COVID lockdowns are fortunately behind us, and vacations are making a huge comeback. But how safe is it to holiday, especially on a ship? Cruise carriers bear a duty to keep their passengers safe. Despite the decrease in the number and severity of COVID cases, there are of course still risks in everyday life. Masks are no […]
Category: Risk management
Viruses can’t die because they aren’t alive in the first place. They are just a bunch of genetic instructions in search of a living organism to hijack. Become part of the COVID death squad So how is it that the COVID-19 coronavirus doesn’t just disappear as we all get vaccinated? Sure, vaccination decreases the viral load […]
Medical evidence is in a state of constant flux. Most of us would feel comfortable if amassing research evidence was like completing a jigsaw puzzle. Each new piece would add to the greater picture. Unfortunately, that is not the case. When viewing medical research we must learn, as we did as adolescents, that not everything in our lives […]
As a public health physician, and as a family physician, I am ashamed. In response to COVID, my colleagues in public health officialdom are losing credibility as they search for politically driven quick fixes and remain silent when individual freedoms are restricted without clear evidence of an enduring relationship to positive outcomes. COVID is here […]
Hospitals are full of people sick with CoVID but not all of them are patients. More and more staff in our hospitals are turning up for work that they are unable to do. They are present, but not working at their best, either due to their own health problems, increased CoVID-related workload, or CoVID anxiety. […]
CoVID is no longer just a health concern. As clinicians we now understand the disease a little better, are comforted that most cases are mild and self-limiting, and relieved that the intensive care resources are becoming equipped to manage the increase in patient numbers. Even the danger to health care workers of too much exposure […]
CoVID-19 is all about lungs and breathing. As the infection increases in seriousness so the need for breathing assistance becomes greater. Critical and intensive care units (ICUs) provide the optimal support for these life-threatening breathing problems. But are they ready for the expected surge in cases? There will never be enough ICU beds. Overall, critical […]
My stethoscope is more than half my age and every year it gets proportionally closer to my age. It doesn’t have an expiration date and works just fine. In fact, not everything in medicine has a short expiration date or is consumable. Despite that, the traditional economy of healthcare is largely disposable. Healthcare materials are taken […]
Traditional wisdom about chronic diseases holds that they usually last for three months or longer and may worsen over time. They are supposed to occur more in older adults and can usually be controlled but not cured. Conditions, which we thought worsen with age, paradoxically provide some protection. As with preventable disease, identifying risks early in […]
Risks are ephemeral. Once identified they are no longer risks but problems to be solved. Risks that cannot or should not be problematized need to be abandoned. In the most positive light, identifying risks should only be a first step in a long pathway of improvement. First, the risk must be linked to a behaviour […]
The Thinker 