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…
Breathe. Understand. Sustain. The keynote speech at the 2014 Gold Humanism award ceremony for graduating Pritzker medical students was given by my colleague and mentor, Dr Shalini Reddy. A lover of acronyms, she coined a simple three letter mantra to live by for the medical students who will soon be rising to doctors. This is…
“I can’t believe you bought pop!” said the department secretary, as she helped me lug food to a party to celebrate the birth of a colleague’s son. The celebratory food: chocolate cake, clementines, grapes, nuts, milk, water–and pop. Usually I demonize pop. Once in residency, I gave a talk on obesity, and included a picture…
Health insurance is important. 50% of personal bankruptcies are due to healthcare costs. Cancer patients are 5 times more likely to delay therapy. 26,000 people die each year without it. Health care providers can ask three simple questions to screen for health insurance status: do you have health insurance? is it affordable? does it cover…
A giggle a day keeps the doctor away…
Fellow family physician (plus he’s a lawyer! with a masters in public health! my dream combo!) Colin Kerr MD, JD, MPH has been writing a great physician newsletter for years, and now he’s launching a new blog over at http://ckerrfprevolution.blogspot.com/. He advocates for healthy living, finds and explains the new studies that might change physician practice, and…
Block-bust-er \ˈbläk-ˌbəs-tər\ noun:something that is very large, expensive or successful 1. Big bombs used to break up entire city blocks in WW2 2. Broadway plays so successful they put other plays on the block out of business 3. Hollywood movies that gross more than $100million 4. Pharmaceutical drugs that gross more than $1billion. That’s right.…
Food poisoning affects one of six Americans each year. I think I fell prey on Christmas eve, with three trips to the toilet perfectly timed to coincide with the start and end of the midnight mass. Discomfort. Misery. What can we do to keep ourselves safe? For one, no mayonnaise on fish that has been…
Cleaning off my desk this evening, I came across a flyer that’s been hiding since August under big piles of “things-to-do-or-file.” I happened to be on a beach in Florida on the Sunday closest to August 26. International go-topless day, I learned as a gaggle of golden chested men and saggy breasted (let’s be honest)…
Prevention Not Prescription 