Opinion | A 20-Step Manifesto for Better Healthcare Quality
Our country, the richest society in human history, features a healthcare system — avoidable by none — in which the level of dysfunction is beyond compare. The version of healthcare good enough for the people we call patients will not be reached passively. Whether we improve enough to give our patients and communities the quality […]
Opinion | A BA.2 Surge Could Wreak Unequal Havoc
Weeks after political leaders and media elites put the U.S. on a course to “return to normalcy,” the country finds itself again contending with an uptick in cases fueled by the highly transmissible BA.2 Omicron subvariant and the ending of public health measures. Some regions and cities, like Washington, D.C. and New York, are seeing […]
Opinion | Empathy: A Path to Healthier Healthcare
Even as the country creeps slowly toward a long-anticipated “new normal,” I’m unable to shake off my concern about the pandemic’s long-term toll on physicians, healthcare professionals, and others employed in the healthcare sector. In the midst of these winter doldrums, I had an interesting and surprisingly upbeat conversation with Helen Riess, MD, a psychiatrist […]
Pangolin trafficking: Nigeria’s illegal trade
Since the first reported pangolin seizure in Nigeria in 2010, the country has seen an explosion in the black market for the world’s most trafficked mammal — becoming Africa’s hub for the criminal export of pangolin products to East Asia. Use of pangolin scales in traditional Chinese medicines has resulted in Asian species declining dramatically […]
Q&A: Loice Swisher, MD, on National Physician Suicide Awareness Day
Each year since 2018, doctors around the country recognize National Physician Suicide Awareness Day on September 17. One of the co-founders of this awareness campaign, Loice Swisher, MD, of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, shared her own experience of suicidal thoughts after her daughter was left “neurologically devastated” following surgery on a malignant […]
Stressed Healthcare Workers Face Another Threat: Harassment
Healthcare workers across the country, already strained by the demands of caring for COVID-19 patients, face another threat in the workplace: medical conspiracy theorists harassing them with phone calls, and even showing up at their hospitals. Last week, a Chicago hospital treating known anti-vaxxer and QAnon supporter Veronica Wolski for COVID became the target of […]
Could COVID Shots in Secret Lure Holdouts?
In COVID-19 hot spots across the country where the Delta variant is thriving and vaccine hesitancy is high, hospitals have continued to urge for more people to get vaccinated. In the case of Ozarks Healthcare, based in West Plains, Mo., the health system recently issued an impassioned plea for people to get vaccinated, even if […]
Which Vaccines Do I Need to Travel?
If you are planning to travel to another country, it’s important to plan ahead to get the required vaccinations Vaccines are one of the most effective ways to protect yourself against infectious diseases when you’re traveling internationally. Some diseases are more common in other parts of the world, so it’s important to be updated with […]
COVID Surges Emerge; FDA Warns About Chantix; Lions, Tigers, Bears Get Vaxxed
Note that some links may require registration or subscription. While the rest of the country celebrated Independence Day, a sudden rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations — especially among Black residents — put a damper on the holiday spirit in Los Angeles County. (Los Angeles Times) A hospital in hard-hit Springfield, Missouri ran out of […]