Contributing Writer
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Joshua Niforatos is a medical student at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, he eventually made his way to University of New Mexico (UNM) where he earned bachelor degrees in both cultural anthropology and biology. He then went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies at Boston University School of Theology where he studied theology, anthropology, and ritual.
I approach the holiday season with apprehension; it conjures up memories from my youth of disunity, abandonment and what seems like intractable melancholy and disappointment. King Solomon in the book of Proverbs, which is in the Ketuvim of the Hebrew Bible, states that “hope deferred makes the heart sick,” and merely writing these sentiments produces a visceral feeling of a sick, empty heart.
These words, spoken by Dr. Gabrielle McMullin, a vascular surgeon in Australia, refer to a recent case wherein a female surgical resident won a case against a surgeon accused of sexually assaulting her in the Melbourne hospital where they both worked. Ironically, winning this workplace harassment lawsuit has made it impossible for the surgical resident, Caroline Tan, to find a job. In the surgical profession, speaking up against assault has resulted in Tan being labeled not as a victim or a brave woman who spoke up, but as a troublemaker.
December 10, 2015 marks the one-year anniversary of the inception of White Coats for Black Lives, a national organization of medical students that aims to eliminate racial bias and racism in the practice of medicine — as they are threats to the health and well-being of people of color.
One year ago, on December 10, 2014, over 3,000 medical students participated in the National White Coat Die-In. We knelt to the ground, rested our backs on concrete and tile, looked up at the ceiling and contemplated what it meant to be a citizen. We embraced a deafening silence pregnant with the implications of erasure. Our bodies, cloaked in the privilege of a white coat, painted a complicated image of advocacy and appropriation.
Our American democracy was founded on the promise of freedom of religion, a conviction that invites immigrants from all over the world and enables our country to grow and prosper. Our health care system is strong because we celebrate that diversity — understanding diverse perspectives and cultural practices is fundamental to providing the highest quality of care. Today, hatred and xenophobia have been thrust into our daily lives in a way that degrades our common humanity and impairs our ability to work together.
My friend, Valerie Schwartz, and I stumbled on the importance of collaborative thinking while we spent our usual afternoon quizzing each other and discussing patient cases during our pediatrics rotation. “At what age can babies start to use non-specific ‘mama’ and ‘dada’?” As I sifted through my knowledge bank, a third friend decided to throw me a lifeline. I thought it was 10 months, he thought it was six months. So, we decided to compromise. We landed on six months after deliberations.
Over 120,000 adults and children are waiting for an organ in the United States, and another patient needing an organ is added to the transplant list every ten minutes. On average, about 20 Americans die every day from the lack of available organs for transplant. Specific to kidney transplant, it has been estimated that by 2015, over 700,000 Americans will have end stage renal disease and over 26 million will have some form of chronic kidney disease.
Health care providers and patients alike have been physically and emotionally frustrated when dealing with health care’s rising cost. Legislative restrictions based on cost often defy logic and common sense in a way that most people have never encountered. But, what is it specifically about the health care market that gives us these fundamentally perverse situations?
The Ontario government is cutting physician services. Two rounds of unilateral fee cuts, with the most recent on October 1, saw physician fees cut by 1.3 percent. Different from other public sector employees, physicians have a commitment to patient care, limiting their legal and ethical ability to take job action. As a medical student not currently earning a salary — but rather paying $24,000 a year in tuition — and junior member of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), I can only passively observe the reaction of many doctors in Ontario to these cuts, and the accompanying provincial government’s almost apathetic response.
As a native New Yorker, I was thrilled when last month Governor Cuomo announced plans for an executive order that prohibits discrimination against transgender people. This executive order would apply to issues such as employment and housing, expand existing anti-discrimination protections to include gender identity, transgender status and gender dysphoria.
Soon Floridians will be heading to the polls to vote in the upcoming election. Among important positions that will be voted upon, the decision to allow the sale of medical marijuana to qualified patients will be one of them. Currently there are 23 states that legalized the use of medical marijuana, including Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. In the previous general election of 2014, Florida marginally missed legalizing marijuana: 57 percent of voters said yes, but it takes 60 percent to make it into law.
Most medical students understand the preclinical years barely resemble anything they will encounter for the remainder of their professional careers. Beginning in the third year, learning is done in the hospitals and the clinics, and is no longer confined to the classrooms and laboratories. During this time, many of us will be thrust into the middle of a complex network of relationships between physicians, nurses, staff, administrators and patients. Our relationship with these various groups is often well-defined. There is, however, a hospital presence that we get little to no information regarding: health industry representatives.
Contributing Writer
Drexel University College of Medicine
