Welcome back to my Medical Ethics Series for the fourth installment! This is the first part of the Normative Ethics section, where we will be going over Normative ethics, or what rules we should follow. These theories will...
In the vital field of medical education, textbooks are more than mere academic resources. They are the bedrock upon which future healthcare providers build their understanding of human health and disease. Yet, there’s a critical and often overlooked...
As I joined the psychiatry team during morning rounds, it was my turn to present on a new admit: a patient with congenital deafness presenting with auditory hallucinations and suicidal ideation. Communicating in American sign language (ASL) through...
Week after week, my peers and I witness the countless inequities that people experiencing homelessness at each of our Street Medicine Phoenix service events face every day. Through street outreach, our goal is to meet the unmet health...
As the seasons change and the colors of leaves with it – as much as seasons and leaves can change in Phoenix – the time of great stress descends upon a particular group of students here at the...
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) represent over 266 million Americans as third party administrators managing the selection, purchase and distribution of pharmaceuticals on behalf of health insurers, union health plans and government purchasers. Functioning as brokers between drug payers,...
One day, before going to my CCE, I called their office to ask if my preceptor was in. It took five minutes of explanation for the person to whom I was speaking to understand I was a medical...
When we hear the words “lung cancer,” our minds immediately ask, “Did/does the patient smoke?” What do you as the physician, or maybe the physician-to-be, do when your patient says, “Lung cancer? Me? How could that be? I’ve...
Of all the ways that our world has changed in recent years, perhaps no one aspect of our lives has changed more than our relationship with technology. You already know this. You’ve read a similar statement hundreds of...
The treatment of intervertebral disc herniations vary widely, from conservative to invasive modalities. A common surgical procedure that is performed to manage this pathology is a microdiscectomy, where the extruded disc material is removed. In the lumbar spine...
One of the first doctors I shadowed as premed was a new attending at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix. He took a call halfway through his shift from his fiancé, telling me that this was the only time of...
I just got back to downtown Phoenix after spending time out at Ft. Defiance in the Navajo Nation for part of my Internal Medicine rotation. Rural medicine was an incredibly informative and unique experience, and there was a...
Picture this: the sun’s early morning rays shining through the windows, bathing wooden floors in a golden glow. Dust dancing in the air around you, as you sit perched on a mat, legs crossed, hands in lap, and...
If you’ve spent much time in hospitals, you know that no two are the same. Architecture differs, food varies, and good luck trying to find your way around. However, you can always count on one thing to be...
Many pregnant women at their first check-up will receive a pamphlet with an overview of their pregnancy, genetic testing, things to avoid, prenatal vitamin advice, and – on the back cover in glossy marketing – an ad for...
Throughout my clinical rotations, I’ve often found myself deeply, deeply exhausted by the end of the day. Some days that’s not a surprise, such as when I’ve been on my feet since 5 AM on surgery, or have...
References: Dreweke J. Contraception Is Not Abortion: The Strategic Campaign of Antiabortion Groups to Persuade the Public Otherwise. Guttmacher policy review : GPR 2014;17(4):14. Gallo MF, Lopez LM, Grimes DA, Carayon F, Schulz KF, Helmerhorst FM. Combination contraceptives:...
In 2021, a Harvard dermatologist used the term “Zoom Dysmorphia” in an interview with The Guardian. The term, a play on the psychiatric condition body dysmorphic disorder, has been used to describe preoccupation with appearance resulting from excessive...
The decision to embark on a medical career is also a decision to be perpetually evaluated based on factors outside and inside your control. I like to think of these factors—like your MCAT score, number and duration of...
Falls in the elderly population are a serious and substantial public health problem. The medical expenditures attributable to both fatal and nonfatal falls in patients 65 years or older approximated $50 billion in 2015.(1) This problem continues to...
SA: In my last piece, the main topic was the role of PAs (physician assistants) in addressing the physician shortage. You contacted me with some points regarding the scope of a PA’s work and how PAs could tie...
When I approach the door of an exam room, I am always bracing myself. Always preparing myself – my heart, brain, and mouth – because somehow, my inclination is always to start the encounter with, “hi, I’m the...
About one-quarter of U.S. adults report delaying filling prescription medications, skipping doses, or cutting pills due to cost according to Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2022 Health Care Debt Survey. A convoluted web of factors drives high prescription drug prices...
Driving through West Hollywood, Los Angeles cannot help but notice the sheer number of medical spas plastered on almost every block. The glistening-white minimalist interiors, elegant cursive storefront signs, and posters of picture-perfect models receiving Botox injections captures...
Tucked away in a shadowed corner between the truncated stairs to the church stage and the endless rows of stacked chairs, a man sits crouched, holding a child between his legs as if she is one of the...
The first time I saw the donor I was to dissect for the next several months, truthfully and somewhat embarrassingly, I thought wow she has amazing breasts. My tablemates and I all jumped to pathological conclusions (breast cancer,...
