Locking down at home was nothing new for many workers. As caregivers, some of us had been in quasi lockdown for years before 2020, unable to leave the house for more than 1-2 hours to meet the needs of loved ones requiring constant care. That said, at one point while caregiving for my father it…Continue reading Wound care’s growing potential to hold workers hostage →

My connection with my former neighbor deepened in the parking garage: With one load of groceries by the elevator, she was trudging from her car with load #2 with baby on hip and phone to ear. Not wanting to interrupt her conversation, I mouthed, “I got it,” while relieving her of a bag carrying a…Continue reading Starting a personal village in five simple steps →

Walter refused what would have been his 9th hospital admission that year. “You run a great hospital, Doc,” he said to Bruce Leff, “but it’s a lousy hotel.” It was the ‘80s and Leff, a Johns Hopkins geriatrician who was then a resident, responded by working with his mentors to assemble everything that Walter would…Continue reading Making a normal day ideal for someone →

In grad school, I did a seminar on a paper proposing a novel kind of gene therapy. A doctor in the audience all but said that I was wasting my breath because the technology to deliver the treatment didn’t exist. I got confused: the whole point was that the idea was novel. Still, I didn’t…Continue reading Defer to imagination, not conditions →