“A dream is a wish your heart makes When you’re fast asleep” -Disney’s Cinderella, 1950 During my first year of medical school, on the first Monday of winter break, I slept for 18 hours straight. I woke up...
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Learning how to become a doctor begins long before medical school. Through our personal experiences with the healthcare system, we develop our own ideas of “good” and “bad” medical care. In this way, the physicians we meet, either...
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Our first sunset in Malawi was magnificent. If you’ve never seen the sun fall behind the legendary “Mountains Beyond Mountains” that inspired Paul Farmer, I implore you to use your imagination and I regret to inform you that...
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Every once in a while in life, if you look carefully enough, you’ll regret paying attention as life smacks you right upside the head with a dose of reality. ‘Cause you know what, the world kinda sucks. Death...
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“Mitochondria—the powerhouse of the cell.” It’s almost a reflex. Say the word, and a chorus of voices answers back with the same rehearsed phrase, learned sometime between middle school biology and standardized exams. From a molecular forensic science...
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In this article we will address the code from the perspective of a Deontologist. In each sister article released this edition, I will also approach it as a Utilitarian, and a Virtue Ethicist.
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In this article we will address the code from the perspective of a Utilitarian. In each sister article released this edition, I will also approach it as a Deontologist, and a Virtue Ethicist.
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In this article we will address the code from the perspective of a Virtue Ethicist. In each sister article released this edition, I will also approach it as a Deontologist, and a Utilitarian.
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There have been a handful of times now where, standing before a patient with poor prognosis, I found myself at a loss for words. Whether they were rapidly deteriorating or on the cusp of rapidly deteriorating, every single...
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I am no stranger to the scene playing out before me. This time is different though. No longer am I the silent scribe in the corner, fingers deftly tapping keys as I prepare the chart. Instead, I stand...
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As I reflect on the last four years of medical school, I only know one thing for certain: there are many things I do not know. It feels pompous for me to claim that I know things, because...
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Welcome back to my Medical Ethics Series for the seventh installment. Unlike the loose fun of the last ones, where we explored what ethical theories might be best, here we will face very real situations, and ask the...
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By far, one of my favorite aspects of medicine is its progression towards speed and accuracy. A full genome can be sequenced for the cost of a Step exam, with a similar turnaround of only a few weeks....
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I debated for quite a while whether to reply to Sarah Brady’s article. However, I felt I should do so, if only to offer another perspective to the discussion. Sarah, thank you for speaking openly about a topic...
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I read Travis’s article about “Virtue Ethics,” and his words made me smile. He captured the essence of why I have long supported virtue ethics. It’s not about memorizing rules or counting outcomes. It’s about who we become...
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“Sttttep right up! Step right up! Ladiiiiesss and gentlemen! Children of all ages! Prepare to be amazed! For you are about to witness a test of dexterity, a challenge to gravity, a feat SO GRAND, you’ll be holding...
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The angels were nowhere to be found that evening—abandoning their posts in the forests and galaxies, trusting the stars to stay in place for a singular night of celebration. If you looked up and scanned the skies in...
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“I had a patient just this week who, as I was about to give her intravenous sedation, said, ‘Isn’t this illegal? Didn’t they stop abortions?’” Forty-nine years passed between Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court case that upheld...
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Welcome back to my Medical Ethics Series for the sixth installment! This is the third part of the Normative Ethics section, an area focused on what rules we should follow. Last time we explored Deontology, and now we...
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Sometimes a patient ‘introduces’ themselves before you even see them. From where we were in the hallway of Banner University’s cardiac floor, a resounding tempo stood out amidst the usual noise of a hospital, and the Hospitalist was...
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Or blue-green. The exact color of the hospital-issued scrubs are not as relevant as their purpose: to prevent eye strain (as opposed to the all-white scrubs of prior, think of it like ‘snow-blindness’) as well as to provide...
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Welcome back to my Medical Ethics Series for the fifth installment! This is the second part of the Normative Ethics section, an area focused on what rules we should follow. Last time we explored Utilitarianism, and this time...
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Scientific discovery is often imagined as a solitary eureka moment—a singular mind or laboratory unlocking nature’s secrets in isolation. But history tells a different story. Some of the most transformative breakthroughs have happened twice, independently, and almost simultaneously....
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