Policy

Over the past two months, health professionals and community advocates have brought to the fore of national attention what has been the lived experience of many within black and brown communities for ages — racism kills. The substrate of structural racism and systemic inequities, now combined with a catalyst, COVID-19, is accelerating fatalities among those who are disproportionately burdened by chronic diseases ...

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The United States has some of the most advanced medical technology in the world, yet COVID-19 has exposed significant deficiencies in our health care system. As nothing will be the same after coronavirus, our health care system must also change as we move forward.  Now is the time to work towards improving the current system and begin to develop an infrastructure that delivers medical ...

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Those who knew George remembered him as "a big man with a heart to match" and a "good friend," "good person," and someone who "took care of people." Tragically, George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020. You may have already seen the heartstrings-shredding video showing his excruciatingly slow and torturously savage homicide. As George struggled in his final moments to simply breathe while begging for his life, and onlookers recording the ...

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Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the U.S., with a prevalence of 15.2 percent. The condition is manageable when treatment is appropriately prescribed, adjusted, and accessed by the patient. However, uncontrolled asthma can impair various facets of life and may even be fatal. This dichotomy is noteworthy, especially when considering how strongly asthma outcomes correlate with other elements of an individual's social ...

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I learned to call Atlanta home after college. It was at Grady Memorial Hospital that I first shadowed doctors, and decided that I would go to medical school. Two and a half years into being an ATLien, I cried inconsolably because it was time to leave. I have since continued to yearn for the day I will migrate back South. As I contemplate where I will apply to residency this ...

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It has been a week since terrorists broke into the maternity ward in Dashte Barchi, Afghanistan and killed 24, including women, newborns, and a midwife, and injured 16. One woman who had tried for seven years to get pregnant watched as her newborn was shot and killed.

The maternity ward is located in a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian medical non-profit known for ...

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When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it revealed a troubling paradox in Vermont's healthscape. Monopoly-creating laws and regulations (like the Affordable Care Act and the Certificate of Need program) have artificially reduced the state’s health facilities and resources. Vermonters must contend with fewer hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers, and reduced access to medical imaging technology. On the one hand, ...

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Some media outlets and public figures have heralded the ongoing pandemic as a great equalizer, referencing the pathogen's indiscriminate spread and disregard for national borders and tax brackets. The sobering mortality statistics, however, dispense any notion of an equal-opportunity crisis, revealing a familiar theme among public health challenges in America: significant racial disparities exist, and communities of color are disproportionately affected. CDC data show that blacks account for 29% of confirmed infections ...

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As a physician on the frontlines, l have watched in dismay as many U.S. states have begun to reopen from the lockdown. This is despite the fact that most of them do not fulfill the recommendations set forth by the White House. Those guidelines ask for a "downward trajectory" in newly diagnosed cases or in the percentage of positive tests. Some have criticized ...

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