The AMHP Community Blog

We traveled to Turkey in the Fall of 2012 and made a 5 day stop at the Turkish-Syrian border not far from the ancient city of Antioch. We were to bring in medical supplies, assist, and learn from medical providers taking care of wounded Syrians. The now two-year-old Syrian revolution has created an extensive grassroots network of activists from within Syria, its neighboring countries, and the West. Our journey began with one activist, Dr. Ahmed, a veterinarian by trade. Due to the war and his medical skills, he subsequently took on the role of medic, nurse, doctor, and supply coordinator for wounded civilians and soldiers near the Turkish border.  At any given time, Dr. Ahmed cared for 10-15 postoperative patients in his single bedroom apartment. Most were rebel...

When I hear the word “retarded” used to describe someone or something that is unintelligent, silly or even as a filler-word when another adjective doesn’t suffice, it literally makes me cringe.  Worse yet is when I hear it being used to actually describe someone with a disability in a derogatory way.  As a physician, I am versed in the fact that long ago, the word used to be a simple clinical term to describe those with developmental delays or cognitive disabilities.  However, Urban dictionary reminds us that “stupid” and “wasted” have since been more predominant uses. During the 2011 NBA Finals, Miami Heat star Lebron James murmured, “that’s retarded” after listening to what he felt was a “stupid question” at a post-game press...

As you relax in front of the TV with your sandwich, chips and large diet soda you may think to yourself, “This meal isn’t as bad since I switched over to diet”.  But is this really true? Recent studies suggest that diet soda may not be the healthier alternative after all.  Most popular diet drinks also increase your risk of diabetes, stroke, myocardial infarction (heart attack) and vascular death to an alarming extent.  To begin with, there is nothing “diet” about diet soda.  The impact they may have on your health includes the following: They increase your appetite, leading to weight gain and a host of risk factors for cardiovascular events. They can increase your risk for osteoporosis; diet soda contains phosphoric acid, which prevents the...

Mental health is today’s hot topic given last Friday’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut.  The importance of this issue is no longer a topic for discussion but a topic for action.  It is imperative that our health care system create room for mental illness to be destigmatized, detected, treated, and prevented.  As I see it, the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease is great for the one who has it, yet the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses is great for the person, their family, and their entire community. Therefore, as we begin to focus detection of mental illness on high-risk individuals in order to prevent heinous crimes like those in Aurora, Colorado, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and Newtown, Connecticut, we cannot forget the importance of the mental...

The primary goal of any diversity training is to increase awareness of a different cultural group and its norms. The intention is both to lead to further inclusion of this cultural group into larger society, as well as create more collaborative work environments through deepened understanding of another culture. Diversity training on American Muslims for any healthcare professional will carry the core goal of enabling the healthcare professional to provide more effective service to a Muslim patient – regardless of whether the healthcare practitioner is non-Muslim or Muslim. Systematized Diversity Training Does Not Exist The American Muslim population is a fairly young one in many regards. Though Muslim immigration to the US dates as far back as the founding of...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the signature healthcare policy from the Obama      administration, yet it seems that much of the voting public is still unsure of what the plan actually entails. A large part of the problem is that the ACA addresses issues as diverse as funding for health information technology to controlling prescription costs. Fundamentally, the way that the ACA will impact voters most are in the provisions designed to contain healthcare costs for national and household budgets. Healthcare spending in the U.S. stands at 17.9% of GDP.  The rate of spending has increased over the decades, driven by rising prescription drug costs, a rise of chronic diseases and administrative costs that are higher than most western nations due to the...

The Republican healthcare ticket for Election 2012 profoundly contrasts with its Democratic counterpart on a host of key issues: Affordable Care Act (ACA) If elected, Governer Romney has pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), dubbed by many as ‘ObamaCare.’  His opposition stems largely from the Republican view that the latest major healthcare overhaul represents government intrusion in a free-market economy: “From its start, it (ObamaCare) was about power, the expansion of government control over one-sixth of our economy, and resulted in an attack on our Constitution, by requiring US citizens to purchase health insurance. It was the high-water mark of an outdated liberalism, the latest attempt to impose upon Americans a euro-style bureaucracy...