Opinions

Aradhya Nigam Aradhya Nigam (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

Eastern Virginia Medical School




“The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”: The Making of a Silver Lining in Epilepsy

Published by Aradhya Nigam

Imagine an active neuron in the temporal lobe of the brain. This neuron receives a message through its dendrites and passes it to other neurons via its axons. This is the basic process of cell signaling. It shows the role of neurons and, more importantly, how neuronal disorders develop. Now imagine the neuron becomes overwhelmed by repetitive high priority messages. By the nature of cell signaling, it relays these messages to its many connected neurons. …

A Health Care System Alternative in the United States

Published by Joginder Singh

“Drain commissioner! What the heck is a drain commissioner? And why do the drains need a commissioner?” I had recently moved to a rural county in the United States to work as a physical therapist, and as I read through the advertisements in the local paper for electoral offices, this one particularly intrigued me. As a young boy growing up in India, I remember electoral politics being an ever-present topic of discussion at home. So, …

What We Mean When We Say “Not Even” in Abortion Legislation

Published by Larissa Mattei

According to the Guttmacher Institute, there have been more anti-choice bills passed in the past two years than in the past decade. Ninety-three up from to 22, to be exact. The majority of these restrictions target abortion providers in an effort to close clinics and limit public access. Specifically, these are known as “TRAP” laws: “Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers.” Others limit insurance coverage while the ones that often garner the loudest public outcry seek …

medical cannabis

Medical Cannabis: A Matter of Patients, Not Politics (Part 3/3)

Published by Arielle Gerard

Please read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series “Medical Cannabis: A Matter of Patients, Not Politics.” Organizational Support for Medical Cannabis Legalization Many organizations, including some of the most prestigious in the country, support the legalization of medical cannabis. Here is a partial list with their takes on the issue: New England Journal of Medicine 1997 “Federal authorities should rescind their prohibition of the medical use of marijuana for seriously ill …

How to Sell Your Kidney: A Brief Overview of the Iranian Model for Kidney Transplantation

Published by Bobak Zonnoor

Let’s imagine that you are one of the 115,000 people on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could go on Craigslist and type in “kidney” under the sales section? Well if you are a law-abiding citizen and your life is dependent on a kidney, you have only one legal option: travel to Iran, the only country where buying (and selling) kidneys is legal. Kidney transplant is …

medical cannabis

Medical Cannabis: A Matter of Patients, Not Politics (Part 2/3)

Published by Arielle Gerard

Please read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series “Medical Cannabis: A Matter of Patients, Not Politics.” Cannabis as Medicine The health benefits of medical cannabis have been reported since 2737 B.C., when Chinese Emperor Shen Nung began to record its uses. These possible medical uses include the following: assists in decreasing nausea, vomiting, and pain, increases appetite, assists patients with insomnia, produces short-term reduction of intraocular eye pressure, has anti-anxiety properties, …

SaveGME: Graduate Medical Education is Imperative for Physician Training, Patient Care and Public Health

Published by Manik Aggarwal

Every current fourth-year medical student in the country marked March 17, 2014 and March 21, 2014 on their calendars a long time ago. The first date tells students if they matched into residency and if they will begin their training program this July. The second date tells students where they will ultimately live, breathe and work for the next three to seven years as a member of the hospital’s housestaff. My personal journey to March …

medical cannabis

Medical Cannabis: A Matter of Patients, Not Politics (Part 1/3)

Published by Arielle Gerard

Please read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of this series “Medical Cannabis: A Matter of Patients, Not Politics.” Due to the potential of medical cannabis to provide relief to millions of patients in the United States, the need for state and federal governments to immediately increase research and legalize medical cannabis prescription is imperative. In this three-part series of articles, I will outline (1) the history of medical cannabis law in the United …

Medicare SGR Repeal and What It Means for Our Future

Published by Ryan Denu

Here’s the problem: Medicare’s physician payment formula has not been working. Since 1992, Medicare has reimbursed physicians on a fee-for-service basis. In 1997, Congress implemented the sustainable growth rate (SGR) to control Medicare spending and make sure that growth in physician reimbursement does not exceed growth in the gross domestic product (GDP). This is problematic because the cost of medical care in the United States has increased faster than its GDP. In fact, health care …

The SGR: What Happens in Washington, D.C. Now Could Affect the Rest of Your Career

Published by Mark Kashtan

If you’ve happened across any political news outlets in the past month or two you may have seen some headlines about something called “SGR.” Perhaps more likely, you may remember in years past hearing political pundits or reporters talking about a “doc fix.” In fact, both of these are the same thing, and if you’ve heard those terms thrown about more than once it might be because the issue has come up at least once a year …

Keeping The Night At Bay: Medicine and Suicide

Published by Jocelyn Mary-Estelle Wilson

“How do we [become a society that produces people] that are young and beautiful and hate themselves?” – Dr. John Green “Well, I always say, it would be good to go away. But if things don’t work out like we think And there’s nothing here to ease the ache But it there’s nothing there to make things change If it’s the same for you I’ll just hang.” – Matchbox Twenty I finished reading “Night Falls …

Ethics in Training: Creating Humanistic Practitioners from Competent Clinicians

Published by Haris Ashraf

Medical training prides itself on being an art, never simply a black-and-white field where answers to increasingly complex health questions are merely algorithmically derived. It follows then that the only way for medical knowledge to transcend this rigid, computational process is through the accumulation of clinical experience, which over enough time should inform our intuition to the point where we become masters of navigating a sea of grays. This archetype is classically understood to be …

Haris Ashraf (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine

I am a Class of 2016 medical student at the Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine interested in ethics, politics and medical anthropology.