In March 2020, I wrote an op-ed for The Wilmington Business Journal, “Current sacrifice for future gain” laying out what our community would need to do to minimize the harm of the pandemic. This month the Business Journal invited me to reflect on the past two years. This was my…

You may be surprised, but you don’t be surprised why. — As a hospital-based pediatrician, I’ve heard of colleagues who will not change diapers, and I respect their choice. Gastroenterologists, colorectal surgeons, and infectious disease specialists get paid to directly confront stool. For pediatricians, it’s optional, if sometimes unavoidable. But for me, a pitstop-style diaper change is the quickest path to…

New evidence reinforces the case that a largely white medical establishment is failing children of color. What can we do? — I remember asking my father why, after a youth of privilege and an Ivy League education, he set up his pediatric practice across the street from Memphis’s largest public housing project. …

The words matter, and these words are problematic — Our President has repeatedly told reporters over the last week about his performance on a cognitive test normally given when doctors suspect dementia or another form of cognitive dysfunction. As a pediatrician, I rarely use this particular test, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. …

Online marketing to children is everywhere. The American Academy of Pediatrics has new advice on how parents can fight back — Only once in our years living at the beach did I have to rescue one of my children from a rip current. We were paddling just beyond the toe-touch level, and suddenly my son started drifting away from me, fast. I grabbed his wrist hard and started working my way…

What is the American Academy of Pediatrics thinking? — I have to admit that as a front-line pediatrician caring for hospitalized COVID-infected children, I was caught off guard by the American Academy of Pediatrics’s release last week of a guidance document stating, “the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a…

Does a thermometer at the door mean you’re safe inside? — In mid-March, when COVID-19 concerns drove North Carolina into stay-at-home status, the hospital where I work posted two medical assistants at each entrance. Before any of us could pass, we had to submit to a temporal artery thermal scan, deny that we had a cough, and don a mask. …

My World’s Best Dad mug was going to reflect a measurable reality. Don’t worry, honey, Mommy and Daddy are never getting divorced. That’s how we reassured our 3 children repeatedly when they asked about friends whose parents were no longer living together. …

Doctors like to complain about the erosion of our autonomy and independence, but having a medical license still comes with plenty of perks. Some are obvious like, say, the means to diagnose and treat diseases. Others are of questionable value: the obligation to respond to a medical emergency on board…