At @HarvardMuseum today, struck by a 1913 Emile Nolde piece of an entertainer. The description acknowledges that “Mulatto” is now offensive but whitewashes Germany’s colonial history. Berlin didn’t simply “attract” Black ppl as “entertainers.” There’s a violent history there. 1/ Otto Von Bismarck held the Berlin Conference in 1884-85, with the goal of regulating European countries’ conquest of Africa, so slicing Africa into pizza slices. By 1913, the German colonial empire occupied present day Togo, Cameroon, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Mozambique. 2/

🧵let’s go through a study together: new @JAMASurgery paper finds an association b/w sex discordance and adverse surgical outcomes (of death, readmission, 30-day complication). They hypothesized that female patients w/ male surgeons would do worse 1/ jamanetwork.com/journals/jamas… 2/ Looking at the population, the first red flag to me is that OBGYNs excluded. Yet, the 2 most common surgeries female patients undergo are cesarean sections and hysterectomies, by far. To answer this question, wouldn’t you want a balanced sample including most common surgeries?

🧵I’ve been writing OpEds in lay outlets for ~ 5 years now. By no means am I a “pro” at this, but here’s a thread on what I’ve learned from the writing and pitching process. The 1st is to not take rejection and lack of replies from editors personally. They get tons of pitches. 1/ 2nd is ideas are cheap. You and 10 other people may be sending the same pitch to the same editor. What makes you stand out is the quality of your pitch, and whether you make a good case for why *YOU* should be the one writing the article vs someone else. What’s your expertise? 2/

Something that struck me during my CCU block: We didn’t have a single Black patient, and nearly every patient was White. CCU patients are transferred in from other services, or from other hospitals. It’s a multifactorial issue mostly out of our CCU’s hands but it remains one 1/ Nationally, Black ppl are less likely than White ppl to be admitted to CCUs, even after adjusting 4 morbidities, health behaviors, previous hospitalization experience, & SES. When admitted,
they spend fewer days & a smaller proportion of🏥 stay in CCUs tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10… 2/

One way residents show each other love is via food. Bringing u lunch from noon conf if the ICU is too busy. Bringing cupcakes, cookies to comfort you on a 30hr call. Buying lunch when you’re on call. It’s so nice. Kinda reminds me of my friends getting hazed on line in college. In other words, we recognize that many aspects of training are harder than they need to be, but also recognize the limitations (or lack of will, wherewithal) from the ultimate powers that be 2 make things even marginally better. So we palliate the pain w/ solidarity & generosity.

one of the reasons why I’m not super excited abt graduation is that I have lacked community these last 5 years. I have solid bonds with individual classmates & faculty, but this lack of sense of community is literally what drove me to therapy 4 years ago. Hoping for better next. Our curriculum allowed us to really individualize our experience which sets us up for academic and professional success. But in the process, it fosters a hyper-individualistic culture which made it very hard to build & sustain community.

🚨 🧵 Re COVID-19 recovery: we are to face a mental health crisis that will disproportionately affect Black, Hispanic, Native, Philippine ppl. In this @TheLancetPsych piece led by @ShawnJohnsonBOS we focus on Post-ICU syndrome (PICS) + key solutions.thelancet.com/journals/lanps… 1/11 What is PICS? It’s an ensemble of mental and neuopsychiatric disorders that affect people who have been in the ICU, and their families too. Includes delirium, depression, anxiety, PTSD. People who are intubated (pretty common w/ COVID) have it the worst. 2/11