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Letter from NYC: Lessons learned ahead of possible future waves of COVID-19
On March 1, I drove down the Connecticut Turnpike in a rental car with my three sons. We had just left a somber family event, and I was listening to the news with eagerness as the initial COVID-19 invasion of…
Of moral distress, coronavirus and implications for burnout
Moral distress has been described as “as a phenomenon in which one knows the right action to take but is constrained from taking it.”1 Continuous exposure to moral distress leads to moral injury. The term “moral injury” was first described…
COVID-19 special: How to be a doctor at the end of the world
Vascular Specialist medical editor Malachi Sheahan III, MD, is no stranger to national and international emergencies—from New York City during both the 1990s AIDS crisis and the terrorist attack on 9/11, to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Here,…
Faith and flaw: The replication crisis is here
In 2011, a new research study proved the existence of precognition, also known as Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP). The manuscript was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a well-regarded peer-review journal with a high- impact factor. The author…
Which one are you: Giver, sharer, taker or matcher?
Throughout our careers—indeed even in our personal lives—we struggle to achieve a proper balance between being a giver, sharer, taker or matcher. Adam Grant, a professor specializing in organizational psychology in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,…
Am I my brother’s keeper? A skeptic’s call for peer support in vascular surgery
In the classic 1991 movie, “New Jack City,” drug dealer Nino Brown rhetorically asks his gang (the Cash Money Brothers), “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Nino’s subsequent murder spree suggests he was not. This well-known phrase first appeared in the…
Who won the Bouffant War? Science, snark, and sartorial folly in the debate over operative attire
A few years ago, hospitals around the country began to receive citations for improper operative attire. Ears exposed, arms exposed, nape of neck exposed, where did these regulations come from? The answer was AORN (Association of periOperative Registered Nurses). In…
The paclitaxel paradox
As medical editor of Vascular Specialist, it has always been my hope to use our excellent reporters and rapid production schedule to keep readers abreast of the latest news in vascular surgery. While my colleagues at the Journal of Vascular…
Death of a sales pitch
In 2000, the Institute of Medicine published “To Err Is Human,” a landmark study that warned that as many as 98,000 people die annually as a result of medical errors. One conclusion of the report stated, “When patients see multiple…
An open letter to our hospital consultants
Dear hospital consultants: Just thought I would write and give you a quick update on our situation, not that you asked. As you recall, a few years ago we spent many hours discussing and planning the Heart and Vascular Service…