HIV and ID Observations

July 14th, 2024

Should We Continue to Use Contact Precautions for Patients with MRSA?

Back in the early 2000s, I heard about a local hospital that eliminated contact precautions while caring for patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). No more required gowns and gloves, or warning signs on the doors, or private rooms for patients known to have MRSA. They planned to track MRSA cases carefully over the next […]

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May 28th, 2024

More on ID Doctors and Primary Care for People with HIV

A recently published study suggested that “non-ID doctors do better” when it comes to providing primary care to people with HIV. At least that was the attention-grabbing subject line of an email summary distributed by a local primary care doctor, Dr. Geoffrey Modest. He periodically sends around detailed descriptions of studies he finds interesting, then […]

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April 26th, 2024

Hey, Insurance Companies and Pharmacies — Stop Messing Around with the Price of Cheap Generic Drugs

If you’re practicing medicine these days, you’ve likely experienced some version of this painfully annoying scenario. You prescribe a generic medication, one that’s inexpensive. Your patient goes to the pharmacy, and the pharmacist says that it requires a prior approval. They leave without getting their meds. Here’s a recent example from one of my patients (details […]

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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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October 8th, 2023

An October ID (and Non-ID) Link-o-Rama

For those venturing next week to IDWeek here in Boston, fall gives us our very best weather. Comfortable sunny days with brilliant blue skies, cool evenings, low humidity — great weather for exercising and sleeping. Usually you just need a light jacket. And now, after one of the rainiest Septembers on record (boo!), October has […]

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September 8th, 2023

Endless Recertification in Medicine — Some Thoughts About the Tests We Take

The tests issued by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) for credentialing physicians are much in the news again. There’s even a petition circulating to eliminate the Maintenance of Certification (MOC) process entirely, signed by nearly 20,000 physicians. I have a bunch of memories, thoughts, and feelings about ABIM and the tests they issue. They’re […]

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May 8th, 2023

As the Public Health Emergency Comes to an End, How Are We Feeling About This?

As you no doubt heard, on Friday, May 5, 2023, the WHO declared the end of the global health emergency from COVID-19. Here in the U.S., the federal public health emergency will expire on May 11. That’s Thursday, just a few days from now. These events reflect two realities that, while seemingly contradictory, make these decisions reasonable […]

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February 6th, 2023

New Ways with Language — Some to Adopt, Some to Question

Back in my second year of medical school, my classmate and good friend John and I had a memorable teacher in our Introduction to Clinical Medicine course, someone we still talk about today. A general internist with a specialty in addiction, he was a big bear of a guy sporting a ponytail, beard, open-necked shirts […]

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October 25th, 2022

Yes, Even ID Doctors Get COVID — Including Famous Ones

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, various public figures have contracted the disease. Tom Hanks, way back in early March 2020, was arguably the first globally famous person in the world to test positive for the virus. The announcement came right as much of the world prepared to shut down. My friends and I were […]

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September 28th, 2022

Even if You Think “The Pandemic Is Over” — Let’s Make In-Person Meetings Safer

“The pandemic is over.” Someone very famous used these words recently, triggering all kinds of controversy. While most ID clinicians groaned at the comment, knowing that it would be taken out of context, repeated in headlines without any of the President’s cautionary statements, and fuel COVID denialists, it’s also worth acknowledging that most of the country really […]

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