Public Health & Policy

The Iranian diaspora’s fight for liberty: Overcoming challenges in the largest women’s rights movement of our century

Physician
March 28, 2023

For 44 years, Iranians have been living in captivity. Since the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, Iranians are no longer willing to tolerate life under the Islamic Republic and have spearheaded the largest women’s rights movement of our century.

With the focus on the people in Iran, few have discussed the challenges faced by the Iranian diaspora in this fight for the liberty of the Iranian people. For months, major news …

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The dark side of medicine: an urgent call to action against greed

Physician
March 26, 2023

An editorial in JAMA by Donald Berwick, MD, speaks about the “existential threat of greed in U.S. health care.” He points his finger at all segments of health care, including physicians.

In my specialty of vascular medicine, I have encountered a number of physicians who blatantly and repeatedly urge their patients to undergo saphenous vein ablations even though these veins, by my examination, are completely normal. These are often patients who …

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Dr. Glaucomflecken for president!

Physician
March 25, 2023

Is there anyone out there not familiar with Dr. Glaucomflecken? The fictional character created by Will Flanary, a practicing ophthalmologist, has entertained many on social media. If you are not aware of him, you should be! Dr. Glaucomflecken’s laugh-out-loud satirical short videos on medicine resonate with all physicians and others in the health care industry.

Dr. Flanary’s recent attacks on social media of private equity, insurance companies, and non-competes …

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The realities of immigrant health care served hot from America’s melting pot

Policy
March 24, 2023

By the time I was in elementary school, I was Mom’s right-hand man when it came to interpreting official documents, work emails, or confusing American jokes. Like 20.3 percent of the U.S. population, I grew up in a primarily non-English speaking home since Korean is my parents’ native tongue. Among all the odd translations my mom consulted me for, health care ones were always the hardest. Even today, as …

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From solidarity to co-liberation: Understanding the journey towards ending oppression

Physician
March 22, 2023

Three weeks ago, I attended a diversity, equity, and inclusion conference, the Inaugural Kenniebriew Conference at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, where I had the pleasure of being one of the keynote speakers. To close this conference, my wonderful colleague and fellow keynote speaker Dr. Ann-Gel Palermo gave a riveting and inspiring talk on moving from allyship to co-liberation.

What I took away from this very insightful inquiry is that …

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How medical student loan forgiveness can advance health equity [PODCAST]

Podcast
March 21, 2023
YouTube video

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes!

Join us as we welcome Katrina Gipson, an emergency medicine physician, to discuss the intersection of student loan debt and health equity. As the Supreme Court reviews the Biden Administration’s Student Loan Forgiveness Program, Katrina sheds light …

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Deaths of despair: an urgent call for a collective response to the crisis in U.S. life expectancy

Policy
March 20, 2023

Some grim news has emerged revealing the sad decline in the health of the United States. America saw its most significant 2-year fall in life expectancy, 2.7 years, in almost 100 years. This has led to U.S. life expectancy being at its lowest since the mid-1990s. This unprecedented fall requires deep examination.

 While COVID is a major cause behind this decline, another …

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Can AI solve the physician shortage crisis?

Tech
March 19, 2023

A 2021 Merritt Hawkins article reports increasing physician shortfalls in the U.S. while pointing out that almost 50 percent of all currently practicing physicians are older than 55. In some medical specialties, the “greater-than-55” physician numbers are between 60 to 90+ percent.

Similar findings have been confirmed in an updated January 2023 Becker’s Hospital Review article. These recent reports estimate that there will be a …

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Breaking down the barriers to effective bar-code medication administration

Policy
March 18, 2023

According to the Commonwealth Fund and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the health care system in the United States continues to rank the highest in health spending, has the highest rates of avoidable deaths, and rates of infant and maternal deaths compared to other high-income countries. These countries include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, …

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The locums industry has a beef problem

Policy
March 17, 2023

America, we have a beef problem! The inflation rate is high, and the inflation on beef is even more outrageous. At the time of this article, inflation hovers around 8 to 9 percent, while beef is priced at least 15 to 30 percent more than before COVID-19.

We are undoubtedly seeing corporate greed from the meatpacking companies as they have driven up prices throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The numbers don’t make …

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Canada’s health workers are sounding the alarm. We must act, now.

