Health

Education is the key to moving past the pandemic

Our country is seventeen months into a pandemic that we have an effective vaccine for, and yet, COVID-19 cases are still rising at an alarming rate.  Currently, this dramatic acceleration in cases is evident in several states. Furthermore, these areas with high numbers of COVID-19 case rates are associated with low vaccination rates. These unfortunate Read more… Education is the key to moving past the pandemic originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Psychiatrists can be valuable vaccine educators

When watching the news or reading articles about COVID-19, the physicians who contribute are often in internal medicine, epidemiology, emergency medicine, etc. You do not typically see psychiatrists contributing to discussions on the virus itself but more about the mental health ramifications of COVID-19. Psychiatrists are also not often considered integral in the role of Read more… Psychiatrists can be valuable vaccine educators originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, COVID-19 Coronavirus

JAMA retracts controversial masks study

A controversial study suggesting that masks may harm children by exposing them to high carbon dioxide levels was retracted on Friday. The research letter released in JAMA Pediatrics on June 30 had reported unacceptably high levels of carbon dioxide by German standards in air inside masks worn by children in a laboratory environment. In the retraction notice, the journal editors Read more… JAMA retracts controversial masks study originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, JAMA, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

During COVID, older patients stopped going to the doctor. Here’s how to change that.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out last year, Helen (not her real name) took all the right steps to protect herself. The 74-year-old self-isolated, wore a face mask, and practiced social distancing. Helen stayed safe from the virus during this time, but she put her health at risk in another way: for nearly two years, Read more… During COVID, older patients stopped going to the doctor. Here’s how to change that. originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Helen, Conditions, Geriatrics, COVID-19 Coronavirus

4 lessons the pandemic has taught health care

COVID-19 has drastically impacted every facet of life. Health care has been the center of this pandemic, and those working in health care have seen first-hand the crisis and the advancements made. As we reflect on the impact this pandemic has, we have seen both the worst and best of our health care system. 1. Read more… 4 lessons the pandemic has taught health care originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, COVID-19 Coronavirus

A morning code blue for a COVID patient

An excerpt from An Eschatological Isolation. At 12:11 p.m., the overhead speaker announced: “Code Blue, Three West.” She repeated, “Code Blue, Three West.” Shit. I started my stopwatch and saved the patient note I was writing in the back office of Three West, the intensive care unit of a community hospital in Tampa Bay. Already Read more… A morning code blue for a COVID patient originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, Hospital-Based Medicine, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Tampa Bay Already Read

Tips to help you overcome your pandemic bad habits

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in the U.S., and states issued stay-at-home orders, many people vowed to use their time at home positively, learning new skills, virtually volunteering, and getting into shape. Now, more than a year into the pandemic, many of those plans to better ourselves have fallen by the wayside, and people have Read more… Tips to help you overcome your pandemic bad habits originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Stop the spread of vaccine disinformation: a story in pictures

Emily Watters is a physician who explains vaccine disinformation and how it spreads (click to enlarge): Emily Watters is a psychiatrist and can be reached at The Cartoon Shrink. Image credits: Emily Watters Stop the spread of vaccine disinformation: a story in pictures originally appeared in KevinMD.com.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Emily Watters

Telemedicine in Nepal during COVID-19

My phone rings. “Namaskar! My cough is really bothering me. What should I do?” says a middle-aged man. “Namaskar! I am Astha Prasai. I am here to help you. Please bear with me while I ask you your problem in detail,” I answer. Mr. Kafle from Kathmandu is worried about this nagging cough he has, Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Nepal, Infectious Disease, Kathmandu, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Kafle

After COVID, now my soul can rest a little easier

I had been searching for a year. Because of the pandemic, despite the pandemic and to heal from the pandemic. Finally in May this year, I was gifted what seemed to have become an impossible task. I messaged the hospital manager: “The trees have arrived. I’ll come by later in the week to chat about Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

A plea for help from the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic [PODCAST]

“This plea for help is on behalf of every hospital worker who has been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic — from the environmental services staff and medical assistants who are often not recognized, to the social workers and chaplains who are surrounded by distress, to the physicians and nurses who continue to Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Psychiatry, Infectious Disease, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Let the mourning wear black

What a year of change. A pandemic. Cancer. Death. Loss. Fighting. Abandonment. Pain. Becoming an orphan. Becoming a caregiver. My family was hit with a sledgehammer and crushed into pieces. My joyful plans and decades of hard work wiped away with the insidious evil of a 5 x 7 mm tumor that spread like the Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

COVID in Pakistan: a physician’s story [PODCAST]

“The right choice of words, at the right time, can lift a person out of despair and literally save a person’s life, while an ill-chosen word, or worse, a purposely harsh one, can scar a person. The entire field of narrative medicine is formed around the principle of reviving empathy in doctors towards patients and Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Pakistan, Infectious Disease, PA NP, Hospital-Based Medicine, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Meet the physician who educates patients with cartoons [PODCAST]

Listen to psychiatrist Emily Watters’ work with the homeless population and how she got her start writing cartoons, educating patients using out-of-the-box communication strategies. Emily Watters is a psychiatrist and can be reached at The Cartoon Shrink. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD articles, “Blood clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine: a comic Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Infectious Disease, Johnson Johnson, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Emily Watters

COVID vaccines’ tragic dance [PODCAST]