Over the past few years, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized many industries, including healthcare. One of the most promising developments in AI technology for healthcare is the creation of chatbots such as ChatGPT. Chatbots like...
I’ve always enjoyed a good mystery. As a kid I tore voraciously through mystery novels and have watched all the way through House MD several times. But I’ve got nothing on my grandma, who not only has had...
Many experts and running enthusiasts have touted outside running as a superior activity when compared to its indoor counterpart, the treadmill; they use a plethora of arguments, all of which generally revolve around what happens in working muscles...
In the main series Pokémon games, an antidote is a healing item sold at any Poké Mart which cures the poison status condition, inflicted from moves such as Poison Sting or Sludge, abilities like Poison Point, or battle...
Phoenix is a transplant city, to be sure. Plenty of Californians, Midwesterners, and folks from all over have made their way to our city one way or another and have had to acclimate themselves to the many unique...
The University of Arizona’s Center for Rural Health collects data frequently to explore public health issues faced by the state, and a number of its recent reports and statistics point to a concerning future for the Arizona medical...
The Vogue Challenge, Zoom Meeting Mishaps, Turn Your DMs Into Quotes, Silhouette Challenge – do any of these sound familiar? There’s a good chance that you may have participated in these, or similar, trends yourself. Statistically speaking, with...
War. War never changes. And neither does humanity’s response to it: anger; disgust; a desire to help; and for some, the lust for thrills. The idea of war tourism is not new. Historians and journalists have been described...
Some commonly expressed sentiments I’ve heard amongst my colleagues since beginning my medical training is, “the older generation sold out and left us,” or “big firms all own medicine now, this is a terrible time to be entering.”...
One of the very first things medical students at The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix are taught is that patients want their doctors to be approachable. The need to focus on patient rapport is emphasized...
If compassion is a tree, then human dignity is the roots, self-awareness is the branches, and empathy is the leaves. Of a tree, human dignity is the roots. Respect for human dignity must run deep throughout clinical practice,...
Wordle, the latest pandemic craze, is a free game that gives users six attempts a day to guess a unique five letter word, with a new word available every day. The clever word game has had a meteoric...
To date, there have been over 370 million recorded cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with over 5.6 million deaths. The United States alone has had over 74 million recorded cases of COVID-19, and over 880,000 deaths [1]. As the...
This article is dedicated to all those sea-faring refugees who are lost, lost, lost, in the search for something so intangible such as belonging. Some people awake to the sound of birds chirping or a city awakening, but...
Clinical Scenario: Your patient presents with productive cough and dyspnea. He mentions that his neighbor’s dog is experiencing similar symptoms. How does this narrow your differential? Now, add a recent earthquake to the scenario! What’s your diagnosis? On...
In the 19th century, medicine was primarily concerned with adult health; managing symptoms and trialing various treatments. The health of children was treated in much more of a “c’est la vie” manner: kids would get sick, and hopefully...
The FREOPP World Index of Healthcare Innovation is a unique, one-of-a-kind ranking system that improves upon prior models of healthcare comparison. In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked 191 countries based on overall health performance. The United States...
I know what you’re thinking. It’s my first article for The Differential and I chose to talk about TikTok AND expose the inordinate amount of time I spend on it instead of studying for an anatomy block I...
As medical students and future physicians, we are granted permission to witness some of the most intimate and vulnerable moments of our patients’ lives. We are invited to carry with us our patients’ hopes, dreams, fears, and sorrows....
Kneeling on the ruthlessly cold, travertine bathroom floor, lights off, abdominal muscles convulsing, lungs heaving, and hands holding her hair back as she purges her own stomach of boluses that once looked like her mother’s famous Mac ‘N’...
When the Wright Brothers first achieved motorized flight in 1903, the response to their achievement was lackluster. In fact, when propositioned for contracts regarding aeroplanes, the U.S. government responded to the brothers with a letter of “no interest”....
“Is there a doctor on board? We have a medical emergency in row 12.” Your heart skips a beat as you look up from your copy of the New England Journal of Medicine. You quickly unbuckle your seatbelt...
In late April Governor Dough Ducey signed Senate Bill (SB) 1457, an expansive anti-abortion bill with a plethora of mandates impacting both patients and medical professionals. The bill opens by guaranteeing civil rights for fetuses at any stage...
Our world lost the brightest of lights on October 16, 2021 when Keenan Clark McNamara, 29, passed away. Keenan was a special soul on this Earth, and he illuminated the lives of everyone he met. Keenan had the...
From October 11th through November 3rd, the Latino Medical Students Association (LMSA), the Office of Student Affairs, and Marketing & Communications set up an altar for Día de los Muertos – a Latin American tradition to honor loved...
There are a number of inevitabilities in life. Death, billionaires avoiding taxes, and people asking med students what specialty they want to go into. As someone who entered med school with the singular goal of emergency medicine (as...
