August 4th, 2022
Uncertainty in Medicine — The “July Effect” and Beyond
Khalid A. Shalaby, MBBCh
When I first started residency, I was uncertain and hesitant with most of my clinical decisions. As medical students, we gain considerable knowledge through our medical school curriculum. But gaining knowledge and applying it to practice are two different sets of skills. Because I followed medical school graduation by a hiatus doing bench research, I […]
July 19th, 2022
Adventures of Family Medicine Clinic Days
Mikita Arora, MD
Family Medicine Continuity Care Clinic Wow! I cannot believe it’s my final year of residency. I am currently a 3rd-year Family Medicine Resident at McLaren Oakland Hospital in Pontiac, MI. Our clinic is a nonprofit, federally qualified health center and an accredited patient center medical home. Our target population is the medically underserved in an […]
July 12th, 2022
Training Alongside the Drug Epidemic
Brandon Temte, DO
The drug epidemic in America continues to worsen. In 2021, the CDC reported a historic high in overdose-related deaths of 107,622. This number is up 15% from 2020 and 100% from 2015 [1]. In Oregon, where I completed my residency training, substance abuse is still a significant concern. Opioid deaths in Oregon rose 40% last […]
June 22nd, 2022
In a Digital World, Is “Legwork” Obsolete?
Khalid A. Shalaby, MBBCh
Our 2021 class of interns was the first in our institution not to receive good old pagers. Many institutions around the country are following suit. This marks a milestone in the advancement of how we communicate in medicine. Gone are the days when residents had to step on toes as they left from the middle […]
May 25th, 2022
The Pandemic Through a Rearview Mirror
Abdullah Al-abcha, MD
Throughout medical school, the word pandemic was something distant from our world of advancements. We truly believed we had reached the epitome of a future where a virus is something we could contain. COVID-19 proved us wrong. In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic. An unprecedented event that would change our […]
April 30th, 2021
Riding the Second Wave
Stephanie Braunthal, DO
I just finished attending one of our inpatient teaching services, and it felt like the panel was one of the most varied and medically complex I have ever taken care of. This was my first week as an inpatient attending — as an ambulatory chief, most of my clinical time is with the residents in […]
December 31st, 2020
What Time Is It?
Sneha Shah, MD
How many minutes have you given yourself to read this post? There was a time when none of us could tell time. Imagine not knowing what the ever-moving hands of a clock are trying to reveal. My memories skew, but in that era before I could tell time, all I remember is laughter, effervescence, and […]
October 16th, 2020
Advancing Patient Safety in the COVID Era and Beyond
Frances Ue, MD, MPH
The U.S. continues to lead the world with almost 8 million COVID-19 cases and rising. The resurgence of coronavirus cases in areas previously unaffected or with cases under control shows how vulnerable our society is to the ravages of this disease and the devastating toll it can take on affected livelihoods and communities. It can […]
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 […]
July 22nd, 2020
Patient Death and Physician Grief
Prarthna Bhardwaj, MD
A few months ago, one of my colleagues spoke about ‘Patient Death and Physician Grief’ at a morning conference — somewhat unusual, considering our conferences largely revolve around medical topics. I was stunned by how the next hour unfolded that morning. The session started off like a traditional morning report with an opening line of the […]