“A Needed Response”

Public health is about keeping people safe...be it through immunizations, assuring clean water or preventing gun violence.  Here is another safety issue we need to address: A story about a friend... There was once a very protected girl.  She did not date until she was 18.   She was an innocent.  She told the boy …

The Power of Patient Blogs: A Window Into the Lived Experience

“Patient blogs reveal the true extent of the impact of cancer on finances, work practices, family life…they offer a window into the lived experience of the patient.” ~Marie Ennis-O’Connor When you are 34 years old, lecturing and working in Public Relations and Marketing at a University, you aren’t thinking about cancer.  Yet in 2004, Marie …

$375 Billion Worth of Value: Family Caregivers

"There are four kinds of people in this world: those who have been caregivers, those who currently are caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers." Rosalyn Carter First Lady Rosalyn Carter is both philosophical and truthful when she describes caregivers.  There are 66 million adults in the US who are …

Giving Back One Telemedicine Backpack at a Time

During a disaster, infrastructure, like electricity, water, roads and communication, may be damaged or destroyed.   Large crowds of people are in critical need. “Help can’t get to them and they can’t get to help,” Randy Roberson found. The social infrastructure is surely overwhelmed and chaotic without any command and control.  Medical care, which is desperately …

“Great Things Are Possible”

Ask a scholar of human rights a seemingly innocuous question and suddenly you are transported into another world.  As Nicholas Cooper observes,  “People in United States are more familiar with civil rights language, than human rights language.”  That’s what you’ll find while exchanging ideas with Cooper.  For example, when asked to define a “rights-based approach …

Blogging for Mental Health: Reframe the Discussion

Today I am responding to the call for bloggers... Join us on Wednesday, May 16, and publish a post on your blog about mental health’s importance, how we can diminish stigma, or the challenges of making lifestyle and behavior changes. Tell your story. Share your experience. Mental health affects everything we do. No matter what …

Action: Beyond Awareness

In the 80's and 90's I watched public broadcasting shows and tired of the environmental documentaries. Why? Because the documentaries left me depressed.  All the terrible changes were and still are occurring.  Man wasn't sharing the world but dominating it.  I was made aware but left hopeless with every documentary because there were no actions I could take to …

Light A Lamp

When I was younger, I would look at a mother playing with her baby and a warm feeling would come over me. I would just dwell in the experience of joy. Now I wonder about their life, their future, their heartaches to come.  That change occurred in me when a friend's son was born.  As …

Pull Over & Pay Taxes

A couple of days ago, I heard the waaah-waaah-waaah   of an Emergency vehicle. I pulled over. I then watched as other cars passed me, ignoring the Emergency, ignoring the people who were trying to get a victim of an accident or heart attack or whatever, to the hospital in time to save her.  I thought …

Fighting the Stigma of Mental Illness

Suicide has increased (largely due to the prolonged poor economic conditions) [Medical News Today] 90%+ of those who die by suicide have a diagnosable mental illness. [National Institute of Mental Health] One out of five people are dealing wth a mental illness in any given year... this means that EVERYBODY KNOWS SOMEBODY who is living with a mental illness! Of …

Bullying and TV

Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this …

Passion and Advocacy for Good: IpodTouch for Tele-Trauma

When it comes to innovation and passionate advocacy, Dr. Rafael J. Grossmann Zamora is a head above the rest.  As a specialist in Trauma and a Trauma Surgeon, he is on the front lines caring for and saving people who have been seriously injured.   Unfortunately Trauma Specialists are few and far between.  And this …

Memorial Day Weekend 2003

At four in the morning, she got a phone call from her sister-in-law, “Your husband is in the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit here.  You better come right away.”  She hurriedly gathered her 2 year old son and drove for two hours in a daze.  At the hospital, her husband was on oxygen, had tubes coming in …

Resilient?

Just a random thought... Have you heard people say Children are resilient...they bounce back...don't worry about them...? I have and I just want to say to those people If children are so resilient, why are so many adults in therapy?

Save A Life

This time of year reminds me of the time I taught an introductory course in persuasion at a nearby university.  I don’t know why, but a significant number of seniors filled out the roster.  Challenging and fun at the same time, I kept my learning curve just ahead of my students. One day, mid semester, …

Patient-Centered Medicine Part 2

The etymology of the word “Patient” is described on  Webster’s site  as: derived from the Latin word patiens, the present participle of the deponent verb pati, meaning "one who endures" or "one who suffers". Patient is also the adjective form of patience. Both senses of the word share a common origin. On Graduation Day, medical students become MDs and …

Patient-Centered Medicine Part 2

WE ARE ALL PATIENTS! The etymology of the word “Patient” is described on  Webster’s site  as: derived from the Latin word patiens, the present participle of the deponent verb pati, meaning "one who endures" or "one who suffers". Patient is also the adjective form of patience. Both senses of the word share a common origin. On Graduation Day, medical …

What happened to "old school" medicine?

Times they are a-changing.  My dad wouldn’t have liked what’s happening. C. A. Hoffman, Jr.  was an old-school physician.  Often, to the chagrin of his office staff, he spent real time with his patients.  Five o’clock would come and go. His office was busy and filled with his laughter and booming voice.  A ringing office …