It has been almost two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This global health crisis continues to expose the vulnerabilities of health systems worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries such as the Philippines. While advanced hospital-based health care is required in treating the life-threatening complications of severe COVID-19, it is a

Every day in the hospital, and during every visit to the clinic or emergency room, we pay scrupulous attention to your vital signs: heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. These numbers are the bedrock of understanding what is happening with a patient’s health. We should add another number to this group: the Adverse Childhood Event (ACE) score. The significance of Adverse Childhood Event (ACE) scores The ACE score was developed in California ...

Mindfulness, in its simplest construct, is generally defined as deliberate present moment awareness, without judgment, coupled with curiosity about what arises. Yet, this seemingly reasonable and scientifically studied approach to living fully, being authentic, and “embracing what is” translates into a minefield when the starkness of such ...

From April 2020-2021, 100,306 parents, spouses, siblings, friends, colleagues, and neighbors in the United States died from fatal overdose—a 28.5% increase from the year ...

Patients tell me all the time that our health care infrastructure needs reformation. Many people, including myself, would agree with that statement, but reformed to what? As a Patient Access Specialist at

The time reads 8:30 am. Walking down the pediatric wards as a third-year medical student, it is easy to get lost in the routine. Step by step with the rest of the medical team on morning rounds, I report an elevated direct bilirubin outside the patient room of a young newborn whose liver is looking a little “junky” to say the least. “His belly is soft and non-distended,” I report.

Matamoros, Mexico: The living conditions of displaced migrants Poverty, violence, natural disasters, and political instability are all forces that have led to mass migration and displaced populations globally. In the Americas, migrants crossing from Honduras into Mexico face a number of personal safety and health concerns, including a high risk of sex trafficking, ...

Epidemiology, the broad study of disease incidence and causality, has long formed the backbone of public health. Its rapid tabulations and population-level insights have made it an enduring discipline, which often shapes health policies across the globe. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has reasserted epidemiology’s relevance in disease control and prevention. As we have all ...

“There was so much information out there, I didn’t know what to do. I just wish someone had convinced me to get the vaccine,” said a COVID-19 patient we cared for a few days after he had been transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU). Each day, we slowly turned up his oxygen. Each day, he could only manage a few words at a time as the virus, that has come to dominate all of our lives, ravaged his lungs. Every patient we have had in the ICU with COVID-19 in the last few months has been unvaccinated. Our team developed a practice of asking our unvaccinated patients why ...