisers and joined with relief organizations. “Text for Haiti” became a popular way to make individual contributions through mobile phone text messages as many leaders urged financial contributions over direct donations of foodstuffs, clothes and other supplies. Early indications ...
Katherine Ellington
Learning valuable public health lessons from influenza vaccination
In response to low immunization rates in my community, I served on a task force to develop a community-based pilot to increase influenza vaccination. We worked in collaboration with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Department for Aging, Visiting Nurse Services of New York (VNSNY) and a local church health ministry.On a Sunday morning in late November (during the CDC's National Influenza Vaccine Week) nearly 100 African-Americans received ...
Lethal injections are not good medicine
Recently, two executions by lethal injections were carried out in America. One ended the life of Troy Davis in Georgia, the other with too much hate Lawrence Russell Brewer in Texas. Death and dying offer complexity and complications in the profession medicine bound by policies, mandates and laws driven by internal (e.g. professional associations, medical boards) and external (e.g. federal, state, medical center) forces.Lethal injections involve delivering a fatal dose ...
Hurricane tips that patients and health professionals should know
If you’ve seen the news recently, you know that emergencies can happen unexpectedly in communities just like yours, to people like you. We’ve seen tornado outbreaks, river floods and flash floods, historic earthquakes, tsunamis, and even water main breaks and power outages in U.S. cities affecting millions of people for days at a time and now Hurricane Irene is coming. Health care professionals should be ready too.I was never concerned ...
Medical student research and reading
According to Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) policy, medical education curricula should provide opportunities for and encourage medical student participation in research and scholarly activities. Some med students take the summer between first and second year while others may take elective time or a year-off to pursue more in-depth research experiences.Med students may also choose to become the subject of research by participating in a clinical trials as patients, ...
Women in medicine: Gender, mentors and role models
We are living a new era where the progress for the civil rights of women is undeniable, yet Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg points out in her compelling TED presentation:“We still live in a world where some women don’t have [civil rights]. But all that aside, we still have ... a real problem ... women are not making it to the top of ...
Summer palpitations
It was early Saturday morning, I was making my plans for the day, crossing-off a few items that seemed unreasonable with others that had been accomplished. As I moved toward the kitchen, a voice from the living room bellowed "the coffee is ready."Turning my head I could see bright rays of sunshine making a visible path through the open front door. My morning greeting followed ...
Matters of the heart
She whispered to me with bulging eyes of urgency, "something is not right, I’ve been in pain all night."Her chief complaint was chest pain. She had a routine work-up and some care with little relief. The news came that all of her test results were normal. Her body appeared tense, she looked panicked and afraid. At bedside, the attending suggested endoscopy offering that her pain ...
