Author Archive

“I know I blow up and get angry. I am protective about my patients and the physicians in my department and I can’t help myself.”

Dr. Leonard was one of my coaching clients, a surgeon who had left a trail of destruction by his combative style everywhere – the operating room, staff meetings and medical executive meetings.

“I’m a leader in my surgical specialty. People expect me to be forceful.”

I asked, “What do you look for in a good leader?”

“I want someone who listens to me, who looks at all options without stuffing his solution down my throat. I want someone who is calm, thoughtful and . . .”

After a long pause I heard “Oh.” (more…)

The demand for patient voices is on the rise as hospitals and dialysis centers, research teams and health care advisory groups face requirements to document our participation in governance and program decisions. And many of us have stepped forward to take on these roles.

Some of us do so as victims of horrific medical errors or uncoordinated care resulting in injury or from disrespectful care that undermines all confidence in health professionals and institutions. We want to make sure what happened to us or our child never happens to anyone else.

Some of us are heroes, defiantly wearing Jimmy Choo stilettos to chemotherapy or battling our over-extended doctors to ferret out a cure for our or our mom’s disease. We want to demonstrate that with a ton of chutzpah, considerable energy and a little luck, we patients can overcome some of the limitations of health care and live to tell the tale. (more…)

A lot went on in the health care world this week, from a 10-year-old girl getting a lung transplant to a SCOTUS ruling on gene patenting to continued discussions and commentary on ACA and its implementation. With all this going on, chances are you might have missed some of the other stories. We’ve got you covered…

Surgeon General Regina Benjamin is stepping down as of next month.  Her efforts over the last four years have impacted the lives of all Americans. Politico has more on this.

Kaiser Health News ran an article on hospitalist Dr. Zubin Damania and his alter ego, ZDoggMD, who using satire sings about everything from insurance paperwork to prostate cancer. (more…)

Recently, I was asked to see a male patient that complained of upper abdominal pain and “indigestion”. When I interviewed the patient he informed me that his pain moved to his chest and spread to his jaw, he had numbness in his right arm, and reported feeling faint, dizzy, and occasionally short of breath. The middle-aged man was a smoker, had parents and siblings with heart disease, and he had high blood pressure. Further testing confirmed my suspicion that he was having a heart attack and indeed had the classic symptoms of severe chest pain spreading to his jaw, numbness in the arms, and lightheadedness, dizziness, and shortness of breath.  In contrast, I have treated women patients that had a heart attack without the classic symptom of chest pain that reported only fatigue. The symptoms of a heart attack can be subtle in women, vary among individuals, and heart disease increases your risk. Therefore, knowing more about heart disease and heart health is empowering. (more…)

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is an innovative delivery model at the heart and center of health care reform legislation. It focuses on delivering higher-quality, cost-effective primary care, particularly for patients with chronic health conditions. This month, DW recognizes a leader in the PCMH movement, Dr. Michael Barr. Dr. Barr, a nationally recognized expert,  has worked in the movement and an influential player leading policy development and advocacy for the PCMH in health reform efforts.  For June’s Man of the Month, DW sat down with Dr. Barr and spoke with him about his work in the field. (more…)

“Before the World Was Made” by William Butler Yeats is a portion of a larger work – “A Woman Young and Old” – that told a tale of a woman’s experiences and experimentations in life from her childhood to her death.  Though the entire work is brilliant, this particular piece has always resonated with me.  It speaks to the ideas within our society in which for decades, if not centuries, we as a society have asked women, if not demanded, to be the object of our (male) affections. Ironically, we have done this while simultaneously resenting them if and when they are swept into the vanity that may ultimately develop from such a pursuit.  I have often questioned this concept and how it affects the way I perceive beauty and image.  Am I wrong if I ever overlook a woman’s inner qualities for physical beauty?  Should we as a society make a greater effort to reset the norm on what it means to be beautiful?  What degree do I play a role in the overall national discussion?  And ultimately, how does body image affect me?

I live in the greater Washington D.C. area.  Any night of the week and nearly any time of day you can find yourself surrounded by interesting people.  This is a city for the passionate and the driven.  As such, I am constantly surrounded by women with unparalleled drive; many of which are the best and brightest in their respective careers.  In those moments, I bring myself to reflect on attraction and Mr. Yeats’s thoughts of what we as men look for in women. (more…)

There are celebrations for anything and everything these days like ‘National Dance Like A Chicken Day’ and ‘Lost Sock Memorial Day’. All we need is an excuse to celebrate! So how about channeling our efforts on celebrating something that is meaningful and otherwise largely ignored?

