Physician Editor Philip Seo, MD, MHS, is associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also serves as director of the Johns Hopkins Vasculitis Center and the Johns Hopkins Rheumatology Fellowship Training Program. He has worked at Johns Hopkins in a variety of roles, including as an intern, resident, hospitalist, assistant chief of service and rheumatology fellow, prior to joining the faculty. In addition to serving as the physician editor of The Rheumatologist, he is a member of the American College of Rheumatology's Annual Meeting Planning Committee and Committee on Training and Workforce, and is co-chair of the In-Training Examination Subcommittee.
The glassblowers were in revolt. The island of Murano, in the 13th century, was a perfect home for the glassblowing industry. Connected to Venice through a system of bridges, Murano was surrounded by waters that protected the city from the furnaces that fueled the glassblowers’ craft. The Republic of Venice dominated trade throughout the Mediterranean,… [Read More]
It is better to be feared than loved. The associate dean of student affairs at my medical school embraced this motto. Although the dean of the medical school was titularly in charge, it was the associate dean who kept the school running. And we all feared her, just a little bit. Without ever raising her… [Read More]
I just didn’t understand. I was an excellent student. I know this is true of most of you. Given the nature of this publication, most of our readership have graduate degrees. This means that collectively, after completing four years of college, we all made the financially dubious decision to pursue post-graduate education, like lemmings jumping… [Read More]
I wouldn’t normally look to professional basketball as a model for healthcare, but sometimes answers come from unexpected places. The observation that elite athletes are not like you and me—medically speaking—is not new. In the second century AD, the pontifex maximus in Pergamum recognized this fact and appointed Claudius Galen physician to the gladiators, making… [Read More]
On Dec. 27, 2017, RaDonda Vaught killed Charlene Murphey, allegedly. Ms. Murphey was a lifelong resident of Gallatin, a suburb of Nashville, Tenn. She was well known from having worked at the local Walmart for 24 years, before she retired in 2012, when she was 65 years old.1 On Dec. 24, 2017, she was helping… [Read More]
If you ever want to be depressed, turn to the internet. This might strike some of you as a truism. Certainly, between the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, it is difficult to open your browser without being smacked in the face by a dismally depressing piece of news. In this particular case, however, I’m… [Read More]
He just didn’t get it. I love my mechanic. After many years of taking my car to mechanics who took my money without explaining what they were doing with it, I finally found someone who loved to teach. Whenever I bring my car to his shop, class is in session. He gestures for me to… [Read More]
I just couldn’t believe it. Like all of you, I receive many requests to see patients urgently. And like all of you, I can’t possibly accommodate all of those requests. So I triage: I look through the referrals and try to differentiate patients who want to be seen from those who need to be seen…. [Read More]
Last year, in Texas, they had no room to breathe. Texas has 301 designated trauma centers equipped to provide intensive care, 200 of which can care for at least four critically ill patients. In August 2021, 75 of these hospitals reported having no available beds in their intensive care units. Zero. This was due, in… [Read More]
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was at work. I had accepted a position as an assistant chief of service (ACS) for the Department of Medicine, which is Hopkins-speak for a hybrid position that involves all the administrative duties of a chief resident, plus the responsibility of an attending. For a year, I admitted patients to… [Read More]