According to the Association of American Medical College’s 2020 Medical School Graduation Questionnaire, 7.3% of graduating medical students had dependents[1], up from 3.1% in 2016 [2]. There are more people entering medical school as parents or becoming parents...
Before we begin our training, every medical student is warned that this process takes sacrifice — and that some of the things that bring us joy will inevitably fall by the wayside. There’s less time for travel, less...
Vaccines are among the most important inventions in medical history, having effectively eliminated conditions that caused innumerable deaths. In fact, vaccines are so important that all 50 U.S. states require that children be vaccinated in order to attend...
What do you remember about Pixar’s famous movie, Up? Is it Doug, the golden retriever? The epic love story that brought tears to the most stoic of eyes? Whatever it is, it probably isn’t Carl’s cane, proudly decorated...
Dear students, I am writing this to you on your first day to encourage you to wear your mask indoors and in the library. I am Akimel O’odham (Pima) from the Gila River Community. I was born at...
Physicians hold a high degree of responsibility within their profession by nature – caring for patients is not easy. A significant amount of training is required to become a well-rounded physician, and with that rigorous process comes a...
March 11th, 2020 marked the pivotal day when the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, an announcement that materialized only a few short months after the first reported cases in Wuhan, China. Two days later, the...
On January 4, 2021, I received my first dose of the Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Signifying many different things to me. Personally, it represents safety in some measure. As an Arizona resident, it creates a sense that things are...
“We want to do a lot of stuff; we’re not in great shape. We didn’t get a good night’s sleep. We’re a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup.” – Jerry Seinfeld Although...
On October 26th, Judge, now Justice, Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th Circuit Court was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, filling the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This has primed the highest judicial body in the...
Before you read any further, I must fully disclose that I cannot really grow a mustache, let alone a beard. Last fall, given the timing with Movember (also known as No-Shave November) and the week of third-year Intersessions,...
Eddie Case is a previously healthy COVID-19 survivor and one of the first 200-identified COVID patients in Arizona. He has graciously offered to share a full account of his story so the public can get a glimpse of...
It is well studied at this point that COVID-19 has been disproportionately affecting racial and ethnic minorities. The CDC stated that these differences in risk of infection and hospitalizations may stem from long-standing systemic health and social inequities....
Estefania Lopez, a UACOM – Phoenix student in the class of 2023, is passionate about increasing resources for medical Spanish on campus and throughout the curriculum. Along with fellow classmates Alexandria Daggett and Abigail Solorio, she developed “Almuerzo...
This Letter comes from a group of students who have placed social justice at the top of their priorities. Students who have joined their community in protest since June 1st, 2020 and have missed not one day of...
An increasing number of patients over recent years have noted appointments at a doctor’s office feel rushed or have been in an emergency department or clinic feeling as though they were just another number on the list to...
Working in a medical profession almost invariably means having to confront human mortality. Though death is ultimately inevitable, in many situations physicians can experience patients’ deaths as a failure on their part to provide appropriate care. It is...
Are machines going to take over medicine? This might be a question you have heard or asked yourself, especially after watching movies demonstrating somewhat unsettling, yet realistic portrayals, of artificial intelligence (AI). Films such as Ex Machina, Her,...
Next to me was an emaciated, homeless Vietnamese man in his late fifties. We were sitting in the Emergency Room together, his hand tightly clasped in mine. He was dressed in dirt and wore a baggy, tattered overcoat....
We all know the saying: an apple a day keeps the doctor away. This adage has been around in some form since 1860. In fact, the original saying was “eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll...
It’s not the gentle flight of a stork through the glimmering sunshine of new day. It’s new life knit from blood and sinew in the darkness of a womb, a potentially dangerous craft of rearranged organs that can...
Today I am interviewing Steven Brown, MD, Family Medicine Physician and creator of the American Family Physician Family Medicine Podcast, which has been in biweekly production since July 1st, 2015. Tell us about your roles with Banner University...
Culture and medicine can serve as reflections of each other. As societal changes affect conceptions of health and illness, it is important to explore the expression of health and medicine. In this interview, I speak with Imogen Arate,...
I’m writing this article as I finish up Commissioned Officer Training for the U.S. Air Force. This five-week long training course has represented a significant departure from the content I learned during my first year in medical school....
During one of my first days shadowing my Community Clinical Experience (CCE) preceptor, I had the opportunity to observe a pelvic exam. This was not the first pelvic exam I had watched – my preceptor is an OB/GYN,...
Two Saturdays ago, my wife and I were driving home from an event in Scottsdale at 1 pm. I had bent down to pick up my phone and when I sat back up, I saw the brake lights...
CRISPR-Cas9 is a gene editing tool that has been the subject of considerable ethical debate since researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou used it in 2015 for germline editing in non-viable human embryos. Their research specifically involved...
