Brewing Informatics, Endocrinology and Everything Else!
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I’m rounding with the endocrinology fellows this May as the “consultant of the month.” We have from 50 to 70 patients in our census. If I meet the fellows for two hours twice a week, we still won’t be able to go through all of them! Usually we discuss difficult cases and mortalities. I try… Read More » The Loudest Silence At Rounds
At a conference last week, I watched an obstetrician-gynecologist demonstrate her AI avatar. As I understood it, the patient can log into the patient portal to view lab results and instead of having a static report, the AI avatar who looks like and talks like the physician (but is not), explains the results. I can… Read More » AI Physician Avatars: Innovation or Impostor?
“50-50 po ang pasyente natin.” When did I last hear that said? When did I last say it myself? I remember more than a decade ago, I did say that to the daughter of my patient. My elderly patient was admitted for UTI and she was septic. Her daughter kept saying to me, “But she’s… Read More » I Don’t Know: The Hardest Thing A Doctor Can Say
I remember coming across on Facebook a post on using a dead person’s social media presence to inhabit an AI persona. I think it was in China. In this way, the parents can still talk to their dead daughter. I didn’t click on it because I thought, what an absurd idea! But is it? I… Read More » Digital Ghosts: Our Online Afterlife
I signed up when I saw it. It had Leo Celi’s name. I didn’t check the time. Days before, Leo messaged me on WhatsApp to ask if I could be a coordinator. He said that this was to make sure I attended the entire conference. It started 9 am in Boston, which meant 10 pm… Read More » Sleepless in Manila … for an AI conference
I spend a lot of time talking about diabetes. Over the years, I’ve become more conscious of the words I use. Language shapes how we think about illness, how patients feel about themselves, and how we relate to each other in the clinical encounter. Uncontrolled. Pasaway. Matigas ang ulo.These words slip out, and they carry… Read More » The Language of Illness
We can keep patients safer by identifying problems and speaking up about them. But apparently, this systematic review found that previous literature have not really operationally defined “speaking up” in a consistent manner. The authors’ suggested definition is as follows – Therefore, our suggested definition for speaking up for patient safety was adapted from Law… Read More » Speaking Up for…
Every time it rains, I think about floods … and you know, what’s next. May araw din kayo! But for tonight, to keep it light at the #HealthXPH chat, I thought about AGIMAT. Agimat, bertud, o anting-anting ba? There are just some days where talismans, amulets, and charms seem to save our sanity as health… Read More » The Agimat That Keeps Us Going
Over the past years, I’ve had to work with multi-generational teams. I’m not always the oldest one, nor always the youngest. I find that working with younger people, keeps me young. It amuses them to teach me new lingo, just as they look surprised when I understand some new slang. Being a mother to sons… Read More » What did Gen X say to Gen Z?
I’ve been on social media long enough to see the “enshittification.” There is widespread anti-science sentiment, which can erode the trust we usually expect from our patients, as their physicians. Without trust, our patients can skip the medicines we prescribe or miss recommended followups. There is improvement in health outcomes when patients trust their physicians… Read More » Trust as Medicine
