Finally, Democrats and Republicans have agreed that reducing prison sentences should be a priority, especially for nonviolent drug offenses. It’s common sense that people with substance-use disorders should be offered addiction treatment as an alternative to incarceration. But what if they can’t stop using drugs? They still don’t belong in prison. Incarceration Undermines Recovery Incarceration Read more
Montefiore Medical Center
As I flip through the short stack of medical journals I’ve accumulated each week, I often ask myself whether the research studies I am reading would pass the “grandma test.” Could I explain these studies to my grandmother in a way she could understand? Would she think they were important? Physicians, patients—all of us—are inundated Read more
There are many reasons to pursue diabetes prevention—avoidance of the long-term vascular complications (blindness, renal failure, cardiovascular disease) and reduction in healthcare costs are frequently cited. And, of course, these are very important. But there’s another reason to prevent diabetes—the burden of living with diabetes, the day-to-day restrictions (dietary) and obligations (glucose testing, exercise, medications) Read more
Every Saturday morning, I see patients at the Bronx Transitions Clinic, which serves formerly incarcerated individuals. For most of my patients who are coming home from prison, acquiring stable housing and employment is a higher priority than managing their chronic illnesses. As a primary care physician, I may not be able to offer them jobs Read more
I boarded the 8:30 Metro-North Railroad train home from Manhattan recently after leaving a medical meeting. It had been a long and productive day, but now I was searching for a mint in my pocketbook because I had a weird taste in my mouth. All I found was a lollipop. Just before the train left Read more
Is immortality possible? If it is, is it desirable? Those are some of the provocative questions Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Nir Barzilai, M.D., recently explored before a live audience. Dr. Barzilai, professor of medicine and of genetics, director of Einstein’s Institute for Aging Research and an attending physician at Montefore Medical Center, spoke at a screening of the documentary Read more