November Response: Last issue, we discussed a difficult decision made by a family in regards to donation of their stillborn child. Let’s review: You are working on an interdisciplinary team between the obstetrician and neonatologist and supporting staff...
September Question: In September, our issue was focused on Suicide Awareness Month. Let’s review: Note from the Editors-in-Chief: September was Suicide Awareness Month. As such, this issue’s question was themed around physician suicide, an issue which already has...
Note from the Editors-in-Chief: September is National Suicide Awareness Month. As such, this article addresses physician suicide, an issue which already has or will likely affect all physicians. If you or a friend is struggling and considering self-harm...
July Question In July, we read about a case in which a young boy disagreed with his parents about treatment. Let’s take another look: Joseph, an exceptionally bright and articulate 13 year old, is found to have a...
Mass casualty incidents (MCIs) such as shootings, infrastructure collapses, or bombings can quickly overwhelm emergency medical resources with gravely injured victims. This has highlighted the importance of training the public in basic medicine so that bystanders can provide...
On August 1, 2018, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared a new Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, located in the northeast region of the country [1]. By September 7, a total of...
I recently revisited the Class of 2019 Oath for the first time since my White Coat Ceremony in 2015. At the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix, we don’t recite the traditional Hippocratic Oath, or even a modified...
In June 2018, a nurse practitioner drove to the primary care clinic where she works. She was extremely tired that morning and had a full schedule of patients to see in clinic. She normally does not take her...
“The life of a single human being is worth a million time more than all the property of the richest man on earth.” Quote by Ernesto “Ché” Guevara above the entrance to the Calixto Garcia Hospital. On August...
Note from the Editors-in-Chief: September is National Suicide Awareness Month. As such, this article addresses physician suicide, an issue which already has or will likely affect all physicians. If you or a friend is struggling and considering self-harm...
Recently, the University of Arizona College of Medicine–Phoenix hosted an Art in Medicine event focusing on ceramics and the creation of masks. This event, led by Dr. Cynthia Standley and Lisa Swanson, the director of ArtMobile, allowed students...
The summer between the first and second years of medical school can be an odd existential crisis. You feel like the countless trials by fire should have produced something a little more substantive, a little more accomplished than...
CMS is proposing a controversial change to Medicare reimbursements beginning in 2019, known as the site-neutral payment policy. Under the policy, Medicare would reimburse outpatient services at the same rate as inpatient services. Currently, providers are reimbursed at...
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 800 women die every day due to preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Based on a census taken in 2015, it was estimated that 303,000 women worldwide died during...
This speech was given by Student Body Vice President Cecilia Chou at the Second Look Luncheon to the incoming Class of 2022. We are printing for the benefit of incoming students who were unable to attend and for...
After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in the fall of 2017, one of the many ensuing scandals was its disablement of several pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities. It was widely reported that intravenous fluids were becoming a scarcity across hospitals...
One of the things I most love about medicine is the multitude of choices we have to create our careers. Primary care or specialty medicine? Academia or private practice? Urban or rural communities? The choices can feel overwhelming,...
Psychological illnesses have serious clinical manifestations that can be debilitating. It has been known for a while now that endogenous derangements in the dopaminergic and serotonergic system contribute to the phenotypic manifestation of psychological illness, hence selective serotonin...
Medical students participate in a Gross Anatomy Laboratory as part of their first-year training towards becoming future physicians. Many view this as a “rite of passage,” as these willed-body donors are often our first and most intimate patients....
This interview is re-created from the conversation I had with Monica Martinez, the artist responsible for the Nothing in Stasis exhibit that is currently in the lobby of the HSEB. An interview from earlier in her career can...
I don’t claim to be an authority on how we should approach life in medical school. I know that everyone’s experience is different, and we all have our own daily problems and battles. I am not writing this...
The Longitudinal Patient Care (LPC) Course takes places during years three and four of the UA COM-P curriculum. Students are placed in interprofessional teams and are paired with a community mentor. These mentors have chronic medical conditions and...
Internal Medicine Patient: Veteran, father, grandfather COPD, heart failure, new diagnosis of terminal cancer Denial, anger, depression Weeks in the hospital My last day comes “It’s been my pleasure,” I say “Thank you for seeing me every day,”...
Rushing to take care of every person in the room, constantly checking fluid levels and carrying trays full of equipment, I started questioning whether this is something I could do for the rest of my life. My legs...
The World Economic Forum, held annually in Davos, Switzerland, has become a platform where politicians, scientists, economists, and other global influencers gather to discuss the future of global development. During the most recent convening, the Access to Medicines...
Merriam-Webster defines insurance as: 1: The business of insuring persons or property, coverage by contract whereby one party undertakes to indemnify or guarantee another against loss by a specified contingency or peril, the sum for which something is...
I heaved my carry-on into the 5th overhead compartment of the week and squeezed past a catatonic passenger to take up residence in my usual middle seat. I raked my fingers through the chasm of my purse in...
