What’s in an itch? Walking out of a patient’s room, I develop an itch. An itch around my neck, on my forehead, and in the middle of my...
What’s in an itch? – Commercial Appeal
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Articles in Newspapers
A Snow Day Reflection – Huffington Post
This week, I was going to write my usual health column, but then I decided to take a “snow day.” Yet, soon, I realized that...
Sometimes deep-seated beliefs impervious to contrary evidence – Commercial Appeal
Last week, when my beloved New England Patriots won the Super Bowl, barely any friends shared my joy. Even my wife, a New York Giants fan,...
Healthy Memphis: Huddle isn’t just for football – Commercial Appeal
Last week, we were awestruck watching the last three minutes of the NFL’s National Football Conference championship game between the...
New England Patriots Had a Safer Option in the Last Seconds of Playoff Game – Huffington Post
Co-authored by Rishab Jain As lifelong New England Patriots fans, we stood with bated breath in the last four seconds of this past...
Healthy Memphis: Taking stairs means giant step toward better living – Commercial Appeal
On the first of the year, while making my rounds at the hospital, I did something I hope to continue: I took the stairs. My action was...
Healthy Memphis: Finding hope and happiness this holiday season – Commercial Appeal
My wife loves to watch holiday movies. Each Christmas season she watches James Stewart’s 1946 movie “It’s A Wonderful Life.” “Every year,...
A kiss is not just a kiss: biology vs. psychology – The Tennessean
This year, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. So, last week, one evening, I told my wife about a news story I heard on National...
Healthy Memphis: The scientifically sound benefits of kissing – Commercial Appeal
This year we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. So one evening last week I told my wife about a news story I’d heard on...
Healthy Memphis: Local Rotary contributes to global TB battle – Commercial Appeal
As I write this, I am on a flight back from India after a weeklong medical mission trip for a Rotary Club Global Grant on the elimination...
Rethinking the 21-Day Quarantine for Ebola Contacts – Huffington Post
Contact Dr. Manoj Jain (mkjain@aol.com / 901-681-0778) A few weeks ago an emergency room doctor called our infectious disease physician...
Are Local Hospitals Prepared for Ebola? – Huffington Post
Contact Dr. Manoj Jain (mkjain@aol.com / 901-681-0778) Two weeks ago at our community hospital, after we concluded a nearly two-hour...
Healthy Memphis: Donate to combat Ebola – Commercial Appeal
Last week, I casually mentioned to my wife, “I spoke with volunteers at Doctors Without Borders today, and they need help.” This was...
To Stop Ebola Here, We Must Stop It There – Huffington Post
Last week, after dinner, as I was rinsing the dishes, I casually mentioned to my wife, “I spoke with the volunteers at Doctors...
Panhandlers shouldn’t exploit illnesses – Commercial Appeal
t’s nearly 100 degrees in the mid-August Memphis sun. At the side of the exit ramp to Winchester Road from Bill Morris Parkway East, a...
Unpleasant, but necessary, 50th birthday present – Commercial Appeal
For my 50th birthday my doctors give me a present: a colonoscopy. The prep instructions are daunting. “In a large pitcher pour two 32 oz....
Pay for performance right direction for heath care – Commercial Appeal
It’s another busy day at the hospital and as I dictate yet another consult note, I find I am repeating myself: “Patient has a history of...
Education can Empower in Fighting Ebola – Commercial Appeal
If an ill patient, who unexpectedly has Ebola, landed in Memphis, it is likely that my partner or I would see him. We work...
Doctors struggling over role in treating childhood obesity – Commercial Appeal
Lying in a hospital bed, my seriously obese patient can barely see her swollen and odorous right foot over her abdominal fat. The foot is...
Sinusitis among most mistreated illnesses – Commercial Appeal
Over the past month my daughter, my aunt, my father-in-law and sister-in-law all have been taking antibiotics for a sinus or an upper...
Flu complications come on fast – Vaccine can save time, money, lives – Tennessean
The night before I was leaving for a three-week medical mission trip, I was called urgently to the ICU to see a patient I’ll call Rachel,...
Vaccine can prevent deadly flu complications – Commercial Appeal
The night before I was leaving for a three-week medical mission trip, I was called urgently to the ICU to see Rachel (name altered), a...
Obamacare’s Upheaval of the Insurance Market – Huffington Post
Some years ago, driving through an end of town where pawn shops and boarded up homes are common, I saw a small placard sign nailed on a...
Challenges for Sebelius and Obamacare – Huffington Post
Last Friday, I was among a dozen people who sat privately to talk about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, with the embattled...
Closing the Medicaid doughnut hole – Commercial Appeal
A patient, a burly black man in his 40s who works as a cook, is in the hospital wincing in pain from a staph infection on his leg. He has...
