“What brings you in today?” I asked my new patient, a healthy appearing clean cut thirty five year old married man with kids. “Check me out, doc.” (STD check? chronic disease screen?) “My brother was just diagnosed with diabetes, I want to make sure I’m okay.” (okay, easy—sugar and cholesterol check) No prior medical problems for him.…
I don’t know if the term “socio-medical” even exists. But it felt like every single pathology I dealt with today was a social problem. Ulcer, exercerbated by no medications (damn pre-authorization!), and no food. In an unstable housing situation, with limited transportation. And serious medical issues taken lightly by a local hospital. My diagnoses: Unstable…
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…
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…
Who am I? So begins the zero-to-hero blog challenge. Hope you enjoy my monthlong January jumpstart to master blogging basics! Let’s start with my hyphenated professional identity. I am a physician-writer-educator-advocate. And person. I am a family physician working two days a week in a federally qualified health center on Chicago’s South Side, and just finished…
Prevention Not Prescription 