Clinical care for Obesity and Diet Related illnesses needs more attention to Societal Determinants of Health Article from NEJM website about how despite rates of obesity starting to level off overall, the lowest income and minority populations continue to show a sharp increase. A focus on those factors as contributory needs to be a part of the discussion.
Social stigma makes the opioid crisis hard to confront (7min) There are many reasons why the opioid crisis is so hard to confront. One of them is social stigma. It often extends beyond users themselves, to their families. People see addiction as a moral weakness, and by extension, the moral weakness of their families.
When drinking ruins your liver - should you qualify for a transplant? When patients develop alcohol liver disease, they are often forced to wait 6 months to prove they can abstain from alcohol before they will be considered for a transplant. Is that a fair amount of time? Is that a fair practice at all?
Withholding surgery: How gaps in policy fail people who inject drugs A recent New York Times article described a harrowing situation faced by some people who inject drugs and develop endocarditis, a life-threatening infection caused by bacteria that enter the bloodstream and settle in the heart. The article described doctors in Tennessee deciding whether to perform repeat costly heart surgeries on patients who were re-infected with endocarditis as a result of ongoing illicit drug use—and at times declining to operate. There are policy failures that are to blame, too, for how and why resources are allocated this way. This looks at those failures and how our bias influences both the policies and how they are applied.
Injecting Drugs can ruin a heart - how many second chances should a user get? A life-threatening heart infection afflicts a growing number of people who inject opioids or meth. Costly surgery can fix it, but the addiction often goes unaddressed.
Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care If you could put your feet into your patient's shoes--see what they see, hear what they hear, and feel what they feel--would you treat them differently?
Transforming The Doctor's Office To Welcome Transgender Patients Challenges for transgender patients when interacting with medical clinics and how one clinic is transforming itself to be more welcoming and understanding of them
Tales of An Amputee Mommy Blog: “Okay, Im talking about sex” Below the knee amputee who keeps a blog of life as a mother and wife following her amputation. This specific post is addressing relearning sex and intimacy following amputation.
Our Family Secrets by Anonymous This essay describes two situations in which physicians' actions go far past inappropriate. While the physicians described are both from a given specialty, inappropriate behaviors occur in all fields of healthcare, even if they are rarely discussed. What may be the most challenging and (and beneficial) part of reading this essay is that it can lead us into a consideration of our own past inappropriate actions .
When Doctors Tell Patients What They Don't Want To Hear 
Empathy: The Human Connection to Patient Care If you could put your feet into your patient's shoes--see what they see, hear what they hear, and feel what they feel--would you treat them differently?
Transforming The Doctor's Office To Welcome Transgender Patients Challenges for transgender patients when interacting with medical clinics and how one clinic is transforming itself to be more welcoming and understanding of them
Tales of An Amputee Mommy Blog: “Okay, Im talking about sex” Below the knee amputee who keeps a blog of life as a mother and wife following her amputation. This specific post is addressing relearning sex and intimacy following amputation.
Our Family Secrets by Anonymous This essay describes two situations in which physicians' actions go far past inappropriate. While the physicians described are both from a given specialty, inappropriate behaviors occur in all fields of healthcare, even if they are rarely discussed. What may be the most challenging and (and beneficial) part of reading this essay is that it can lead us into a consideration of our own past inappropriate actions .