No one else I encountered during my third year of medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine struck me quite like this patient. He was propped up in the hospital bed, gasping impossibly for air, with not a hint of relief in sight. A harrowing whistle of pain escaped his lips and wove its Read more
Medicine
Bioethics is not about technology. This is a controversial statement, since bioethicists are often invited to comment on new issues at the interface of technology and health. We comment on gene therapy, on big data and medical research, on the use of advanced imaging techniques in the courtroom. But the questions we address are not Read more
What do we know? How do we know it? Evidence-based medicine…evidence-informed practice…patient-centered care…the art of medicine.… These terms fly around the landscape of integrative health and medicine with the potential to ultimately generate a meaningful consensus and a shared language for how we discuss clinical decision-making and clinical practice. With as clear a shared vision Read more
Anna is an elderly, vibrant patient who doesn’t remember what brought her to the hospital this time, but she enjoys company, and an audience for her life’s stories. She tells me about growing up in the only Hispanic family in an Italian neighborhood, raising her children, becoming a widow, adopting a few too many stray Read more
Editors’ Note: This season, about 18,000 future doctors will make the time-honored transition from medical school to residency. It’s a time of pride, excitement and understandable apprehension about the future. Speaking at Einstein’s 56th commencement, Dr. Arturo Casadevall talked about the importance of pursuing new knowledge in the quest for success, productivity and purpose. He shared Read more
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) continues to be the number one cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer and the primary indicator for liver transplantation in the United States, yet it remains vastly underdiagnosed. More than three million people in the U.S. are infected. Guidelines support widespread screening for HCV, and excellent treatments are now available. So Read more