In December 2017, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it is lifting a moratorium on funding for gain-of-function research on influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) viruses. This policy dated...
November Response Our last ethics question concerned discrimination against a practicing Muslim physician and the role of hospital administrators in enforcing zero-tolerance discrimination policies: You are an administrator at a community hospital. As you are walking to the...
Healthcare workers suffer some of the highest rates of workplace violence. A quick Google search will pull up countless stories about doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who have been victims of attack. Anyone who works in healthcare...
After a stressful week of examinations, you are finally home for the holidays and couldn’t be happier to have a day off from your studies. You are sitting down around the dinner table surrounded by friends and family...
“Epigenetics is an emerging frontier of science that involves the study of changes in the regulation of gene activity and expression that are not dependent on gene sequence . . . the origins of health and susceptibility to...
September Question September’s ethical question revolved around a concerned patient and physician disclosure of test results. Take another look: A 67-year-old man presents to his physician complaining of discomfort in his lower abdomen and difficulty with urination. The...
On my first day on the job as a jail doctor, twenty-five-year-old Peggy* was brought by guards to clinic after fighting with another inmate. This was her third booking into jail in 6 months. Needle track marks obscured...
In our current age of medicine, we often tout the benefits of evidence-based medicine for our patients: better outcomes with fewer unneeded interventions. However, even the name of this approach depends upon the nature of the evidence, which...
Virtual medical care has been gaining traction, and now, a recent change to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) just gave it another boost. The Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule...
As part of my fourth year, I chose to do an elective in forensic pathology at the medical examiner’s office. Many people, including my peers, wondered why a bubbly, optimistic future obstetrician-gynecologist would choose to see death on...
After hearing about Dr. Miller and reading reviews on Amazon about her first book, Only Rock is Real, I couldn’t wait to interview her! My hope is that this interview provides insight into how medicine impacts many aspects...
The Indian Health Services (IHS) was created in the 1950s with the aim of ensuring that comprehensive and culturally acceptable personal and public health services are available and accessible to Native American people. Since the installment of IHS,...
In continual efforts to improve diagnostic and screening methods, a new emerging tool that is quickly gaining momentum is the “specialized breathalyzer.” An instrument once utilized exclusively by law enforcement officers for the measurement of blood alcohol levels,...
When the Affordable Care Act was created, it included a provision referred to as “cost-sharing reductions” for households that had an annual income 100-250% the federal poverty level (e.g., $24,600 to $61.500 for a family of four). The...
Friday, September 30, 2016 A small village about 50 miles outside of Santa Domingo It was our last day on the trip. We had flown into Santa Domingo on Sunday, piled into a bus 24-people strong (I know...
I was walking out of a grocery store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in November of 2013 when I received the phone call: I’d been admitted to medical school. I cried, called my mom, and celebrated...
It’s July again in Phoenix. For most, this just signals our yearly retreat into the great indoors as the 110 °F weather scorches the earth and melts our tires to the asphalt. For the UA College of Medicine...
“How are babies made?” That may be a question to give any parent of a five-year-old palpitations on the spot. However, after lectures about the emerging technologies surrounding in vitro fertilization, surrogacy, and reproductive medicine, I realized the...
May Ethical Question In May, we discussed the possibility of acquiring a terminal disease and the end of a physician’s life. Let’s revisit: You sit down in front of your own physician, speechless. Although you’ve given many patients...
Last week, Florida joined a growing list of states passing legislation that recognizes a novel approach to healthcare: direct primary care (DPC). What is DPC? In short, it is primary care where patients pay a monthly fee to...
CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat)/Cas9 is a gene editing technique that utilizes a viral vector to insert segments of viral DNA to provide a template for RNA molecules that can be programmed to identify, disable, and...
I wrote this piece to reconcile my feelings and thoughts about choosing a specialty as I have moved through the first two years of medical school. I’m sharing with the hope that these thoughts may impact others (even...
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and with its 7th Match Day around the corner, the college has successfully graduated 273 physicians. As outstanding of an accomplishment that is, it...
I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Valentine Nfonsam, an associate professor with The University of Arizona Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, Section of Surgical Oncology specializing in colon and rectal surgery, colorectal oncology and...
In the early morning of August 23, 2016, I eagerly packed my belongings in my car and headed 225 miles west: it was time to begin my journey to Silver City, New Mexico for my rural family medicine...
After completing four grueling years of medical education, a select cohort of highly talented individuals attain the honor of calling themselves doctors. However, their training is far from complete as their residency will require another three to seven...
In preparation for the upcoming Match Day on March 17th, I sat down with Dr. Cheryl O’Malley, interim vice dean of academic affairs to discuss her path to academic medicine at the UA COM-P and how she finds...
Countertransference, in one word summarizes my last six weeks spent within the walls of various psychiatric units. Every petition, every police report, every psychiatric emergency center report, I experienced some form of countertransference. Life experiences, which make us,...
