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What happens when patients from opposite ends of the political spectrum sit together in your waiting room and start talking like neighbors? Psychiatrist Farid Sabet-Sharghi explores why the medical …
Your waiting room does what social media cannot [PODCAST]
Tickborne diseases are the most common vector-borne infections in the U.S., and for decades Lyme disease has dominated the conversation in endemic regions. But ticks are carrying more than Lyme alone and co-infections are becoming harder to ignore. New research suggests ticks are harboring a wider mix of pathogens than previously recognized, and that co-infections are becoming an increasingly important part of the clinical picture.
A recent study published in Ecosphere …
Why tickborne co-infections are changing Lyme disease care
In global conversations about the future of radiology, artificial intelligence (AI) is often positioned as the solution to the field’s most pressing challenges. From improving diagnostic accuracy to reducing physician workload, the possibilities seem extensive. Yet, as a medical student training in Nigeria, I have come to realize that the conversation around sustainability in radiology must begin much earlier, specifically at the point of access. In my training, I have …
Artificial intelligence in radiology and global health equity
Travel time to get to an operating room (OR) has increased since 2010. In 2020, 44 percent of rural adults traveled for 60 minutes or longer to get to a place to receive surgery compared to approximately 37 percent in 2010.
Longer travel to receive surgery results in delayed treatment. Delayed treatment causes the development of more complicated cases, higher complication rates, and poorer outcomes for those who receive …
How mobile surgical units improve rural surgical access
There have been unanswered questions about endometriosis for as long as it has been identified as a medical condition. We do not know yet why an estimated one in 10 women of reproductive age worldwide develop this often painful, chronic condition while others do not. We do not have a single, successful non-surgical treatment for endometriosis, characterized by lesions that mimic the tissue of the endometrial lining of …
Why systemic endometriosis requires whole-body care
I have come to a realization, one that has been building quietly over years of practice, long before I had the language to articulate it fully. We are very good at doing what we were trained to do. And yet, something about what we are doing is not enough.
As physicians, we are exceptionally skilled at identifying symptoms, categorizing them, and intervening with precision. We move quickly. We think algorithmically. We …
Why physicians treat symptoms not causes of disease
As a pain physician treating injured workers daily as well as being a qualified medical examiner (QME) or Independent Medical Examiner (IME) providing independent opinions, and a business owner cutting checks for workers’ comp premiums, I see the system’s strengths and serious strains up close. It started with good intentions: a no-fault safety net, so workers get care and some income if they’re hurt on the job, without dragging employers …
How workers compensation reform can cut litigation costs
Not long ago, when the president announced that Tylenol caused autism, he commented that leucovorin, a cancer medication, treated the condition. It was disturbing to see the outsized impact the pronouncements of a nonscientist had on the public, despite counterstatements by autism scientists to the contrary. I can fully understand the response. What mother-to-be would take the chance, even if untrue, that Tylenol may cause autism? Or if parents have …
How medical misinformation drives demand for nonscientific treatments
Clear, factual information regarding the roles and responsibilities of anesthesia care team members is increasingly difficult to find. In health care, “scope of practice” defines the range of responsibilities professionals may perform based on their license. As many state legislatures and Washington, D.C. are currently in session, anesthesiologists across the country are advocating for patient safety by promoting anesthesiologist-led care, not as part of a “scope” agenda, but as a …
Opt-out states and physician-led anesthesia care explained
Do you ever feel like a hovering helicopter, eyes fixed on every corner of the horizon, yet swift and nimble to the next need, while trying to stay aloft with a missing blade? If you have ever stood in the middle of a shift, a surgery, a conversation, or a decision that could not wait, and felt all of that at once, then you already know what it is to …
What physicians and dragonflies share in resilience and agility
I recently reviewed the case of a 17-year-old who came into the emergency department (ED) after a friend found him unresponsive at a party. He had taken what he thought was a Percocet. It was fentanyl. He survived because his friend called 911 and paramedics arrived with naloxone in time. But here is what happened next: nothing. He was observed, medically cleared, and discharged. No one offered him naloxone to …
Treating adolescent opioid use disorder with buprenorphine
The act of taking a deep breath is a simple, mindless reflex. However, for nearly 124,990 Americans this year, that same breath will become a reminder of a system that failed them. Currently, health care in the U.S. is viewed as a privilege, reserved for those who have the means to access it; it is no longer seen as a right. When it comes to lung cancer, our health …
Why lung cancer screening needs urgent policy reform
Weight loss culture is shifting again. In recent years, the dominant aesthetic ideal emphasized curves and the “Kardashian-curve” look popularized across social media. Today, the pendulum is swinging back toward a thinner body ideal that resembles trends from the early 2000s. At the same time, the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications has surged, particularly among young adults. These two developments are unfolding simultaneously. As medications that support weight loss …
How GLP-1 medications shift modern weight-loss trends
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What happens when a Division I athlete loses 40 pounds, can barely form sentences during practice, and keeps hearing from doctors that it might just be anxiety? Kamiah Gibson, a D1 women’s volleyball …
I ate plain rice and chicken for six months because no one explained celiac [PODCAST]
In every operational environment I have worked in, labor is visible. It is assigned, measured, and supported. Health care is the only sector where the system routinely generates work it does not staff, does not track, and does not claim. Instead, that work is absorbed by patients, clinicians, and caregivers who carry it because the alternative is delay or failure. This quiet transfer of labor is what I call the …
The silent burden in health care and administrative waste
An excerpt from Friendship Skills for Neurodivergent Adults: A Guide for the Anxious, Uniquely Wired, and Easily Distracted.
Your neurology, your experiences, your strengths, and your weaknesses affect how you see the world. Understanding your brain helps you understand your life, your mindset, and the science behind your behavior, so that is exactly where we will begin. By understanding your neurotype, you can better understand your brain and create neurodivergent-friendly …
Why neurodivergent friendship is challenging but possible
A school bell rings inside the Jen Chi station-front building, a historic health and social welfare hub in Taipei.
For a visitor, it may sound ordinary. For staff, it marks the end of another class, another session, another carefully planned activity for older adults. For family caregivers, it may mean a short moment of relief. For a person living with dementia, the sound may not become a lasting memory, but it …
Caring for the caregivers builds dementia-friendly cities
Most EHR demos are built around the same set of features: mobile access, AI-assisted documentation, integrated billing, patient portal design, and telehealth. Those features matter, but they do not prove the system will work in a real clinic day.
The demo is a controlled environment. The vendor chooses the patient, the encounter, the documentation path, the billing example, and the person clicking through the screen. A clean demonstration can hide a …
EHR vendor evaluation should happen before the demo
Physicians are trained to listen for symptoms that point to deeper problems. For example, chest pain can mean heart disease, and ongoing fatigue might signal depression or another illness. I once cared for a middle-aged teacher who showed how political divisiveness can affect health. She came in with headaches and trouble sleeping. While we spoke, she shared that her symptoms got worse during heated political debates at her school and …
How political divisiveness impacts your health and well-being
If you think one word inside a medical expert report cannot break a case, look at what happened in Kline v. Zimmer. A defense expert testified about possible alternative causes of a plaintiff’s injury, not probable ones. That single word, possibly, is the reason opinions like his are routinely challenged. Across multiple jurisdictions, courts have held that an expert who testifies in possibilities is offering no evidence at all.
In civil …
Medical expert witness report language gets cases struck
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