In the midst of the country’s worst measles outbreak in 25 years, President Trump made an abrupt about-face on vaccinations. Before becoming president, he had spread vaccination fears by peddling anti-vaccine tropes on Twitter and meeting with anti-vaccine conspiracists.
Dr. Edward Ellison says U.S. doctors are “stressed to the point of breaking” because of rigorous work schedules and pressure. It’s estimated that a doctor dies by suicide every day in the United States, Ellison says. Physicians are often subjected to long work hours, which can lead to burnout and mental illness, he says.
Operating rooms at Seattle Children’s Hospital were shut down after discovery of Aspergillus, a fungus that can cause infections, hospital staff said Tuesday. "Last weekend, air tests detected Aspergillus in several operating rooms and equipment storage rooms at our main campus," hospital spokeswoman Alyse Bernal said in a statement.
African-Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but only 4 percent of American physicians are black. But does your doctor's race matter? Research shows it may, especially for black men, who are less likely to get preventive care, and die on average 4.5 years earlier than white men.
Siva Sundaram got his first lesson in addiction before he started medical school, when he worked at a wilderness program for teenagers who suffered from substance use disorders. During his two years there, he came to realize the kids were just like him, struggling with the same problems of identity, peer pressure, and independence — and that people with addiction are no different from those with other illnesses. That insight served him well when he arrived at Harvard Medical School in 2015, just as the ground was shifting in medical education.
Federal programs designed to cut costs and improve health by penalizing doctors and hospitals are failing at an alarming rate. Some of them actually harm patients, and many don’t cut costs. One in particular, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), may have caused thousands of deaths instead of preventing them, and probably hasn’t saved money during its seven years in operation.