hiatus
Hemodynamics is on hiatus. Thanks for stopping by, though, and I am sure it will start back up at some point, in some form. In the meantime I share links and T-cell news at tcells.tumblr.com. (Source: hemodynamics)
Source: hemodynamics - October 18, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: children hiatus personal Source Type: blogs
The mammal's brief moment of sorrow
Photo: Jacob in the movieTwilight, being a mammal.Sometimes when we ' re leaving for work, the cat follows us to the door. As we go out, there ' s a glass-paned door that we shut between her and us. She will have been following us, looking up at us. Then there ' s a sad little moment. As we put our shoes on outside the door, she sits down on the floor on the inside, and then she stops looking at us and looks at some distant space on the floor a few feet away.It ' s a moment we all recognize. This gesture, this way of experiencing a moment, this passing brief sad look, is something that cats and dogs do, and people do. We a...
Source: hemodynamics - August 30, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: feeling alone mammals neurology sorrow Source Type: blogs
The mammal's brief moment of sorrow
Photo: Jacob in the movieTwilight, being a mammal.Sometimes when we're leaving for work, the cat follows us to the door. As we go out, there's a glass-paned door that we shut between her and us. She will have been following us, looking up at us. Then there's a sad little moment. As we put our shoes on outside the door, she sits down on the floor on the inside, and then she stops looking at us and looks at some distant space on the floor a few feet away.It's a moment we all recognize. This gesture, this way of experiencing a moment, this passing brief sad look, is something that cats and dogs do, and people do. We are all s...
Source: hemodynamics - August 30, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: feeling alone mammals neurology sorrow Source Type: blogs
Eric Balderas is free, for a little while
Eric Balderas, a Harvard College sophomore studying molecular and cell biology, was recently granted a stay of deportation. Eric was picked up by immigration authorities after trying to use a Harvard ID card to get on a plane. His story is one of many arguments for theDREAM Act, which would enable undocumented young people, brought to the United States as children, to earn citizenship if they met a specific set of conditions (earning a high school diploma, college degree, or serving in the military). This would transform the lives of many members of our society, including some who matter very much to my family and me.Aroun...
Source: hemodynamics - June 20, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: discrimination DREAM act dreams eric balderas harvard harvard crimson immigration Source Type: blogs
why I walked
I admit I only signed up for the AIDS Walk because L, the HIV social worker in my clinic, was the captain of the team and intercepted me on the way to the hospital cafeteria with her strategically placed table.And when I got to the walk this morning, many of our "Team Members" had evidently contented themselves with having raised a little bit or a lot of money--most didn't show up to our team meeting spot on the rainy morning of the actual walk. That's fine, really; our hospital employee team was a "Gold Team", and as a medicine resident from a rival hospital sheepishly noted, our hospital's team raised more money than tha...
Source: hemodynamics - June 6, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: AIDS AIDS walk Boston personal Source Type: blogs
Stop Obama's misguided global AIDS policy
Photo: Kaytee Riek, whose other photos of this recent demo can be found atkayteeriek.comPresident Obama is making big mistakes on global AIDS.Click to read South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat explaining why.See also:TakeANumber.orgNew York TimesZackie Achmat in New York, May 13 2010: (Source: hemodynamics)
Source: hemodynamics - May 15, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: AIDS AIDS activism economics goals of care healthcare justice obama Source Type: blogs
1996: protease inhibitors were confusing
For my zine, I wrote this; although my life changed in other ways shortly afterwards, and somehow that also meant that I stopped publishing my zine. Those were in the days before blogs, children; in the days of photocopiers when self-published writers had to go to the Leather Tongue video store and drop off five copies of the zine for the magazine rack, in hopes that there might be only two when they returned a month later.Not long after this I ended up going to work for an HIV vaccine research group, which restored my sense of urgency. It also stalled the question ofdoctor or account planner (see previous 1996 post); then...
Source: hemodynamics - April 25, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: community organizing epidemic phase HIV HIV prevention protease inhibitors urgency zines Source Type: blogs
1996: what color was my parachute?
I was looking through old files for something else, and found this. Since you're reading this blog, you know what finally happened. Math was hard, but I stopped letting that stop me. I bought an algebra book, re-learned algebra and trigonometry, took science classes, went to medical school. Apparently What Color Is Your Parachute? knew what it was talking about. Maybe.Also I had kind of forgotten how into REM I was back then.Whenever someone asks me what I ’m up to these days, I say, “Oh, trying to figure out what I’m doing with my life.” Then they chuckle. Heh heh. They’ve been there.But were they ever really as...
