Narrating medicine
Trump's 'Public Charge' Rule Could Mean Life-And-Death Decisions For Legal Immigrants
Three local doctors decry a Trump administration proposal that would penalize legal immigrants applying for green cards if they use public benefits.
The Patient: 'Last Time In The ICU, My Wife Died.' What Do You Say?
A medical student describes a moment of struggling to respond to a patient's plaintive comment, and tries to learn for the future.
'More An Inmate Than A Patient': An Injured Anthropologist Experiences Rehab
An anthropologist writes that in contrast to the hospital treatment she's received for her pancreatic cancer, her experience in rehab included "institutional ways of stripping people of their personhood."
What 2 Driven Harvard Doctors Have Learned From Their Auto-immune Diseases
"Illness has cracked the veneer and forced us to redefine ourselves," say two doctors who describe how auto-immune disease has made them "rewrite their stories," and understand better what it...
Mass. General Chief Decries Transgender Ban, As More Doctors Speak Out Politically
"Not only was I moved by Dr. Slavin’s strong and direct public stand against the ban, I was also bit surprised by it, as I suspect many of my colleagues...
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Against Medical Advice: Sometimes, When Patients Defy Accepted Wisdom, So Must Doctors
Keeping the whole patient in view, including the social challenges they'll return to after their short stint in a hospital, is as much a part of medical decision-making as diagnosis...
Gov. Baker, If You Met My Immigrant Patients, You'd Support 'Safe Communities Act'
A primary care doctor describes the fear she sees among her immigrant patients and wishes the governor could see it as well, in hopes it would persuade him to support...
Progress On Psoriasis, From 'Last In Line' To Often First, But At A Price
After 40 years of psoriasis treatments from tar to cortisone shots, a writer sees progress as new -- but very pricey -- drugs called biologics target the disease.
What My 90-Year-Old Mom Taught Me About The Future Of AI In Health Care
Dr. Isaac Kohane devises a plan to manage his mother's heart dysfunction, and along the way is persuaded that spectacular gains in artificial intelligence could bode far better for our...
Why I Encourage My Seriously Ill Patients To Imagine The Worst
We don't have to be afraid of being afraid, palliative care specialist Dr. Kathryn Kirkland writes. It could be helpful to preview a worst case scenario, as long as patients...
Congrats, Med School Grad! Now It's Time To Find A Therapist
Amid overwork and sleepless stress, roughly half of doctors-in-training experience depression, so it's best to be prepared.
How Yogurt Science Could Lead To A Cure For Sickle Cell Anemia
"Imagine that! The future of gene therapy began in a yogurt vat."
Seeking The Strength To Accept My New Life In A Wheelchair
Chris Anselmo realizes that by resisting each subsequent piece of adaptive equipment and by giving in to his worst fears over the years, he was the one who was limiting...
Safe Passage Through The Tombstones: Why I Attend My Patients' Memorials
For Dr. John Loughnane, attending the funerals of his patients is a chance to breach the distance between doctors and families, and to embrace the person who has passed.
How We Doctors Are Failing Our Patients Who Drink Too Much
"As the fourth-leading cause of preventable death, alcohol is the most common problem that I encounter as a primary care doctor, and the one that I feel least able to...
A Friend Worth Waking Up For: Learning To Run Again After Donating My Kidney
After Amy Carleton donated a kidney to her stepfather, running in the early morning darkness with a friend helped her regain physical confidence.
Why Do We Doctors So Often Fail To See Symptoms Are Drug Side Effects?
As both a patient and physician, Dr. Marlene Beggelman wondered: Why didn’t my doctors recognize the side effect? Why didn't they choose a safer drug? Why didn’t I do my...
Narrating Medicine: When You 'Inherit' A Pain Patient On Opioids, You Need Guidelines
"I have not met a single primary care provider who has decided to start opioids for a patient. Rather, we are dealing with the 'inherited' pain patient, who has been...
A Psychologist's Guide To Talking Politics — Or Not — This Thanksgiving
The task that lies before many of us at Thanksgiving is not unlike the task that faces us as Americans: How do we connect across painful differences?
Opinion: More Mass. Prisoners Should Have Chance For Compassionate Release, Too
One doctor's relief for former Speaker Sal DiMasi "is tinged with sadness that the very institution he once presided over, the State House, has not allowed other prisoners the same...