Alone posted on 2020-05-20
I’m alone in the patient compartment of our rig, separated from my driver, who’s also an EMT. He can only hear me through the thick glass window. The ventilator fan is set on high, just like we were told to do after the World Health Organization declared the Coronavirus a pandemic with fatal repercussions. We’ve [Read More]
Burton Rose MD (1942-2020) posted on 2020-04-27
On April 24, 2020, Medicine lost one of its great innovators and educators. Burton Rose passed away at the age of 77, a victim of SARS-CoV-21. A graduate of Princeton University, he went to Medical school at New York University and served on the faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Beth Israel Deaconess [Read More]
Reader Beware posted on 2020-04-24
With the number of scientific articles about COVID-19 increasing, it seems we have entered a new era where our mantra must be “Reader Beware.” For reasons known only to their editorial boards, even reputed medical journals are falling prey to the temptation of publishing studies plagued with poor methodology, incomplete information, or conclusions that are [Read More]
Truth and Responsibility posted on 2020-04-21
Medical professionals are traditionally identified as purveyors of truth. In fact, truth-telling has become a cornerstone of doctor-patient relationships. In recent years, the patient’s right to autonomy seems to have trumped the doctor’s ethical obligations to beneficence and nonmaleficence1. In a recent Gallup poll2, nurses were considered the most trustworthy and ethical of all professionals [Read More]
Infodemics posted on 2020-04-17
We are deluged with information these days. A simple PubMed search of COVID-19 reveals 4806 articles published since January 1, 2020. Every medical society publishes guidelines, many of which contain information that is not evidence-based. Networks pummel us with supposedly expert commentary. Journalists become opinion leaders overnight, and a multitude of physicians educate us about [Read More]