EDITORS’ NOTE: The following post was first published in Pulse–voices from the heart of medicine. It’s Monday. I wake up at 7:15 am, go down to my apartment building’s lobby and meet with friends to work out before the rest of the day begins. We do arms, chest and back for an hour, then my […] The post First-Year Medical Student: Aftershocks first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

By your first week of graduate school, you’ve heard the word “orientation” so many times that it has become synonymous with “beginning.” In truth, your graduate school orientation is a moment of acclimation and discovery, filled with excitement, anticipation, and anxiety. At my Einstein orientation, I remember being excited about the shift in my career […] The post Ph.D. Orientation: Exploring the Field first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

The recent Supreme Court decision to strike down affirmative action effectively disparages the intellectual value and contributions of racial and ethnic minority students. The decision leads those of us who saw affirmative action as an important attempt to remedy historic and systemic racism to question the foundation of equality and justice in U.S. educational institutions. […] The post After Affirmative Action: Safeguarding Progress and Supporting DEI in Academic Medical Centers first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

“It’s a very insidious, beneath-the-radar-screen public health emergency…. [F]unction is being considerably impaired…[but] that doesn’t attract as much attention as a death rate.” (Dr. Anthony Fauci interview about long COVID, October 2022) I scanned Robbins Auditorium on Rose F. Kennedy (RFK) Center Day. I noted few masks; mine was the only N95. With the announced […] The post Long COVID Is a Mass Disabling Condition—Treat It Like One first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

I’m graduating from Einstein [next week], and as the day approaches, I like to recall how blessed I am to have the opportunity to become a physician. As medical students and M.D.s, we are privileged to learn about and participate in a profession that we love while getting the opportunity to help our communities. Looking […] The post Med School Graduation—the Final Exam first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

Roberta was a successful healthcare provider working in emergency services at a hospital in Pennsylvania. Eighteen months ago she changed jobs, with a salary increase and greater responsibilities, to run the sexual-assault survivor services at her hospital. The new role entailed daily immersion in the stories and emotional and medical aftermath of sexual assault. Sixteen […] The post The Health Consequences of Underdiagnosed PTSD first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

I was asked the other day by an informatician (who is not a patient of mine) what role “touch” plays in medicine. What can I, as a physician, learn from touching a patient that cannot be acquired in some other way—for example, via chart review, screen or glance, stethoscope or digital imaging, or any of […] The post Human Touch: An Essential Connection between Patients and Doctors first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

EDITORS’ NOTE: The following post first appeared in MedPage Today. For thousands of medical students, years of hard work will culminate this week as Match Day 2023 marks the end of their undergraduate medical education and the start of their residency program. Many newly minted physicians will soon pack up their belongings and move to new institutions […] The post Overturning Roe v. Wade Changed Match Day 2023 first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”  So wrote John Donne in 1642. While we might want to update this statement by saying “No person is an island,” and while this was intended to point out people’s dependencey on others, there [...] The post Monkeypox: Here We Go Again—or Maybe Not first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more

EDITORS’ NOTE: The following post first appeared in MedPage Today. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will undoubtedly restrict the reproductive healthcare that many physicians can provide. Critically, it will also threaten the clinical knowledge and skills of the next generation of physicians. As medical students, we firmly believe that any comprehensive reproductive health [...] The post A Call to Standardize Abortion Education Across U.S. Medical Schools first appeared on The Doctor's Tablet ..read more