“As a species, we have been an abject failure in dealing with a worldwide crisis. We politicize things for money, political reasons and some kind of weird power, even when it kills us in the process. We already have a World Health Organization (WHO). Would it be so difficult to staff it with the best Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Infectious Disease, World Health Organization WHO, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

You need a break from the front lines of health care

The current era of health care delivery has been aptly compared with going to war against an invisible enemy that can attack anywhere, at any time and with novel means. This invisible enemy was attacking the civilians as well as the “front line” with vigor. We have attempted to learn on the fly and use Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

A physician’s COVID experience in spoken story

The following is a transcription of Dr. Deshpande’s spoken story. What is wrong with me? I’ve been doing this for 25 years. Why am I so scared now? That’s what I’m thinking as I drive to the hospital during the early part of the pandemic, March, April 2020. I am at the hospital’s parking garage, Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, Deshpande, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Human connections, cancer care, and COVID-19 restrictions

The desire for human connection is so irrevocably and putatively a tenet of the human condition. The relationships we form with one another are quintessential in adding value to our lives and in fostering loving bonds. And the way we express this connection with one another could be through a multitude of means, whether it Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Physician, PA NP, Hospital-Based Medicine, Oncology/Hematology, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Our niche world demands a new approach to health

When Elvis Presley rolled up his sleeve and received the polio vaccine backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, most Americans knew about it. At the time, the only stars hotter than rock ‘n’ roll itself were Presley, the genre’s de facto king, and Sullivan, the host who brought its biggest headliners to the Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Elvis Presley, Infectious Disease, Sullivan, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

COVID 1 year later: thoughts from a small-town physician

This time last year, many of us were bewildered that our country and the world had been halted by a newly declared pandemic caused by a novel virus. Reports from physician colleagues on both coasts terrified me. Fast forward to June 2021, and 272 people in Midland have died. Two hundred and seventy-two mothers, fathers, Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Midland, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Artificial intelligence, COVID-19, and the future of pandemics [PODCAST]

“Machine learning is only as good as the information provided to train the machine. Models trained on partial datasets can skew toward demographics that often turned up in the data—for example, Caucasians or men over 60. There is concern that “analyses based on faulty or biased algorithms could exacerbate existing racial gaps and other disparities Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Infectious Disease, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

When a COVID-19 microaggression rears its ugly head

This past month, I was admitting a patient for a TIA, otherwise known as a “mini-stroke,” whose symptoms resolved by the time he got to the floor. In the interest of connecting with the patient during my taking of his history and physical, I usually ask patients where they are from. The town where I Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

When a COVID-19 microagression rears its ugly head

This past month, I was admitting a patient for a TIA, otherwise known as a “mini-stroke,” whose symptoms resolved by the time he got to the floor. In the interest of connecting with the patient during my taking of his history and physical, I usually ask patients where they are from. The town where I Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Lessons from COVID-19 about the obesity epidemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted our ineffective approach to the obesity epidemic in the United States. I believe COVID-19 would have claimed fewer lives if we had healthier patients and less obesity. According to the CDC, “obesity may triple the risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection.” Additionally, they note that obesity can make intubation Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Obesity, Cdc, United States, Infectious Disease, Conditions, PA NP, CRNA, COVID, COVID-19 Coronavirus

365 shows later: The Podcast by KevinMD’s most popular episodes

It’s been such an inspiring journey for The Podcast by KevinMD! I started the show one year ago, on June 1, 2020. I didn’t know what to expect, who would want to be on the show, or who would listen. Heck, I didn’t know the first thing in starting a podcast. I did know one Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, Infectious Disease, Practice Management, Primary Care, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Mitigating risks from care during COVID-19

In evaluating delayed or missed health care that has occurred during the pandemic, it is tempting to speak of “COVID care” vs. “non-COVID care.” However, the pandemic has disrupted health care so thoroughly that in some sense, COVID-19 has affected all of health care. The effect on care has been stunning in magnitude. By mid-2020, Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Strategies for managing post-pandemic in-person panic

So you’ve been vaccinated, and some of your close friends have been vaccinated, the weather is getting warmer, and you are beginning to feel like it might be safe to see a few folks in an outdoor, controlled setting. In-person. For the first time in a year. After the initial relief and post-vaccine euphoria begin Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Conditions, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Promoting COVID-19 vaccination

Former President Trump ushered in a new era of distrust in evidence, science, and medicine, culminating in a “coronavirus catastrophe,” as editorialized by Nature.  Medical mistrust, of course, is not a new concept; patients navigate bias from the health care system daily, and in the context of historical legacies of abuse and unethical practices, such Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Infectious Disease, Trump, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Social connectedness, volunteerism, and the remedy for COVID fatigue [PODCAST]

“Social connectedness is the remedy to the COVID fatigue that is running rampant in the United States. We need to stay connected to those we love. At the same time, we must also recognize that life is going on in the age of COVID-19, which means what happened to Mariana is occurring in all of Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Podcast, United States, Infectious Disease, Mariana, Medical School, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus

Stop dog-whistling the CDC

A beautiful woman, all mocha skin and glimmering eyeshadow, turned to me in Whole Foods and whispered: “I like your style.” I was alternately baffled and proud: Take that, lifetime of scrubs! Mama’s still got it. Then I looked down at myself and saw I was wearing jeans with Paw Patrol stickers on them. She Read more… Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more.
Tags: Health, Cdc, Infectious Disease, Physician, PA NP, CRNA, COVID-19 Coronavirus