Archive
Perspectives in Primary Care features writing from practitioners, activists, and community members representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the United States and around the world.
The Changing Landscape of Telehealth Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
Merv is my 94-year-old patient living in Washington, D.C. in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, attempting to continue his treatments for diabetes, hypertension, and leukemia. He’s at significantly increased risk for severe COVID infection, though fortunately, due to Medicare’s
Hospital Visitor Policies in the Context of COVID-19: Ensuring Support & Promoting Health Equity for Laboring Patients
After working the night shift, Mandy, now five months pregnant, travels close to two hours on public transportation to make it to her prenatal appointments. The day before, I send her a text message with a reminder and ask whether she plans to get the gumbo special of the day or a grilled cheese with tomato from the hospital’s surprisingly delicious cafeteria. As a first-year medical student, I am participating in a program that trains me to provide additional support to a pregnant patient who I’m partnered ...
Birth Equity Requires Hard Truths and New Leadership
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States is finally experiencing a cultural shift in consciousness and awareness of racial disparities. And meanwhile, the maternal health community’s reckoning with racism is accelerating. Black women in the United States die from pregnancy-related complications at
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Why Harvard Medical School Could Be a Perfect Place to Train Family Medicine Physicians
In 1965, Harvard Medical School (HMS) had a thriving Family Medicine & Primary Care Residency—a visionary program that was strongly rooted in serving the vulnerable populations surrounding the HMS campus. Resident physicians trained to provide outpatient primary care across the life spectrum, working in partnership with Boston Children’s Hospital, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and Boston Lying-In Hospital (the latter two of which are Brigham & Women’s predecessor institutions). ...