We maximize what we measure — Imagine, for a second, that you have a child. Imagine also that your child has a cleft palate: the two sides of the roof of her mouth haven’t fused down the midline. Milk comes out her nose when she drinks. And finally, imagine there are three hospitals in your city…

Surgery cannot be optional guacamole — “Everybody—from the border of Mali, all the way to Dakar—knows my son.” Daouda’s father is a tall, articulate Senegalese man who lives with his family in a small town on the Malian border. …

The sham science that keeps providers shackled — In January, the American College of Surgeons announced its new surgeon well-being initiative. It has lofty goals: [The ACS] recognizes the need to foster well-being, resilience, and work-life integration for all surgeons, regardless of their career stage. …

A parable of plagues, pandemics and proportions — One day, a corn farmer noticed that some of his corn had turned black. It wasn’t a good black, either, like Aztec corn or huitlacoche.

Not even when we took that oath — I know, I know. I shouldn’t have read the comments. Yesterday, nurses at two large hospitals here in NYC went on strike, demanding fair pay and safe staffing ratios. This follows unionization efforts by resident physicians at one of these hospitals back in November, efforts that the unionizing residents claim…

The false dichotomy between relief and development — This article first appeared in African Business. You know that phrase, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for life”? Yeah, I hate that phrase; it creates a false dichotomy. Why not do both? After all, it’s easier…

Just by being here, are we doing good? — Just over a year ago, a good friend of mine tweeted this, and it’s been sitting in my brain, for free, ever since: I’ll admit that my first reaction to this tweet was vigorous approval. Healthcare faces hefty challenges that tweeting and snapshot publications alone won’t solve. If you’ve hung…

The cunningly colonialist way we talk about global health — Nearly two decades ago, I slid into the back row of the audience at a global health talk during the American Academy of Otolaryngology’s annual meeting. At the front, a well-respected, senior stateswoman in my field was recounting a trip she’d taken. She’d been in Africa for a week—I’m redacting…

Or, how I became an expert at sucking — In April, I stepped down from a job I’d held for just shy of two years. Out of respect for the many good people who work there, I’m not publicly discussing the reasons I left. That’s not the point of this post. Instead, today will be about how we talk—and…