February 18th, 2021
The Human Side of Medicine — Grieving the Loss of Our Patients
Masood Pasha Syed, MBBS
“The life of the dead is placed in the memories of the living” — Marcus Tullius Cicero Growing up in a family of physicians, I was exposed early to healthcare from the provider side. Some days, my father would come home late after a long surgery with an unanticipated complication or an unexpected outcome and would […]
January 12th, 2021
Vaccine [Rollout] Reactions — In Support of Residents
Stephanie Braunthal, DO
During the first week of the U.S. national vaccine rollout, news outlets reported a protest after a major medical center’s initial COVID-19 vaccine distribution list did not include almost the entirety of their house staff. Less publicly, I have heard about additional instances across the country where trainees as a whole have been or felt […]
September 3rd, 2020
“Never Waste a Crisis”: Perspectives from History and Today
Holland Kaplan, MD
The mantra “Never waste a crisis” has stuck with me for the past several months. This statement was reportedly made by Winston Churchill in the 1940s, during World War II. However, a well-known internal medicine faculty member and leader at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. David Hyman, who recently passed away, also gave us this […]
June 24th, 2020
Top 10 Tips for New Interns and Residents in the COVID Era
Frances Ue, MD, MPH
The month of June is traditionally an exciting time of transition across the country. A time where we welcome a new class of bright-eyed interns, and say goodbye to our senior graduates — who have become shining stars and leaders in our communities. This year, however, is unique, with the start of the new academic year […]
May 19th, 2020
Safety Net: Reflections on the Elmhurst Experience
Eric Bressman, MD
Elmhurst 2014 I first arrived at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, NY, in the summer of 2014 as a medical student on my surgery rotation. We would take occasional night shifts as part of the trauma team. It was the first time I held a pager. Code yellow meant hurry, code red meant run. One of our […]
May 12th, 2020
Our Public Hospital Leads Massachusetts in Caring for Coronavirus Patients
Frances Ue, MD, MPH
Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), where I work, is a small hospital system serving the north Boston-metro area across two campuses in Cambridge and Everett but, despite its modest scale, it has arguably become the center of Massachusetts’ fight against COVID-19. This is no small feat, given that Massachusetts has the third largest number of coronavirus […]
March 5th, 2020
Should We Avoid Exposing Residents to Coronavirus?
Eric Bressman, MD
The arrival of the novel coronavirus to the U.S., and the inevitability of its eventual spread, raises an interesting question: Should we avoid exposing residents to the virus? Before we try to answer this question, we should start with some important qualifiers. While a good deal about this novel virus remains unknown, the majority of […]