It doesn't take long in the practice of medicine, indeed in the training for the practice of medicine, to learn humility. To understand our limits in our understanding of a disease process, in our abilities to heal patients, and in our own importance in the grand scheme of things. Yet as physicians and as experts we are socialised … [Read More...]
Twitter for Infectious Disease Physicians
Infectious disease (ID) conferences tend to rejuvenate me despite the information overload. This year, IDWeek in Washington DC was no different except for the impact of social media particularly Twitter. The last time I attended IDWeek in New Orleans ( 2016), one of the themes was gloom. We were struggling to fill ID fellowship … [Read More...]
Infectious Diseases
COVID-19: Is Hydroxychloroquine Truly the Answer?
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages in our various cities, it is important to remember that as of today there are no proven effective therapies. Still it is very … [Read More...]
Living in Two Different Worlds in the Era of COVID-19
March 1 2020 I've been back from my Thailand/Cambodia holiday two weeks now. Opened up my work email to find a number of emails related to my hospital's … [Read More...]
Medicine
What Can Infectious Disease Physicians Learn from Hospitalists?
I just returned from IDWeek in New Orleans where one of the running themes was on the future of the infectious disease specialty. In brainstorming what we could do … [Read More...]
Secretly Recording Doctors
Increasingly, I realize that I'm being audio-recorded when I'm interacting with my patients at their hospital bedside. I say realize, because the majority of the … [Read More...]
Medical Musings
Paying Off Medical School Loans
I paid off my medical school loans within five years of completing medical training. I did this on a salary of an … [Read More...]
Ebola In the United States
The inevitable has occurred. While there have been four patients with Ebola physically present somewhere in the United … [Read More...]
Medical Training
NYT: Medical Student Burnout
This past week, I attended my first ever Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) conference. It was a joint event … [Read More...]
Medical Residents and Death Certificates
A recent study has put the process of filling out a death certificate in the spotlight. Barbara Wexelman, MD and … [Read More...]