An ongoing dialogue on HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases,
October 12th, 2021
A Few Thoughts on “Attending” Virtual Meetings
Once upon a time, long, long ago, before SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, many of us in academic medicine attended in-person scientific meetings that took place annually around the world. I was one such person — usually 2-3 times a year. My primary charge at each of these meetings was to assemble the best, or most interesting, […]
October 1st, 2021
A Thank You to One of Our Best Patient-Teachers
Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital lost one of their best teachers this week. No, it wasn’t a distinguished professor or astute clinician. It was one of my long-term patients, who had given himself selflessly to teach dozens of medical students, residents, and (especially) ID fellows over the nearly 30 years I’d known […]
November 29th, 2020
Great Questions from Our Course, Infectious Diseases in Primary Care — Plus Bonus Podcast
Going to take a partial break from all things COVID-19 today and recap some of the terrific questions we received in our course, Infectious Diseases in Primary Care. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of COVID-19 questions but also the usual mix of practical queries from everyday practice. Front-line clinicians doing office-based practice attend this course, […]
August 4th, 2020
Carbapenems and Pseudomonas, Lyme and Syphilis Testing, a Bonus Point for Doxycycline, and Some Other ID Stuff We’ve Been Talking About on Rounds
As noted multiple times, many of us ID doctors attend on the general medical service. This offers us a chance to broaden our patient care activities and to work with medical students, interns, and residents. Boy, that’s fun! Yes, those of us who attend on medicine enjoy it enormously, though the experience humbles us on […]
May 6th, 2020
Early Memories of Burton “Bud” Rose, Founder of UpToDate — and Medical Education Visionary
Let’s rewind the clock a bit — OK, a lot. Ancient history. It’s winter, 1986. An interview day for medical residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. A bunch of us nervous medical students sit in a conference room, wearing our interview suits, while Dr. Marshall Wolf tells us what to expect that day. Amazingly, Marshall […]
February 9th, 2020
Should Medical Subspecialists Attend on the General Medical Service?
As I’ve written about many times on this site, one of the highlights of the year for me is when I attend on the medical service — something I’ve been doing pretty much forever. There’s a wonderful learning exchange that goes on, with my knowledge of ID being repaid in kind by the others on […]
December 30th, 2019
Welcome to Mandatory Online Module Land!
(What follows is an attempt to derive some humor from those annual online “required learnings” assigned to us each year. Because if you’re in pain, you are not alone!) Step right up, Ladies and Gentlemen! Allow me to welcome you to Mandatory Online Module Land — the fantasy theme park Health Professionals around the world […]
December 8th, 2019
A Midyear Letter to First-year ID Fellows — With Sympathy, Gratitude, and Hope!
Dear First-Year ID Fellows: Right around now, some of you might be feeling a bit prickly. The workday is long, the supply of daylight dwindles daily, and the cold winds blow in from the north. While friends outside of medicine gear up for holiday time off, your plans might include some hospital coverage. Some of […]
November 25th, 2019
Vaccine Defenders, U=U Holds Up, Zika Is Gone, and Other ID Things to Be Grateful For, 2019 Edition
An excellent episode of the Freakonomics podcast introduced me to the headwinds vs tailwinds asymmetry, and how we humans perceive life. It goes like this: We go for a walk, a run, or a bike ride, and the wind faces us dead-on, making the exercise a struggle. (In windy Boston, the wind is always in my […]
November 18th, 2019
The Best Guide to HIV Drug Names — Yours for Free!
Earlier this month, I noted something that all of us ID/HIV specialists should readily concede — namely, that learning the names of the HIV drugs is fiendishly difficult. Afterwards, I heard from a few old-timers (that is, people like me). They acknowledged that we were lucky to experience the roll-out of these medications (and their […]
Paul E. Sax, MD
Contributing Editor
NEJM Journal Watch
Infectious Diseases
Biography | Disclosures | Summaries
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