Match Day at The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix is probably the single most unique and “built-up” days of medical school. Graduation was exciting, but we had all graduated before. The white coat ceremony, while...
A few years ago, the concept of nanoscience would have seemed so fictional that Steven Spielberg would have done an outstanding job curating it into a movie. Today, nanotechnology is making its way into clinical practice and soon...
Last November came and went, and unbeknownst for many people, so did Native American Heritage Month. Although Native American Day had been unofficially celebrated since 1916, it wasn’t until 1990 that President George H.W. Bush passed a resolution...
Every year, more than one million knee replacement surgeries are done in the United States, and approximately one to two percent of these procedures are followed by infections. These infections are linked to the formation of biofilm–a microbial-derived...
As medical students, we are taught during Doctoring to obtain a detailed history from a patient in an appropriate amount of time. Alongside the medical history questions, we inquire about occupation, highest degree, diet, and spiritual beliefs that...
The past week in our country’s politics has left many of us stunned. Whatever our personal opinions, there had been a pretty clear idea of what we thought the two Americas were ever since the 2000 election permanently...
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare industry has seen a flurry of changes ranging from mandated health insurance to the use of electronic recordkeeping. Most recently, MACRA has hospitals scrambling to become compliant with...
September Response You are a pediatrician who is discussing care with a first-time pregnant couple. You were referred the couple by an obstetrician to establish routine care for the newborn after the delivery. While you are planning the...
For each issue of The Differential, our arts editor will write a piece in a specific poetic form that reflects the themes, material, pathologies, and/or student maturity/mindset during the block that she experienced the previous year. All of...
“I can feel just about every finger—it’s a really weird sensation,” Mr. Copeland said a month after surgery. Mr. Copeland’s regained ability to feel again occurred after he was connected to the Brain Computer Interface (BCI) developed by...
Somewhere in an undiscovered margin or appendix of our medical textbooks, we will find a sentence or two on a disease called vitiligo. In truth, there are no major medical dangers of the disease, and little is known...
Let’s all share a collective sigh of relief: we’ve reached Election Day. No matter which party you support, you’re likely feeling either exhausted, disgusted, or both. The campaigns, which have been plagued by scandals, conspiracy theories, name-calling, racism,...
Likely, all of us in middle school or high school had to take an art class—a drama class, band, or art class maybe. Believe it or not, I thought I was awful at all of those; my doodling...
For the third installment of the Writing Workshop series, I am using the same prompt that was featured previously in Sara Pousti’s piece, “How Resilience Found Beauty”: More than anything, I wanted to tell the world… I’ve always...
July Response Last edition, we focused on the story of Mrs. Plant, who was reaching the end of her life and was faced with a tough decision. The story and options are as follows: Mrs. Plant has a...
“How have television shows such as Dr. Oz impacted the physician-patient relationship?” This question was posted outside the door of my first MMI station at my first medical school interview. I wracked my brain for a thoughtful response,...
Simone Biles, Usain Bolt, and Michael Phelps are household names throughout the world. These athletes are known for their success on the world’s highest competitive level; they are Olympians. Since a French winter’s night in late 1892, the...
My scholarly project is an investigation of the possible sequelae occurring up to a decade after an osteomyelitis infection in a pediatric population. Acute hematogenous osteomyelitis (AHO) is an infection of the bone, seeded by a blood-borne organism....
With the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) about to take effect next January, only half of US physicians report being familiar with the impending legislation [1]. While some are aware that the traditional fee-for-service...
Dear class of 2020, We are all so excited to see you on campus, proudly donning your freshly minted white coats with radiating smiles. In order to welcome you to campus, the class of 2019 decided to put...
Your birthday is in one week! This means free drinks at the bar all week, right? Or for the younger ones, new toys? The next day, instead of going to school or work, you wake up to your...
Before I began medical school, I always considered the city of Yuma, Arizona, as a mere pit stop on the drive to San Diego, California. Every summer, my family would stop in Yuma to refuel on gas and...
I’m writing this article from 30,000 feet above Albuquerque, en route to the East Coast, where I will spend the next several days re-entering the world as a healthy and well-adjusted human. I have spent the last month...
When I was asked to write this article, I initially declined. First of all, I wasn’t really sure what I would write about. A piece on being atheist in medicine would be just a piece about me in...
Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes classified under the subfamily, Crotalidae [1]. They are characterized by their triangular head, heat-sensing pits, and rattles on their tails. They are indigenous to North America and contribute significantly to the...
In 2008, IBM developed its now iconic supercomputer Watson to play Jeopardy! against the show’s most successful duo, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Boasting 15 terabytes of RAM, 2880 processor cores, and the ability to process more than...
See! Adorned in hues of recognition, Orbs glistening and flashing dental whites — A younger self: another tradition — Now steps fulfilled, proven strong wills and mights. Success celebrated in academe, The moment flourishes for journey’s end. With...
