Take a hike
Last summer, in the throes of pandemic angst, I asked my good friend (an endocrinologist who radiates calm, love and compassion) how she was keeping her sanity and balance. Her answer astonished me because it was unexpected – I always pictured her as more of a town mouse rather than a country mouse, like myself. […]
So, you want to be a doctor?
My father, a salesman, liked to tell this joke to his customers: At the inauguration of a U.S. president, a man in the audience turns to the man next to him and starts a conversation: “You see the man up there?” “Yes, that’s the next president.” “Well, he is my son!” “You must be very […]
Noise
“Oh, the Noise! Oh, the Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!” – Dr. Seuss, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” 1957 “Before the Industrial Revolution, the principle sources of noise were thunder, church bells, and cannon fire.” – New York Times, Jan. 1, 2021 We are surrounded by noise. Noise can rob us of sleep; it can hinder […]
Sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic
2020 was a long year, and the pandemic is not over yet. On the bright side, we can learn a lot from what has happened. Even early on in this experience, sleep researchers were busy evaluating the effects on our sleep with new studies, or altering ongoing studies to see the effect that this disruption […]
COVID-19: Frequently Asked Questions
Clinical and public health guidance related to COVID-19 has evolved over the last year. The Allegheny County Health Department provides the following frequently asked questions (FAQs) for physicians on common clinical and public health COVID-19 scenarios. What is the difference between isolation and quarantine? Isolation separates people with an infection (e.g., COVID-19) from people who […]
Meeting new friends
February 14, years ago, my wife and I made an early exit from a Heinz Hall Pops Concert. We wanted to beat the crowd to the parking garage elevators. I was wearing only a sport coat and tie with my stethoscope still in my pocket as I had made a late exit from the office […]
America the fortunate
As I write this, one quarter of U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated, while half have had at least one dose. If the vaccines offer us significant protection against the assorted variants in world circulation, there is hope that we may entertain a gradual return to pre-pandemic life once the vast majority of the population […]
Illness and architecture
Sometimes in the pediatric ophthalmology clinic, things just don’t go my way. While we all love our patients, some of them can be a little (OK, a lot) more draining than others: the uncooperative 6-year-old who could read the smallest line of the eye chart in 10 seconds last time, but decides to stubbornly dig […]
Dr. James McCune Smith
Because I wanted to be a doctor, my mother made sure I had books with female role models in medicine. As a girl, I read about “Molly Pitcher” giving Revolutionary War soldiers water to drink. I knew that Florence Nightingale was “the lady with the lamp” during the Crimean War and that Clara Barton was […]
How times have changed
Most of us are comfortable living in the present time despite the threat of the pandemic. Many people talk about “the good old days” when life was perceived as simpler. Sometimes, however, a life-altering event invites us to think about how that event would have been managed in the past. This past July, I suddenly […]