These articles are written by anonymous clinicians. They have been selected and edited by Kevin Pho, MD.
As a medical student working in East Harlem, I see inequities in access to care on a daily basis. These inequities are exemplified amongst children suffering from neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism. In 2000, about 1 in 150 children were identified as having autism spectrum disorder (ASD). That rate has skyrocketed to 1 in 44 today. For parents and their children, it is well appreciated that an …
I have been following the controversy surrounding the approval of the new Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab with great interest. Until a year and a half ago, I worked as a neurologist in an adult general neurology clinic. Many of my patients had dementia. While I thoroughly enjoyed seeing these patients and their family members, I often felt helpless when treating them. When I left clinical practice to explore a non-clinical career …
“Doctor, you’ve been duped,” she said as she took slow, careful breaths of oxygen from the heated high-flow nasal cannula.
These were definitely not the words I was expecting to hear. Responding to the perplexed look on my face, she added, “I mean I can tell that you are well-intentioned and a good person. But Bill Gates and the Minnesota Department of Health have altered the databases. Bill Gates wants half …
I would love to say 2021 outshone 2020. But I think sometime around mid-fall of last year, we realized the joke was, sadly, on humanity, and that was not going to happen.
Yes, we finally had vaccines (thank God and bless those involved forever), but the life purpose of a virus is to replicate, somehow, someway — and Delta was born.
The tragedy of the preceding winter still haunted all of us …
Doing side gigs is in vogue now. I want to tell you my story. It has to do with how one of the leading telemedicine companies ruined my career. I hope that my story will help many of you navigate this tough economy, especially those who are coming out of residency.
I started working as an independent contractor about ten years ago when it first came to the forefront. I worked …
The following article is satire.
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
– Thomas Paine
Happy holidays as we continue our long walk with COVID. A unique walk where each new step is only half as long as …
Musings of a primary care triage nurse:
1. “Isolation means you aren’t around others. No, you shouldn’t be eating dinner with your family or watching TV with them.”
2. “You’ve been sick for the past week but didn’t get tested. Yes, COVID can just be symptoms like a cold or that sinus thing you get each year.”
3. “The majority of those that are hospitalized are unvaccinated. I know ‘someone’ told you that’s …
Please also read the contrasting opinion article, “Doctoring during Kyle Rittenhouse’s acquittal.”
The Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal. We need to know the truth: There has been much misinformation and some downright lies on social media and mainstream media regarding this. Some social media outlets have blocked any positive comments regarding Rittenhouse. A man who contributed $25 to a GoFundMe site to support Rittenhouse, (before the social media platform canceled …
I imagine you’re excited to receive this letter, but please listen to me for a moment. I’ll need you to suspend your disbelief here. I am writing to you from the future, and you are me from the past. I needed to reach out to you about the choice you’ve made.
I realize — again, because I am you — that you are super excited about the hare-brained idea to go …
Recently I have been more quiet than usual. Less writing. Less fire and brimstone. Quiet, at least for me. But anyone who is paying attention knows that when the most passionate and the most invested get quiet, something is truly amiss. Whether it be a looming threat or a very real and present crisis is unknown, but the fact remains that in that silence lives the very real possibility of …
Once again, at 1 a.m., I was knee-deep in patient charts and the cacophony of messages that our “user-friendly” EHR employs to allow various staff members to reach us. One of these was about a simple, inexpensive radiologic test I had ordered which the insurance company denied for my patient. Not surprisingly, I was exhausted, and I lost it.
With some minor edits, I wrote the following in response to this …
Go to the store, support small businesses … But my children are not vaccinated.
Go out to eat; buy local … But my children are not vaccinated.
Go back to work; go travel… But my children are not vaccinated.
Come celebrate, please enjoy … But my children are not vaccinated.
Kids need people; they need play … But my children are not vaccinated.
Kids need sports and activities … But my children are not vaccinated.
Kids …
The journey to becoming a physician is generally a linear path. Sure — there are exceptions, but for the most part, you can accurately predict what you will be doing in the future. For example, when you are in high school, the next step is college, then medical school, residency, possibly a fellowship, and finally your first job. (That’s approximately 16-18 years of your life!)
But what happens when things don’t …
My Tuesday out of clinic started off like any other Tuesday. I got up (sluggish, still chronically sleep-deprived), scrubbed my face and brushed my teeth, slipped into workout clothes then set to getting my two girls ready for school. After packing lunches, brushing hair, and waiving to the bus, I sat down to do what most of us do on our days out of clinic: check the dreaded inbox. Who …
You don’t know who I am yet, but you will in the future.
I haven’t decided yet if I will run for the House, Senate, or the U.S. Congress. If you are a health care professional, whether it be a doctor able to change medicine, nurses, respiratory technicians, dieticians, phlebotomists, patient care technicians, janitors, and food service employees, you will want to hear this.
We can donate as much money as we …
Guess what, everyone, I am a health care hero. I have been applauded by strangers. The Blue Angels flew over the hospital once in the pitch of COVID to salute us. I once sifted through a giant box of free chapsticks delivered to the hospital basement and grabbed one for my colleagues.
First of all, let me clarify: There is no such thing as a “hero.” It’s a social construct laypeople …
I was in my fourth year of medical college in psychiatry electives. I remember my professor discussing a young boy, an A-grade engineering student diagnosed with depression one year back and now was admitted in the psychiatry ward with severe depression with psychotic symptoms. I saw the boy, a tall, dark, handsome face — just like my brother. A different kind of fear hit me that day. I saw my …
The past year has been sad. Sad for the lives lost, sad for the isolation, sad for the hostility that has somehow occurred over measures to protect public health. To those who continue to spin a story that vaccines and masking take away your freedom: I’m sorry. Sorry you feel this way and sorry for all the other things you feel we do to restrict your personal freedom to protect …
“Congratulations on losing that much weight! Whatever you’re doing, keep it up,” my attending says as she bobs her head vigorously in approval, then turning back to the EMR computer to type up some notes.
And all I could see was the patient slightly shifting on the exam table, their face smiling — but their whole body seemingly screaming discomfort and dismay.
Before my attending sailed into the room, the patient told …
As a parent who also happens to be a hospital-based pediatrician, lots of people have asked me my opinion on back to school and/or daycare.
I am sharing my thoughts. I’m only one person. These are just my thoughts. Feel free to take what is helpful to you and trash the rest. It won’t hurt my feelings.
I think it’s important to frame this conversation by stating loudly and clearly that there …
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