Access was the theme of the week for the Pritzker School of Medicine’s Community Health Elective, and so we took a field trip to Friend Family Health Center, just across the street from the University of Chicago at 55th and Cottage Grove. It is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) that grew from a clinic originally founded by…
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…
Last summer, I learned about the epidemic of violence in Chicago through the eyes of high schoolers through my work with the University of Chicago Medicine’s Summer Service Partnership. All three neighborhood teams chose to address violence for their community health service-learning projects. You can read what I learned here, in an op/ed I published in…
“Where have all the inpatients gone?” ask Robert York, Kenneth Kaufman and Mark Grube in this fascinating blog on the Health Affairs website examining shifts in inpatient admissions at Chicago hospitals. “Where have all the inpatients gone? A regional study with national implications” includes data from the fee-for-value Advocate system, where I am officially credentialed, affiliated…
It’s official: it’s too cold to be outside safely in Chicago. Negative 15 degrees, fahrenheit. Negative 40 degrees with windchill. Chicago Public Schools are closed. University of Chicago cancelled classes. Non-essential personnel, of which I am one, can stay home. Chicago Family Health Center is closed for today. Depending on weather conditions, Tuesday may be another stay-in-my-pajamas…
This morning the thermometer in my car read one degree below zero. There is snow and ice and slush on the ground. And this is warm compared to the forecast for the days ahead. I gripe and I grumble with the medical assistants. Woe is us, it is winter in Chicago. The second patient of…
Prevention Not Prescription 