For the summer, I’ll be hanging out over at http://www.summerservicepartnership.com This is the blog of the summer program that I direct, with the amazing help of Cathryn Smeyers, program manager extraordinaire. With the Summer Service Partnership, 21 medical, professional, college and high school students come together to learn about the social determinants of health, map…
Here’s a central difficulty of the Affordable Care Act: if everyone has access to health insurance, then everyone has access to all the medical care they need. Curing sickness and preventing death costs a lot, and society can go broke providing costly medical care to everyone. Society saves money and lives when everyone sees a…
On Saturday March 29, for the first time ever, I hosted a radio program: The University of Chicago Medicine’s Dr. On Call program, on WVON Talk Radio 1690 am. The topic was Prevention Not Prescription: Bullying, Violence and the Summer Service Partnership. I was nervous about hosting a radio show. Could I keep a conversation…
Gun manufacturers can’t be sued. Physicians can’t get grants from the National Institute of Health to research gun shot injuries. And now public health leaders can’t call gun violence a public health problem, for fear of being shut out of public health leadership opportunities. (Click here for a NY Times article on National Rifle Association…
Interview time! A fun part about interviewing candidates for community health service-learning positions is meeting the passionate people who are interested in the same things that interest me. Community health, justice, service, youth, education. Today was a double dose of meeting amazing people–first interviewing grad student candidates for the University of Chicago Medicine’s Summer Service…
How to take on health inequality in America The co-leaders of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America published an op/ed in the Chicago Tribune January 13, to coincide with a release of a report from their commission. They encourage doctors to look for health outside of medicine–addressing social inequalities to…
For the past five years, since graduating residency, I have worked as a family physician at Chicago Family Health Center, a federally qualified health center with 6 clinic sites on Chicago’s South Side. We have been featured in a CBS News Report about how the expansion of health insurance through the Affordable Care Act will impact community…
From Britain: The Survival Time of Chocolates on Hospital Wards: Covert Operational Study How quickly does a box of chocolates disappear? Who does the eating? Covert observations by a duo of diet detractors. From Australia: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Deficiency A Pilot Study in imaginary populations. As author Elif Batuman tweeted: “Ha! I KNEW that…
I am giving thanks today. For family, who endure. Endearingly. For food, which fills my belly. Perhaps too much? Obesogenically. For my body, which allows me to inhabit this world, and interact with others. For warmth, of the home, that keeps my body in comfort. For stable society, free of war on the home front,…
Someone posted an eye-catching flyer in the community health center today: “Let’s replace the violence in our community with love. People who love each other, don’t shoot each other!” The flyer was an advertisement for a tee-shirt with a bold slogan. “LOVE: Let Our Violence End” The “O” in LOVE touched me. Our violence. Our…
Prevention Not Prescription 