Los Angeles Times

Remembering 9/11

On 9/11, doctors and nurses swarmed Bellevue Hospital, ready to help the injured from the twin towers. But we weren’t ready for happened next. More

Medicine Out of Context

I ducked into the ladies’ room at La Guardia Airport in New York for a pitstop before boarding my flight. Inside I encountered a housekeeper washing the floors. She flashed me a broad smile.

“Doctora,” she said, and then hesitated. I could see that she was waiting for a response. “Recuerdame?” More

Voice Mail: Blessing and Curse

Voice mail is both a blessing and a curse. When we were first given voice mail in our clinic, it was a revolution–patients could actually get in contact with their doctors. But sometimes voice mail is a ball and chain. More

At Bellevue, a hospital reflects a changing world

Though city hospitals invoke images of charity patients and substandard, last-resort medical care, the reality is quite different. More

Evidence-Based Medicine

Evidence-based medicine often induces more confusion than clarity. It also means different things to different people. More

A patient’s heartache, lost in translation

A conversation is a dance between two people, and it involves connection. Speaking through an interpreter, whether it be a human being in the room or a phone handed back and forth, doesn’t allow the same sort of connection. Patients are much less likely to reveal sensitive issues when there is a third-party in the conversation.

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The Patient vs The Illness

So often in medicine we make it sound like the patient is responsible for the clinical outcomes of their illness. More

Judgement Call

Is the quality of a judgment call determined only by the outcome? Or does it stand alone, with the outcome irrelevant? More