Today I wanted to respond to Dr. Madhu Pai’s recent post on Forbes, Global Health is Broken, But Young People Plan to Repair It. In the article, he amplifies the voices of 24 young people from around the world regarding climate change, pandemics, and other global health crises, and the ways leaders are failing us.Continue reading “Global Health is Broken, But Young People Plan to Repair It”
Category Archives: advocacy
Spring training
Despite the devastation in Ukraine, the possibility of World War III and nuclear weapons being used, and violence globally (including a recent shooting in our neighborhood in Boston), I can say one thing for sure – it is spring. It’s been a long hard winter, with stress from the Omicron surge, but winter is over.Continue reading “Spring training”
Finding your writing voice
I was delighted to host a teaching session recently with 25 UC San Diego internal medicine residents, “Finding your writing voice.” I planned the hour as an interactive discussion of all types of creative writing, including fiction, narrative medicine, blogging, letters to the editor, and op-Eds. I talked about the work of Drs Abraham Verghese,Continue reading “Finding your writing voice”
Linking health education, civic engagement, and research at a large Federally Qualified Health Center
Today, I wanted to take a brief look at a paper from California entitled “Linking health education, civic engagement, and research at a large Federally Qualified Health Center to address health disparities.” The researchers, led by Melissa Chinchilla PhD from AltaMed, in Los Angeles, were focused on health equity at the health center level. InContinue reading “Linking health education, civic engagement, and research at a large Federally Qualified Health Center”
Two goals
In life, we need to set clear goals. Here are two of mine. First, a running goal. Last night I signed up for a half-marathon in Toledo, Ohio which will occur on the morning of Sunday April 24th. It will be the second half-marathon I’ve run, the first being in Rhode Island along the AtlanticContinue reading “Two goals”
In San Diego
Now I find myself in the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego, home to the famous Sunset Cliffs. Yesterday’s journey started off with a walk in Los Angeles from Koreatown to Union Station. On the way I passed the LA Philharmonic Concert Hall, and I thought up a joke: “What’s the fastest way to theContinue reading “In San Diego”
Protesting COVID inequities in America and globally
Today, it’s another Moral Monday. On past Moral Mondays I read the names of the COVID dead outside the Massachusetts State House with colleagues, and at home on my Youtube channel. Today I will continue this protest, reading more names and will push a little farther. Here is a video I made calling for healthContinue reading “Protesting COVID inequities in America and globally”
We Shall Overcome
Structural racism is a public health crisis. News reports this past week about a Neo-Nazi demonstration targeting two members of the Harvard Medical School community, Drs. Michelle Morse and Bram Wispelwey, were distressing. Michelle and I were classmates at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and I have the highest respect for her. We mustContinue reading “We Shall Overcome”
Children’s Mental Health Crisis
Children’s mental health is in a crisis, we are often told, particularly among poor, homeless, BIPOC, and immigrant kids. Systemic racism, discrimination, inequitable educational systems (private vs public), and COVID stress/ trauma are the main causes. One issue is infectious diseases/ public health leaders have been siloed, focusing on COVID transmission, along with tests, treatments,Continue reading “Children’s Mental Health Crisis”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Boston
In 1963, my aunt, Mary Ann Lederer, and my father, Albert, traveled from Cincinnati to Washington DC to attend the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Together, they heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speech, “I have a Dream.” Then in 1965, in the wake of “Bloody Sunday” on the Edmund Pettus Bridge,Continue reading “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Boston”
Philip A. Lederer 