Doctor’s Advice: Get Health Insurance – Huffington Post
Standing in the dimly-lit cave-like radiology reading room, I was looking at a CT scan which was done in the emergency room on a man in...
What should doctors do to combat childhood obesity? – Washington Post
Lying in a hospital bed, my seriously obese patient could barely see her swollen and odorous right foot over her abdominal fat. The foot...
Complications after surgery are urgent challenges – Commercial Appeal
My uncle, Vinay Mehta, who had his second bypass surgery four days earlier, is rushed back to the ICU hooked up to monitors and multiple...
My uncle’s medical journey – Commercial Appeal
My uncle, Vinay Mehta, lies quietly on a gurney in the hospital’s pre-post catherization room. His wife of 40 years is by his side. The TV...
Healthy Memphis: Tick-borne illness may be cause of summer fever – Commercial Appeal
Karen Young, a woman whose short reddish-brown hair reminded me of Julie Andrews from the movie “Sound of Music,” tells me her fever and...
Interfaith about community, not conversion – Commercial Appeal
For a number of years in the holy month of Ramadan, I have joined my Muslim friends in the “breaking of the fast” dinner. I am not Muslim,...
Overcoming our biases requires understanding how we think – Commercial Appeal
The Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman case has once again opened the racial wounds of our nation, and it reminded me of the first piece...
Decline in Cost of Health Care in America – Huffington Post
We have done it. We have decreased the increase in the cost of health care. Let us explain. For three decades (1980-2009), the cost of...
Guest column: Bend in health cost curve can be sustained – Commercial Appeal
We have done it. We have decreased the increase in the cost of healthcare. Let us explain. For three decades (1980–2009), the cost of...
Germ-free pacifiers may mean sicker kids – Tennessean
Years ago, when my children (now teenagers) were babies and they dropped a pacifier on the floor, we rinsed it with tap water before...
Tact, Tone And Timing: The Power Of Apology – Talk of the Nation : NPR
An effective apology involves a delicate balance between tact, tone and timing. In high-stakes settings, when jobs and reputations are on...
Medical errors are hard for doctors to admit, but it’s wise to apologize to patients – Washington Post
In 2007, I published a story in my local paper in which I confessed to having made a medical error years earlier. I’d mistakenly...
Cleanliness may not be best when it comes to pacifiers – Commercial Appeal
Years ago, when my children, who are now teenagers, were babies and they dropped a pacifier onto the floor, we rinsed it with tap water...
Healthy Memphis: Besides pleasure, biking and walking trails lead to significant health benefits – Commercial Appeal
Two weekends ago, when the temperature hit the low 70s and the afternoon sun was warm, but not Memphis hot, my 13-year-old son and I put...
Memories of Boston Marathon – Huffington Post
I know Boston and the Boston Marathon well. I lived for 20 years in Needham and Wellesley, the western suburbs of Boston, the halfway mark...
Denying employment could be powerful disincentive for smokers – Commercial Appeal
As I walk into the hospital each day, I notice patients and families sitting outside on benches that are surrounded by large signs...
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s Detachment Similar To That Of Eastern Sages – Huffington Post
A few weeks ago, as I watched the white helicopter rise above St. Peter’s Basilica and carry the pontiff emeritus to a life of...
Letters – Menstrual Shame and Superstitions in India – The New York Times
“The Taboo of Menstruation,” by Rose George (Op-Ed, Dec. 29), sheds a welcome light on the unfortunate effects of menstrual superstitions...
‘Lincoln’ rekindles equality – Washington Post
On Thanksgiving weekend, with family and friends, I watched Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece “Lincoln.” It was a history lesson on racial...
When Hospitals Buy Doctor Practices – The New York Times
To the Editor:Your article reflects the changes occurring in the medical landscape in Memphis and Nashville. We believe that...
Doctors need to eliminate waste from healthcare – Commercial Appeal
Thirty percent of health care spending — amounting to $750 billion a year — is wasted, according to a recent report by the Institute of...
LETTERS : In Search of Political Champions for the Poor – The New York Times
To the Editor: Re “Cutting the Deficit, With Compassion” (Economic View, Sept. 9), in which Christina R. Romer suggested reducing...
Data, coaching important in changing behavior in health care and life – Commercial Appeal
A few months ago, as I drove my daughter to the airport on Interstate 240 for her summer internship in Boston, I read the overhead message...
We all need ‘skin’ in Medicare debate – Commercial Appeal
As I approach my 50th birthday, I worry about Medicare not being there for me when I become eligible. I have some inside knowledge about...
Medicare Control of Cost – Huffington Post
As I approach my 50th birthday, I worry about Medicare not being there for me when I become eligible. I have some inside knowledge about...