The Reality of Healthcare Disparities
The CDC defines health care disparities as “preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.” The current COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the issue of healthcare disparities in our nation. Although black people make up the minority of the US population, we […]
Black Women in Medicine – Why Do We Need Them?
On February 3rd, we celebrated National Women Physicians Day. This day was chosen to honor the birthday of Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell – the first woman to obtain a medical degree in the United States. February is also Black History Month. As young children, we learn so much about Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa […]
From 9/11 to the Capitol Riots
In the fall of 2001, I was a medical student doing an Internal Medicine clerkship in Brooklyn, New York City. Every morning we attended “morning report” from 8-9 am in a basement conference room. Morning report is an hour-long conference during which cases from overnight are reviewed. The conference is a wealth of knowledge, and […]
Be the Change We So Desperately Need
I live just 20 minutes away from where it happened. Living in the area surrounding Washington, DC, I have seen various protests that grace our nation’s capital occurring daily. These vibrant and often encouraging voices of change have been the reasons for many street closures and traffic jams. Here in DC, though it can sometimes […]
Reflections on George Floyd from a Doctor and Immigrant Mother
I finally mustered the courage, took a deep breath, grabbed my bags, and walked into the hospital. I arrived 20 minutes early for my overnight shift, and sat in my car, in silence, hesitant to leave the garage. I was dreading the walk from the employee garage to the Emergency room where I worked. It […]
The 4-1-1 on Masks from a Doctor and Surgeon
The Power of Walking with a Doctor
Preparing the Next Generation through COVID19
I’m a retired veteran and medical epidemiologist from the CDC and a board-certified OB/GYN who loves working in underserved hospitals and FQHCs, and even I never thought it would get to this. The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has taken us by storm and caught us off-guard. The public health prevention safeguards that I studied, implemented and […]
Why Doctors Should Lobby for Immigrants Seeking Asylum
In about 2005 I learned that if I can properly document scars of torture for someone who is seeking asylum it greatly increases the odds of their being granted asylum. So began my passion for human rights medicine and working to bring justice to immigrants seeking asylum in the US. I have interviewed, examined and […]
Love Should Not Hurt: Break the Silence on Domestic Violence
Love should not hurt. Domestic violence hurts. What is domestic violence? 🖤It is not patient, it is not kind.🖤It involves envy, it involves boasting, it is prideful. 🖤It is rude, it is self-seeking, it is easily angered, it keeps a record of wrongs.🖤It delights in evil and hates the truth.🖤It does not protect, it does […]