Source: hemodynamics - April 25, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: advertising autobiography jobs personal pre-med Source Type: blogs
When you're done getting dressed, take the rooster to the front desk
Sue Lowden is a Republican running to capture Sen. Harry Reid ' s seat in Nevada.Recently she suggested that we should go back to the days when people paid their doctors directly, whether in money, or you know, if they didn ' t have the money right then, then maybe, barter, with, you know, like, chickens and stuff. That back-to-the-old-days nonsense is so phenomenally stupid, it nearly begged for someone to set up this site:Prices of medical procedures in number of chickens.Make sure to read the fine print to properly adhere to the plan ' s rules.For big procedures, the site suggests possibly converting to cows.On the othe...
Source: hemodynamics - April 24, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: chickens cows health insurance health policy healthcare justice life and death republicans Source Type: blogs
When you're done getting dressed, take the rooster to the front desk
Sue Lowden is a Republican running to capture Sen. Harry Reid's seat in Nevada.Recently she suggested that we should go back to the days when people paid their doctors directly, whether in money, or you know, if they didn't have the money right then, then maybe, barter, with, you know, like, chickens and stuff. That back-to-the-old-days nonsense is so phenomenally stupid, it nearly begged for someone to set up this site:Prices of medical procedures in number of chickens.Make sure to read the fine print to properly adhere to the plan's rules.For big procedures, the site suggests possibly converting to cows.On the other hand...
Source: hemodynamics - April 24, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: chickens cows health insurance health policy healthcare justice life and death republicans Source Type: blogs
Jamie Oliver, ABC's pop Alinsky
Photo: Jamie Oliver in Britain, where he transformed national school lunch policy.Ms. Dr. Hemodynamics and I were having a little bit of TV time the other night, and Jamie Oliver was trying to convince the lunch ladies of West Virginia that cooking from scratch was a good idea, and railing against some state bureaucrat ' s affection for chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk.Surprisingly, we kept watching.OK, so, admittedly, I ' ve only seen one episode thus far--but still, I found myself surprisingly compelled by the episode I saw, as a template for health-oriented community organizing.I have mixed feelings about the mor...
Source: hemodynamics - April 21, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: community organizing food health policy Jamie Oliver obesity television Source Type: blogs
Jamie Oliver, ABC's pop Alinsky
Photo: Jamie Oliver in Britain, where he transformed national school lunch policy.Ms. Dr. Hemodynamics and I were having a little bit of TV time the other night, and Jamie Oliver was trying to convince the lunch ladies of West Virginia that cooking from scratch was a good idea, and railing against some state bureaucrat's affection for chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk.Surprisingly, we kept watching.OK, so, admittedly, I've only seen one episode thus far--but still, I found myself surprisingly compelled by the episode I saw, as a template for health-oriented community organizing.I have mixed feelings about the moral p...
Source: hemodynamics - April 21, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: community organizing food health policy Jamie Oliver obesity television Source Type: blogs
Miners die, again
The newspaper fromHarlan, KY sends a reporter to the Montcoal mine disaster.And though statistically, mining has become safer overall in recent years, that's in the context of technology that could make mining disasters entirely a thing of the past. Why aren't they a thing of the past? Here's a glimpse fromIn These Times, which makes me feel likethemore things change, the more theystay the same.Stay the sameStay the sameStaythe same,the sameStay the sameStay the same. (Source: hemodynamics)
Source: hemodynamics - April 7, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: corruption mining occupational health politics unions Source Type: blogs
Berwick to run Medicare/Medicaid
Unless Republicans in the Senate manage to somehow find a way to sink the nomination, it looks likeDon Berwick will be the new Medicare/Medicaid chief. I think that isactually big news. It suggests that in the next phase of healthcare reform, Obama's emphasis will be quality improvement--and likely, linking payment to quality outcomes.Medicare has already started moving in that direction. And healthcare reform quietly includessome important tools to help it move farther. But this may suggest that Obama is going all in on changing payment structures.Why do I say that? Because Berwick is the person who has probably best popu...
Source: hemodynamics - March 28, 2010 Category: American Health Tags: berwick health insurance health policy medicaid medicare obama quality Source Type: blogs
