Ever throw your white coat into the washer with a sneaky pen stuck in the pocket that you thought you had removed, only to take out your coat after the cycle is complete to see every inch of it adorned in malicious blue streaks? Well, that unfortunately happened to me recently and I truly believed […]
Voices From the Ground
The distance between the halls of government or the ivory tower and the situation on the ground frequently obscures the voices of the communities and people nominally being helped. All global health work is ultimately local however making monolithic top down approaches an unsustainable paradigm. A major hurdle in developing more community-based approaches is a […]
4 Rules for Successfully Completing a Competitive Surgery Sub-Internship
Anyone considering a residency in Surgery should consider performing a sub-internship at a busy program. Not only will it give you a better idea of what to expect on the job, it will also allow you to make connections (i.e. impress) the faculty at a potential residency program. After finishing a tough four week Sub-I […]
The Virtual Classroom
It’s been over two months that many students have been engaged in online classes now, and I oddly find it to be a much different experience than the online lectures I would watch during med school didactics first year. I was a non-attender of in-person lecture and instead preferred to watch recorded lectures on my […]
Prime Role of Primary Care in HIV Management
When I traditionally conceive of effectively combating the global HIV epidemic, my mind turns immediately to the infectious disease doctors who dominated the early response to the crisis. After doing this set of readings, I am increasingly aware of the rising and essential role in primary care in HIV treatment and management. Obvious evidence for […]
HIV Punches Down the SES Ladder
One thing that struck me when looking across the papers for today is that while the specific groups most at risk vary nation to nation, the prevalence of HIV infection seems to be inversely associated with social status. Men in South Africa account for only 58% of the HIV infection rates of women. This gender […]
Importance of Considering Financial Toxicity
Health systems must work not only to protect a patient’s corporeal health but their financial health as well. In the United States, bankruptcies related to healthcare are the top cause of such filings and in 2011 about a third of U.S. families were either struggling to pay medical bills or defaulting on their payments. Logically, […]
Graduation & Long Coat Ceremony: Cancelled
Graduation is supposed to be one of the proudest, happiest moments of all time. It’s a milestone in your life. It marks the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. What a special and joyous occasion. It’s bittersweet too—parting ways with friends you’ve shared much with over the last several years. Graduation—such special […]
Taking the Fight Out of Cancer
Much of medical intervention is presented in military terms. We talk of “fighting” malaria or AIDS, “arms races” between pathogens and the drugs to hold them in check, and the conquest of various pathogens. While there are instances in which battle metaphors are useful in medicine such as when we explain HIV to patients with […]
Mental Health of Frontline Workers During a Pandemic
There is no doubt that while physical health is the focus of this pandemic, other components of health are being significantly affected as well, including mental health. I have been hearing about increasing rates of depression and anxiety during this time, with healthcare workers being highly impacted. A cross-sectional study in China surveying 1257 health […]