In my effort to let students learn more about our faculty, staff and, students, I interviewed Dr. David Beyda, the chair of the Department of Bioethics and Medical Humanism at The University of Arizona College of Medicine –...
Photo Credit: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix Media Production Banners were hung, confetti was strewn, students danced, and lots and lots of smiles were witnessed last month during what is arguably one of the most...
A 15 year-old female is asked whether she would consent to being a bone marrow donor for her mother who is critically ill and in need of a bone marrow transplant. The two of them have had a...
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a major public health burden in the US, if not an epidemic. At least 5.3 million Americans currently live with TBI-related symptoms due to physical, psychological, cognitive, and emotional disorders [1]. These symptoms...
A terminally ill patient is seen by a colleague in your group practice after hospitalization for pneumonia. The patient has metastatic cancer and COPD, and he is currently on a ventilator. He has been seeing your group for...
With medical development increasing at a logarithmic rate, it seems as if we hear about new life-saving medical treatments every day. However, the lengthy process of FDA approval can take decades to complete, while terminally ill patients who...
If you are a student at UA COM-P, then you’ve navigated an aspect of our curriculum, Community Clinical Experience (CCE), designed to expose MS1s and MS2s to clinical medicine during our pre-clerkship years. As a family medicine fangirl...
Archived image unavailable: CRISPR_overview CRISPR/Cas9 was recently named the scientific breakthrough of 2015 by the journal Science [1]. Said to be a revolutionary gene-editing technique, CRISPR/Cas9 has risen to fame on national media over the last several months....
Mosquitoes carry a bad name. They carry malaria, chikungunya, typhoid, and dengue, and who knows what else . . . as we found out recently with Zika. This Zika virus just didn’t present itself one day, waking up...
Archived image unavailable: NIH_Clinical_Research_Center_aerial In today’s political climate, discord is common and accords drastically less so. But in an increasingly rare show of bipartisanship, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has recently received a $2 billion increase in...
Archived image unavailable: 2014.08.22 HSEB Sunrise v02 FINAL It is no secret that interdisciplinary collaboration and healthcare teams are essential to providing quality patient care. Therefore, it is important to begin learning how to collaborate with all members...
As the election year rages on, many people are learning that the United States is a diverse, multicultural nation. In the 2014 census, approximately 20% of the US population identified as African American, Native American, Asian, or Pacific...
The first Clown Town Healing Fest in the United States was held at the downtown Phoenix Arizona Center on Saturday, February 26. The planning for this day of love, laughter, and healing was led by Dr. Carl Hammerschlag...
Think back to the last time you read Romeo and Juliet. It was probably in high school English class, and you were assigned to write an essay on the play’s themes of love, tragedy, or rivalry and also...
An internal memo to the members of the Society for Truculent Underappreciated Practitioners of Inpatient Doctoring To arms, august compatriots! Our very way of life is threatened by the hordes of barbarians at our gates. Armed not with...
We asked residents and attendings affiliated with our school to answer the question, “What is compassionate patient care?” And their responses were inspiring. “I believe the following sums up how I approach my patients: Often, compassionate care means...
We hope that you enjoy this summary of the six short NPR segments that were compiled to form the TED Radio Hour entitled “Just a Little Nicer.” This hour of TED Talks reviews ideas about compassion and empathy....
It’s another busy day at the clinic. You look up the patient list for the afternoon and start skimming through. As you sift through chief complaints, past medical histories, and social histories, you start to paint pictures of...
Another week is set to begin, another test to study for, I mean. Lectures stacked back-to-back every day. I say hip-hip, I think, hooray. Anki decks galore, please, can’t handle it no more. Mondays are kept light, lecture,...
Approximately 9% of men and 24% of women will experience migraine headache. The 2010 Global Burden of Disease Survey lists migraine as the 7th highest cause of disability. Those affected with the condition can experience a significantly decreased...
Arnold-Chiari malformations describe a cluster of congenital neurologic defects characterized by the downward displacement of cerebellar tonsils through the foramen magnum. Tonsillar herniation can lead to serious neurologic sequelae by obstruction of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In Chiari malformation...
Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law and efforts have gone underway to reduce healthcare spending (currently 18% of the GDP), two of the most popular acronyms have been ACO and PCMH. Unlike previous models of...
Did you know that, in ancient times, doctors would routinely drill holes in the skulls of patients who were behaving abnormally in order to ward off evil spirits? Or that in the 19th Century, a series of “soothing...
SUPPORTING OUR PATIENTS BY SUPPORTING EACH OTHER Since my Scholarly Project involves transgender health, I routinely peruse some of the new research that comes out involving health disparities in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community....
I like what is straightforward—who doesn’t? However, I also enjoy facing complex situations: what can compare to the satisfaction we feel when we are able to detangle convoluted clinical pictures? But what I love—and fear—is the inexplicable, the...
