HIV and ID Observations

March 13th, 2024

CROI 2024 Denver: Really Rapid Review

One of the most rewarding things about social media in medicine is tapping into the minds of other smart people in your field, especially people you can’t otherwise interact with on a day-to-day basis. When that person is someone like Dr. Sébastien Poulin — a funny and indefatigable ID/HIV doctor from Montreal — it’s especially worthwhile. […]

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March 2nd, 2024

Just as CROI Gets Ready to Start, an Important Change to the IAS-USA HIV Treatment Guidelines

One of the top experiences of my ID career has been working with a research group that does HIV disease modeling. The people involved are without exception smart, collaborative, generous, funny, and hard-working — an amazing combination of positive traits. They get this, I believe, from their leader and founder, Dr. Ken Freedberg, who sets a […]

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February 20th, 2024

Variability in Consult Volume Is a Major Contributor to Trainee Stress — What’s the Solution?

Back when he was program director of our ID fellowship, Dr. David Hooper would give the applicants a description of our program. One of the key parts was his estimating the workload — in particular, the number of new consults per day. “We average three to four consults a day,” he said. “But there’s a high […]

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January 25th, 2024

Printed Medical Textbooks — Going, Going, but Not Quite Gone

Take a look at the things behind my desk at work: cute photos of family and dog a bunch of sentimental objects, gifts from grateful patients or colleagues a smattering of miscellaneous plaques and clocks pictures of our current (awesome) first-year ID fellows and other stuff a bunch of books, several of them many inches thick […]

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January 2nd, 2024

Reflections on Working in the Hospital During the Holidays

For the zillionth year in a row, I spent the Christmas holiday working in the hospital. For me, it’s not much of a sacrifice — we don’t celebrate Christmas, and my kids are long out of school so the strict limits on when we can take vacation are a thing of the past. But it […]

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December 22nd, 2023

A Holiday Season 2023 ID Link-o-Rama

A bunch of ID (and a few non-ID) items of note as you prepare for the peak of the holiday season. The President of IDSA has written an open letter to the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) asking for changes to the recertification process. Current IDSA President Dr. Steven Schmitt proposes several modifications, all designed […]

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December 8th, 2023

Clinician-to-Clinician Advice Is Great for Everyone but Still Horribly Undervalued

One of the best things about being an ID doctor is that you get to interact with all the medical and surgical specialties. This is one of the most common answers to the question, “Why did you choose to specialize in ID?” and it certainly resonates with me. As a result, we’re frequently in the position […]

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November 23rd, 2023

Giving Thanks — This Time to You, Readers of This Thing

Most years around this time I post some ID-related things to be grateful for — a research advance, a nice shift in epidemiology showing fewer people are sick and more are living longer, a new drug approval we’ve been eagerly awaiting. That kind of thing. Last year, for example, it was gratitude that mpox had come […]

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November 16th, 2023

Being a Good Doctor — Why Are the Simple Things So Hard?

The simple things that make someone not just a doctor — but a good doctor — can slip away from us when we’re too busy, or tired, or preoccupied, or hungry. That’s why it’s wise periodically to be reminded of the “soft skills” that, while individually not tricky, together make a huge difference in how […]

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October 31st, 2023

HIV Research Highlights from IDWeek 2023

Having already featured an important non-HIV clinical research study from IDWeek — the amazing ACORN trial — I turn now to a grab bag of HIV-related studies, a veritable Halloween treat bag full of them. (Note to self: What’s with that “Halloween treat bag” reference? Couldn’t you come up with a less awkward way to link […]

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