Background: The extent and impact of bias in medicine are increasingly recognized. Studies have demonstrated the deleterious effect of clinicians’ biases on patient care (1,2), and the impact of patients’ biases on physicians’ well-being (3). We hypothesized that more subtle expressions of bias would increase burnout among academic hospitalists. The objectives of this study were [...]

Background: Stigmatizing language in clinical notes can negatively impact physician attitudes, propagate bias, affect prescribing behaviors, and exacerbate healthcare disparities, yet remains prevalent even in the Open Notes era. Prior analyses of stigmatizing terms in clinical notes are limited by the lack of context in which terms are used and multiple meanings of certain words [...]

Case Presentation: A 24 year old male with a history of childhood asthma and COVID in 2021 presented to ED with worsening sore throat, fevers, tenderness of his mouth and gums, and mild lightheadedness. He was recently diagnosed with streptococcal pharyngitis and started on oral penicillin three days prior to presentation. He was on no [...]

Case Presentation: A 65-year-old woman with a history of early-stage breast cancer—was treated six years prior. She was subsequently admitted multiple times over the following years for pancytopenia, which was thought to be multifactorial—due to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and auto-immune hemolytic anemia (AIHA). Therefore, she received a supportive blood transfusion, intravenous immunoglobulins, and rituximab for suspected [...]

Case Presentation: 67-year-old gentleman with medical history significant for alcohol use presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with hallucinations and tremors. His last drink was the day prior. In the ED, he was tremulous, tachycardic, hypertensive and confused. He was admitted and placed on the alcohol withdrawal protocol with diazepam. At discharge, he was evaluated [...]

Case Presentation: A 33-year-old man presented to the emergency department with sudden onset, severe abdominal pain radiating toward the back. Medical history included bipolar disorder treated with bupropion, sertraline, and lamotrigine. Surgical history included prior appendectomy. There was no history of sick contacts, alcohol use, gallstones, or peptic ulcer disease. On exam he was tachycardic [...]

Case Presentation: A 48-year-old female with no significant past medical history was initially hospitalized for community-acquired pneumonia and subsequently developed hematemesis, melena along with fever and night sweats. Other presenting symptoms included productive cough, worsening dyspnea, and 80-pound unintentional weight loss in 3 months. She denied travel/occupation history. Further workup showed WBC 46.6×103/uL, Hemoglobin 8.3 [...]