3:30 am – Wake up. 4:00 am – Leave apartment. 4:15 am – Arrive at hospital. 4:20 am – Print out the patient list. 4:21 am – Split the list of 50 patients with your partner; go to a computer and write down every patient’s 24-hour vital signs, any reported fevers and what was done, what…

Figure 1 Quiz of the Week A 38-year-old man presents with itchy, scaly lesions on his elbows and small, erythematous papules in the web spaces of his fingers.   Image credit: @RamonaNP. Answer: Scabies Scabies is caused by the tick Sarcoptes scabiei, that burrows into human skin where it lays its eggs. The inflammation is caused…

By: Maria Filippa Trikantzopoulou Politics has never been on my radar. After all, I have a degree in engineering and just began a career in medicine; it never occurred to me that I could be involved in policy-making and grassroots organizing.   Well, at least that is what I thought—until I came to realize how…

Figure 1 Quiz of the Week A 28-year-old male presents with a three-month history of a chronic cough and weight loss. Upon further discussion, he mentions a painless lump in his left testicle. A firm mass is felt in the left testis on examination. A chest X-ray reveals the pulmonary lesions seen here and a…

Figure 1 Quiz of the Week A 60-year-old man presents to the emergency department with worsening shortness of breath and a non-productive cough. He has congestive heart failure and was treated three weeks earlier at a neighboring hospital. On examination, he has normal vital signs and marked bilateral pitting lower limb edema. A chest X-ray…

The problem A majority of physicians struggle with language barriers, often with the 45 million Spanish-speakers in the United States. The risks of miscommunication are too high in the hospital setting to ignore. What can you do? Patient-centered care requires meaningful communication. Practice your medical Spanish terminology with this short quiz, courtesy of Canopy Learn,…