Even with lawsuits and co-pay caps, will Insulin ever be affordable?

The sausage-making of how insulin is priced is not for the faint of heart. I’m a physician, not an economist. But the diagnosis seems plain as day: greed. Once we’ve allowed health care to be an economic entity like mobile phones, sports cars, and jewelry, all players with fingers in the pie will extract as much money from the process as the market will bear. More

Serving Patients Through a Screen

Years ago, when telemedicine first edged into my clinical consciousness, I pooh-poohed it as a second-rate simulacrum, valuable perhaps for rural communities lacking access to specialists, but otherwise hardly worth the crinkly exam paper it was replacing. I’ve staked my entire career on the irreplaceable value of the connection between patient and clinician. But I’ve changed…. More

“When We Do Harm” in Russian

привет Privet! Beacon Press is excited to announce that “When We Do Harm” is now available in Russian! More

“When We Do Harm” in Japanese

こんにちは Kon’nichiwa! Beacon Press is excited to announce that “When We Do Harm” is now available in Japanese! More

Access to Primary Care

“Doctor, it’s taken so long to get this appointment with you!” This is the opening line of so many medical visits, and I find myself constantly apologizing to my patients on behalf of our system. After the pandemic-induced lull in routine medical care, we’re right back where we started—doctors booked for months, patients struggling to get appointments. More

Memorializing Covid

COVID-19 does not seem amenable to grand memorials, at least right now. Perhaps because the millions of deaths from COVID-19 have been diffused so widely, often in isolation—and of course still ongoing—the memorials that are starting to crop up are very human in scale. More

I Feel Safest (re Covid) in My Own Hospital

When it comes to Covid, our patients seem to be moving on. We healthcare workers, however, don’t have that option, as Covid is now the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Covid may not be the only thing on our mind as it was at the outset, but it’s still part of every staff meeting, every communication, every clinical day. More

Being a Nurse and a Patient

Join Danielle Ofri for a fascinating interview with Theresa Brown, RN, about her new book, “Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient.” Brown has been an oncology nurse and a hospice nurse, as well as an op-ed writer for the New York Times and author of two best-sellers: “The Shift” and “Critical Care. More

Covid: Primary Sources

The Covid Pandemic at Two Years: A conversation about creativity in the face of a global pandemic, from both artists and healthcare workers who experienced it firsthand. More

“What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear” in Japanese

こんにちは Kon’nichiwa! Beacon Press is excited to announce that “What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear” is now available in Japanese! More

“What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear” in Chinese

你好 Nǐ hǎo! Beacon Press is excited to announce that “What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear” is now available in Chinese! More

“What Doctors Feel” in Chinese

你好 Nǐ hǎo! Beacon Press is excited to announce that “What Doctors Feel” is now available in Chinese! More

The Beauty of Medical Language

The clinical language is so dry that it sticks in my throat like the grits they used to serve in our hospital cafeteria. It handily abides by our hospital’s infection control guidelines; the writing is so sterile that nary a staphylococcus could hope to achieve mitosis in its midst. It is as though the practitioners of the scientific literature of medicine reached a covert agreement to ban even the slightest of hint of creativity, the slimmest suggestion of beauty. Of course, it was not always that way… More

Imagining Vesalius

While we typically envision the brain as a palpable whole, the spidery latticework of nerves is a more ephemeral affair. At best the nerves come across as limp linguini, flopping languidly over whatever bone, muscle or organ offers a convenient landing pad. Seeing the nervous system entirely disembodied is revelatory. More

Words That Move Us

From beloved songs to unforgettable headlines, from great speeches to hilarious jokes, and beyond, what are the words that move you? Danielle Ofri in conversation with Black Thought, Josh Gondelman and Ammon Shea. More

Books by Danielle Ofri

Subscribe