Community & Public Health

Incarceration during the COVID-19 pandemic, a potential mental health crisis

Author: Conor Burke-Smith, second-year medical student, Iowa This post is a series of mental health pieces from the AMSA WSL Committee Much has been written about the potential negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health. Many have felt isolation to a greater extent than ever before in their lives. Anxiety exists about various...

Quiz yourself—Spanish medical terminology with Canopy Learn!

The problem A majority of physicians struggle with language barriers, often with the 45 million Spanish-speakers in the United States. The risks of miscommunication are too high in the hospital setting to ignore. What can you do? Patient-centered care requires meaningful communication. Practice your medical Spanish terminology with this short quiz, courtesy of Canopy Learn,...

Teach us to treat: Making addiction treatment a medical core competency

By: Siva Sundaram Imagine you’re a primary care doctor seeing a patient one week after his first heart attack. You know the latest evidence, so you tell your patient about a cheap, safe medication that cuts his risk of dying from a second heart attack in half.   But there’s a catch: You were never trained...

Solving the Opioid Epidemic is more than action, it’s a mindset

By: Nick Tod Health care providers, politicians, and community members at large all agree action needs to be taken to address the opioid crisis. While the conversation around how to handle this crisis is a step towards making progress in our communities, much more is needed to experience meaningful results. Before we can truly address...