“From the 1870s until the 1970s, it was widely assumed in the United States that mentally ill individuals did not belong in prisons and jails but rather in mental hospitals, where they could receive asylum and treatment” [1]....
No, but where are you REALLY from? Unlike some of their friends who sent their children to visit relatives almost every summer, my parents did not bring my sister and me to China until after my high school...
The teaching of medical ethics has become an integral aspect of medical education. These courses aim to prepare students for future issues they may face involving informed consent, futility, and conscientious objection as well as aiding us in...
WHAT IT MEANS FOR STUDENTS AT UA COM-P Imagine that it’s the spring of 2020. Yes, you and your class have successfully graduated from the College of Medicine and are in the midst of enjoying your residency. It’s...
The modern smartphone comes with unlimited possibilities for the creative mind. With no more than a few clicks, taps, and pinches of the fingers, anyone can find out practically anything anywhere in the world. But what if we...
# Trends in vaccine hesitancy in the United States have led to the resurgence of several infectious diseases, including measles, mumps, and pertussis. Arizona’s regulation of nonmedical exemptions (NMEs) is relatively lenient compared to that of other states,...
An alarming, frightening, and ultimately lethal mystery first uncovered by Dr. John Freke in April of 1736 may very well be on its way to a resolution—thanks to the help of determined physicians and 21st-century medical technology. After...
& START LOVING FAMILY MEDICINE Archived image unavailable: “Country Doctor” W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures, 1948 “Country Doctor” – One of my favorite photos. By W. Eugene Smith—Time & Life Pictures (TIME Magazine), 1948. Growing up, my...
Myth #1: Family medicine isn’t challenging and exciting. It absolutely is!! Family Medicine docs are diverse. We have solo practices and work in large academic centers. We work as hospitalists, take emergency medicine shifts, deliver babies and perform...
*Archived image unavailable: Batey Aleman It was the second day of clinic at Batey Aleman, and we were waiting for our next patient. A frail woman turned the corner and knelt on her cane for support as she...
From smartphones to thermostats, watches to vehicles, the modern world is increasingly connected to the Internet—the so-called Internet of Things [1]. What is now becoming clear—painfully so for users of Ashley Madison, a popular dating website—is that anything...
Growing up, I never planned to become a physician. As a relatively healthy child, I assumed all doctors were functionally the same as the one I visited for a yearly checkup or for the occasional cough. However, in...
I remember the moment when I first decided that I wanted to be a physician. I was five, and I was walking out of a store with my family in rural upstate New York. Obsessed with dinosaurs at...
Fifteen years after its creation, the da Vinci Surgical System is as futuristic, innovative, and revolutionary as ever before. Designed by the United States Army and Stanford University, the initial idea was for an armored robot to roll...
Seeing the beginning of a new life is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Having to tell a mother that the new life she had been expecting is suddenly gone is the most gut-wrenching experience. I...
“No ifs, ands, or buts” is a common phrase used to assess the cognitive function of elderly patients who present with signs of dementia—but how does one assess a Navajo elder who speaks only a language in which...
(Trigger warning: though accurate, some of the material discussed in this piece describes medical violence that some readers may find upsetting) Archived image unavailable: Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington In research, there is...
The United States has the highest level of health expenditure in the world.[1] This means that the US spends more of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare than any other country. However, according to the World Health...
Archived image unavailable: image11.jpg Students of the Class of 2018 drafting the class oath – July 2014. You tackled the MCAT, maintained a competitive GPA, held leadership positions, and made it through the interviews. And now you’re sitting...
A visit to the doctor often results in a prescription sent off to your pharmacy—conceivably for antibiotics, analgesics or antidepressants. If you’re feeling quite sick, you drive directly from the office to the local Walgreens, and within 30...
Welcome to our very first edition of This Month in Science (TMIS). Each month, we will feature recently published research with interviews of our Phoenix faculty for their opinions and explanations. This month, we interviewed Dr. Mark Haussler,...
Arizona has the fortune and misfortune of being a sunny state for a significant part of the year, and the hot season is just around the corner! While the relative warmth during the fall and winter makes many...
In the United States today, there are an estimated 30 million people living with some type of disability. While some assistive living devices, like wheelchairs and walkers, have a large market presence, traditional manufacturing methods have prevented devices...
ACROSS THE UNITED STATES-MEXICO BORDER: LESSONS LEARNED FROM A TRANSCULTURAL PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN SAN DIEGO AND TIJUANA ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE: Frontiers in Public Health, 22 June 2015 | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2015.00159 Paula Aristizabal, Spencer Fuller, Rebeca Rivera, David Beyda, Raul C....
Defining The Covenant Relationship and Informed Consent In recent years, the physician-patient dynamic has become more of a business transaction rather than a trusting relationship. Several medical ethicists state that “medical care has become more of a contractual,...
Welcome to the Class of 2019! I am thrilled to have this opportunity to be a contributor the COM – P student newspaper – The Differential. When I was asked to write this article it was suggested that...
