Longer Looks: A Model For Finding Black Doctors; Kitty Dukakis And Shock Therapy
Each week, KHN's Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
The New York Times Magazine:
A Prescription for More Black Doctors
Today, Xavier’s campus is mostly wedged between a canal and the Pontchartrain Expressway in Gert Town, a neighborhood in the western part of New Orleans. It has some 3,000 students and consistently produces more black students who apply to and then graduate from medical school than any other institution in the country. More than big state schools like Michigan or Florida. More than elite Ivies like Harvard and Yale. Xavier is also first in the nation in graduating black students with bachelor’s degrees in biology and physics. It is among the top four institutions graduating black pharmacists. It is third in the nation in black graduates who go on to earn doctorates in science and engineering. (Nikole Hannah-Jones, 9/9)
Politico Magazine:
Michael Dukakis’ Final Campaign
It was June 2001 when “Jane Dee” checked into Massachusetts General Hospital at her own insistence. The 64-year-old woman, who had suffered from severe depression for 17 years, wanted to be hospitalized to ensure she didn’t drink away her fear of what was planned for the next day. … Jane Dee, though, was no ordinary patient. She had tried—sometimes unsuccessfully—to keep her history of depression and drug and alcohol abuse out of the public eye during her husband’s political career. Now that her husband was out of office, she had an even bigger secret: shock therapy. … Within a few years of that first treatment, Kitty Dukakis—the wife of 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis—decided she didn’t want to be anonymous anymore. ... In the process, the Dukakises have found themselves to be the unexpected champions of one of the most controversial and misunderstood—but highly effective—procedures in modern medicine. (Jennifer Haberkorn, 9/3)
The New York Times:
Adult, Autistic And Ignored
[C]hildren with autism have been growing up for over 50 years. Roughly 500,000 children with autism will become adults over the next 10 years, and as they step through the door of age 21, they’ll find themselves inheritors of a sad paradox. The variety of federally mandated supports and services (under the aegis of the Department of Education) available to them until then will have expired; the source of their funding will switch to the far smaller pie of state-by-state money. These resources, along with Medicaid and Social Security, are more fragmented and difficult for families to navigate. So the financial support — used to train them for jobs, find housing, obtain therapy and counseling — will dwindle at the exact moment in time they need it most. (Eli Gottlieb, 9/5)
The Atlantic:
The Invisible Storm Of The Neurotic Mind
For much of his life, Isaac Newton seemed like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In 1693, the collapse finally arrived: After not sleeping for five days straight, Newton sent letters accusing his friends of conspiring against him. He was refraining from publishing books, he said at one point that year, “for fear that disputes and controversies may be raised against me by ignoramuses.” Newton was, by many accounts, highly neurotic. Brilliant, but neurotic nonetheless. He was prone to depressive jags, mistrust, and angry outbursts. (Olga Khazan, 9/3)
Vox:
How The Pro-Life Movement Is Winning – Even With Obama In Office
Abortion rights activists have long cheered Barack Obama's presidency as a "historic victory for women's health." But the reality has been rather different. Since 2010, getting an abortion in America has become significantly harder. States passed a record 205 abortion restrictions between 2011 and 2013, more than the entire 30 years prior. As a result, many abortion providers are closing down. One survey, from pro-life group Operation Rescue, estimates that 87 separate locations ceased to perform surgical abortions in 2013. These changes are a clear result of pro-life mobilization in the Obama era. (Sarah Kliff, 9/8)
The New York Times:
A Doctor At His Daughter’s Hospital Bed
I know I shouldn’t be my daughter’s doctor. They taught us the problems with that during my first week in medical school. It’s a really bad idea, especially in high-risk situations. There are a few exceptions; like, it’s probably O.K. to sew up your child’s cut on vacation or to hand out antibiotics for uncomplicated infections. ... But right now, I don’t care about any of that. I’m the one with experience taking care of really sick patients, and if I know she needs more fluids, she’s going to get them. (Bud Shaw, 9/5)
Vox:
I Thought All Anti-Vaxxers Were Idiots. Then I Married One.
Almost everyone believes the following: Vaccines are a good and necessary part of medicine. Some people, and more people every day, believe this, too: Those who don't believe in the virtues of vaccines — anti-vaxxers — are ignorant and dangerous lunatics, possibly evil. I spent most of my life believing that. ... Then I married an anti-vaxxer. Here's what I learned. (Adam Mongrain, 9/4)
Complex:
Booty-Lifting For The Snapchat: The Social Hustle Of Dr. Miami
As Dr. Miami enters the room to begin, two more staff members join him—his assistant and his social media manager—wearing surgical masks and hair caps and toting iPhones, ready to document the surgery for Snapchat. … Maybe not the smell, but fans of Dr. Miami, whose real name is Dr. Michael Salzhauer, have gotten used to the blood and guts he shares daily on Snapchat. “It's a risky thing,” he says of the decision to broadcast real-time Snapchats of his patients’ surgeries. “We’re the first to ever have a dialogue with our audience this way, as far as I know…we definitely touched a nerve.” (Virginia Gil, 9/4)