June is the season for Men; it is Men’s Health Month. If you are racking your brains on how to celebrate this, we can offer a few suggestions. Men may not particularly care about cards and flowers, but let’s quietly or publicly acknowledge the important role they play in our lives. A little appreciation goes a long way. We can start by thanking them for all their hard work and sacrifice in providing for their families. Since Father’s Day falls right in the middle of this awareness period, we could give him the best gift of all: the gift of health. We should encourage him to visit a health care professional, to eat healthy and to exercise often. And let’s not forget to practice what we preach and set an example for him. That’s one of the only ways to get through to him. (more…)

June 10-16 is National Men’s Health Week. While DW is a recognized platform for health care topics by women leaders, we would like to take this week to recognize the importance of health for the other half of the population. As such, for this week and this week alone, we are posting information on men’s health. During this week, you will hear about:

• Information about Men’s Health Week
• Body image from the male perspective
• The Man of the Month
• eHealth Literacy
• Questions to ask your doctor

“Recognizing and preventing men’s health problems is not just a man’s issue. Because of its impact on wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters, men’s health is truly a family issue.” Congressman Bill Richardson

This week DW attended Health Datapalooza. If you weren’t able to attend or didn’t catch our live tweets we’ve got you covered! Check out or summary post.

On Monday, President Obama tried to elevate the importance of mental health. In his remarks he said the treatment of mental health problems should be the same as going to the doctor for a broken bone. Politico has more on this.

NIH Director Francis Collins, in an unusual occurrence, disagreed with the federal government having to do with the research ethics of a controversial study of more than 1,300 severely premature infants. The NPR Shots Blog has the details. (more…)

“I’m just a bad kid.”  The words so effortlessly escaped her lips that they caught me off guard.  Although I remained visibly calm, my eyes burned as I struggled to hold back tears.  Although this was my first conversation with Natalie (I have changed her name to protect her identity), over the course of an hour I learned about her troubles in school and at home and a past riddled with emotional and sexual abuse. This caused her to be distrustful of adults.  At the mere age of 14 and only in the eighth grade, she had run away from home more times than she remembered.

As I continued my conversation with Natalie, it became evident that she had formed her ideas about herself based on negative experiences with the world around her. She saw herself as unattractive, unintelligent and unlovable.  Although I was saddened and somewhat shocked by Natalie’s assessment and articulation of her value and worth, in my work with “high opportunity” young people, I have found that this perspective is unfortunately not uncommon.  Having been an insecure teenaged girl at some point in my life, I can relate to some aspects of Natalie’s image of herself. However, my life experience was in no way parallel to that of Natalie or her peers. (more…)

Health Datapalooza IV just wrapped up here in Washington, DC, and we’ve been following it closely, both as a media partner and as an interested spectator. For those of you who are just learning about it, Health Datapalooza is an annual conference featuring innovations in the use of health data and advocating for open data to spur future innovations and improve health care. It’s organized by the Health Data Consortium, a collaboration of government, non-profit, and private sector organizations working to liberate health data and put it to good use.

The panels and break-out sessions were informative, and gave a good sense of why open data is important and how it’s currently being used for consumer engagement, better health outcomes, and more. But the real stars of the show were the start-ups and innovators who were there to participate in various challenges. That is, after all, what open data is all about; once you get it, how do you use it? (more…)

One scroll through your Facebook or Twitter news feed and you’d think the world was going crazy. People share their addresses, their heated political commentaries, and strange pictures of cats or food that seem to have absolutely no relevance to their lives or yours. Despite this, last March, I stood up on the stage at TEDxCollegeofWilliamandMary and spoke about the potential of using crowdsourcing technology to save lives.

About two years, ago, I started the Lunas Project—an integrative disaster management platform that leverages crowdsourcing technology, SMS messaging, and mapping tools to improve disaster relief in developing countries. The system has four main competencies: (1) text message warnings to even remote populations, (2) a crisis map that collects emergency reports from social media and texts to better coordinate rescue and relief operations, (3) a road status map where people can upload photos, videos and news links of roads being down or alternate routes that they know of, and finally (4) a donor portal to connect willing donors across the globe to local stores on the ground. (more…)

Summer is here for most of us here in the U.S. which means it is time to whip out the sunscreen, but before you do read this from the New York Times. It covers the new rules that apply to sunscreen use.

Earlier this week NPR detailed how the White House is gearing up for a massive campaign to sell Obamacare to the public. The campaign will take place this summer and will cover all 50 states, plus DC.  The article states that the President’s legacy is tied to the success of Obamacare and public perception of it.

The Washington Post wrote about a young opera singer who is able to perform better than ever thanks to the lungs she received from a middle-aged Honduran woman. Read more about this amazing story here. (more…)

WHO: BeGreen 2013 Participants

WHAT: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Green for All and Amplify Public Affairs are asking all BeGreen 2013 participants to submit pledge-related campaign photos for the BeGreen 2013 Photo Challenge. (Read our blog post on the pledge here.)

Participants should submit a photo of them completing their BeGreen 2013 pledge (i.e. installing a rain barrel; switching out energy inefficient incandescent light bulbs in favor of LED or CFL alternatives; e-cycling unwanted electronics; organizing an environmental education event; or reducing your carbon footprint by walking, biking or using public transportation instead of driving).

The winners will have their photo featured on www.BeGreen2013.com,  which will be relaunching soon. (more…)

It may be your health, but that doesn’t stop state and federal policymakers from making important decisions that affect it almost daily. We all have to stay informed if we want to be involved in the process. What our lawmakers decide can have deeply personal impacts on our health care and on our lives, and that is why DW is pleased to introduce a new feature, which will keep you in the know on key state and federal legislative actions that may impact health care or health policy. (more…)