Feinberg Perspectives

In response to the coronavirus outbreak, medical clinics and labs ramped up capacity to treat patients and develop tests, increasing already high rates of stress for physicians and scientists. Then came tragic acts of police brutality against Black Americans and ensuing civil unrest, elevating stress levels again. Dr. Carla Ellis, an associate professor and the director of Wellness, Diversity and Inclusion in the Feinberg Department of Pathology, speaks to these layers of stress and advises how we can begin to recover.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States, Cook County Jail in Chicago reported the highest rate of virus infection in a congregate setting. As cases in Chicago peaked, cases in the jail started to decline and by June reflected cases coming in from the community. Cook County Jail Medical Director Dr. Connie Mennella started her medical training at Feinberg in 1984 and has spent her entire career in correctional medicine, starting at the Cermak Health Services in 1991. Dr. Mennella shares how they overcame this surge in the jail with protocols like social distancing and increased testing, emphasizing that correctional health is community health. 

As COVID-19 cases started to spike across the U.S., rates of infection, hospitalization and death disproportionately afflicted Black Americans. In May, George Floyd, a Black man who had recovered from COVID, was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer, igniting waves of protests in every state. Dr. Quentin Youmans, a resident physician in the Feinberg Department of Medicine, addresses the intersection of these two pandemics - coronavirus and racism - and what protesting in medicine might look like. Dr. Youmans is also the founder of Feinberg's STRIVE mentorship program, which connects underrepresented minority medical students with underrepresented resident mentors.   An original version of this essay co-written with Dr. Jason Williams at Duke University Medical Center first appeared in the American College of Cardiology in June 2020. 

In 1918, the Spanish Flu infected one-third of the world's population, killing an estimated 20 to 50 million people. Dr. Kara Goldman's grandmother was one of the lucky ones who contracted the disease and survived. Dr. Goldman is an assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Read from her grandmother's old house, Dr. Goldman recalls her grandmother's story of the white scarf tied to the front door, a signal warning the community of the virus residing within, reminding us to take a lesson from previous generations and look out for one another during the coronavirus pandemic.   An original version of this essay first appeared in Stat News in March 2020. 

For over two decades, Todd Kuiken, MD, had been helping others regain mobility through his practice and research as a physiatrist. When he had a stroke, he found himself in need of rehabilitation and discovered a renewed pride in his work, including in his roles as director of the Center for Bionic Medicine at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and as a professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern. Now, Kuiken takes us back to the day of his stroke, when his perspective on medicine was shifted. A version of this essay was originally published in the Summer 2017 issue of Northwestern Medicine magazine.  

During his final year of his oncology fellowship at Northwestern, Suneel Kamath, MD, was finally getting used to telling people that he treats cancer for a living. He has perfected the art of letting people know that it is 'not as depressing as they think' and that there is much joy, even laughter, in his work as an oncologist. In this audio essay, he shares his experience with laughter and medicine. A version of this essay was first published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. 

Teaching teens and adults across Chicago how to tie a tourniquet with a piece of clothing was not part of Mamta Swaroop’s job description as a trauma surgeon and Global Surgery Program Director at Northwestern. But she had seen too many people with gunshot wounds die, bleeding out before reaching the hospital. So in 2017 she decided it was time to empower Chicago communities by training bystanders to be immediate responders. In this audio essay, she shares her story. A version of this essay was originally published in the Bulletin of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, a Royal College of Surgeons journal.

In 2015, the same year the Supreme Court struck down state bans on same-sex marriage, the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing was founded at Northwestern. It’s the largest institute in the U.S. to focus on sexual and gender minority health research. Brian Mustanski, PhD, a psychologist and leader in LGBTQ health research, is the center director. In this audio essay, he recalls the importance of the events of 2015 and the new battles his community faces in 2019.    A version of this essay was first published in the Spring 2019 issue of Northwestern Magazine. 

Samantha Schroth, a MD/PhD student at Feinberg, didn’t always plan on becoming a physician. After graduating from college in 2013, her sights were set on veterinary school. But when an accident that summer left Samantha with a serious spinal cord injury, she realized her true passion lay in human medicine — and she ultimately found her way to Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Medical Scientist Training Program.