Policy
March 16, 2023

It is no longer hyperbole to say that we are witnessing our health system moving slowly but surely to a point where it will be very difficult to return.

Despite the weighty First Ministers’ meeting with the Prime Minister on health care, complete with many promises, health workers continue retreating from the system, as they have for the last year, in a sort of slow-motion form of resistance.

Health workers are reducing …

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Race categorizations are worsening health inequities for the South West Asian North African (SWANA) communities

Policy
March 16, 2023

The Office of Management and Budget is requesting members of the public to provide feedback on a proposal from the Biden Administration to add Middle-Eastern North African (MENA) to the 2030 U.S. Census. If the reforms pass, it would be a major victory for Middle-eastern Americans who have long campaigned for their own checkbox.

For nearly 100 years, South West Asian North African (SWANA) Americans like myself, known as Middle-Eastern, have …

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An unspoken truth about non-compete clauses in medicine

Policy
March 15, 2023

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken on non-compete clauses and requested public comments on this issue for upcoming hearings.

In health care, the majority of physicians have become employees, and hospitals and corporate entities are buying out most practices. As we face a critical and accelerating shortage of physicians and other health care workers, non-compete clauses increasingly limit physician movements within health care, profoundly decrease satisfaction, Read more…

Fostering the next (diverse) generation of clinicians

Physician
March 14, 2023

As a medical student, I never saw myself as a future CEO or anything close. I was often the only Black person in the room in classes and rotations. After I became an attending, I spent a great deal of time and mental energy fitting in. Speaking up and having opinions were luxuries I couldn’t afford, let alone aspiring to leadership.

What made a difference? Having a mentor.

My mentor, Wes Curry, …

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Unintended consequences of Health Care Quality Improvement Act: a violation of physicians’ civil and constitutional rights

Physician
March 13, 2023

The Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, as well as the Human Rights Campaign for the LGBTQ+ community, are a few examples of where American democracy and values have triumphed in restoring dignity and civil and constitutional rights to marginalized individuals. Although much work remains to be done, the enlightenment brought about by these movements will undoubtedly continue to strengthen American democracy. However, it is concerning that during the …

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We need a new approach to Black mental health

Policy
March 13, 2023

In recent weeks, an outpouring of new research has highlighted the severity of the Black mental health crisis. One new poll shows that 77% of Black and Latinx women face mental health barriers related to racism. Another new study found that Black women are undertreated for depression. Yet another shows that even vicarious experiences of racial discrimination increase anxiety. All this is on top of research showing …

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Rethinking access to the American tip jar: It’s time to include nurses and dental hygienists

Physician
March 9, 2023

Americans are accustomed to tipping for a wide array of services. We understand that our gratuity makes up an important percentage of the wages earned by many different types of laborers: massage therapists, Uber drivers, hair stylists, tour guides, room service providers, valets — the list goes on. Much of the time, we don’t just add a tip because we’re adhering to a cultural norm but rather because we genuinely …

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Research literacy bridges the medical mistrust gap

Conditions
March 9, 2023

A long inglorious history of medical racism and mistreatment has dire health consequences. Consider the atrocities associated with experimentation on African Americans without informed consent during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-1972), which eroded the trust in the medical profession and medical research, and undermined the nation’s ability to achieve health equity.

Medical mistrust continues to worsen due to the negative health care experiences African Americans still endure today. For …

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The Titanic sinking: a metaphor for the impending collapse of medicine

Physician
March 7, 2023

The re-release of the movie Titanic marks its 25th anniversary since it first sailed into theaters. Can you believe it? Twenty-five years ago, we watched Rose get undressed for a self-portrait with only a necklace on, Jack yelling, “I’m the king of the world” from the boat’s bow, and the two of them doin’ the dirty in the backseat of an automobile. This fictional love story of Rose and Jack …

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Patient empowerment: the key to solving the health care crisis

Physician
March 7, 2023

A sobering study by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicts an unthinkable shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 doctors by 2034. If underserved populations had fewer barriers to medical care, that shortfall could reach over 180,000! Successfully navigating these uncharted waters will require strategic planning and innovation.

Even the current state is so dire that the American Medical Association (AMA) developed a critical action plan: AMA’s Recovery Plan for …

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