Over on the Daily Post, they gave a writing prompt to bloggers–what would you do with $1billion? My thought: how would I use that to fix our healthcare crisis? Tongue in cheek: 1 billion dollars! Wow. That’s lots of millions! 1000 millions, to be exact. Three extra zeroes at the end of 1 million. 1,000,000…
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…
“Christmas came early this year. I got health insurance! Obama gave it to me.” A newly insured patient at my South Chicago community health center
One of my friends from medical school married a chemist who dreamed of becoming a vintner. Calling themselves the visioneer and the winemaker, they partnered with an artist to launch their label: Orpheus Wines. In October, I visited Sonoma Valley for the first time, and attended their harvest party. In the morning, we picked grapes,…
Chicago Family Health Center has busily been signing up patients for health insurance. Each Saturday, we’ve been hosting Affordable Care Act Enrollment Fairs. The first one was November 16. After seeing my patients in clinic that morning—including two who had previously been uninsured, now covered through the Cook County early Medicaid expansion called County Care—I…
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,…
October 1, 2013 A seemingly innocuous day. And a momentous one. It began like any other, if you could ignore the news of a federal budget showdown: postponing Obamacare for a year (stretching to forever) vs shutting down the federal government. The Great Government Showdown was on! In the morning, I drove to clinic listening…
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…
The future of student run free clinics Please click this link to read my monthly post for the Doctors for America health policy blog Progress Notes. This month, I wrote about the ethics of student run free clinics–who will be served when the impoverished uninsured get health insurance through expanded Medicaid? Will free clinics be…
I spend my days thinking about health–my own, my family’s, my patients’, community health, global health. How to turn our sickcare system into a healthcare system. How to make our medical care delivery system more effective and just. How to support healthy individual behaviors, social behaviors, community structures. How to integrate medicine in society to…
Prevention Not Prescription 