During times of rapid change and new challenges, nothing fills the void more effectively than knowledge, innovation, and perspective. Examples of knowledge and innovation allowing us to advance the frontiers of medicine include anesthesia for surgery (William T. G. Morton, 1846); germ theory (Louis Pasteur, 1861); penicillin (Alexander Fleming, 1928) which revolutionized the war against deadly bacteria; organ transplantation (Drs. Joseph Murray and David Hume, 1954) using techniques of vascular anastomoses, organ placement, and immunosuppression; vaccinations which have eradicated or restricted diseases such as smallpox, polio, measles, and influenza; and anti-viral drugs which have used to treat HIV, herpes, hepatitis, and the flu.
In times like this, TPMG’s integration with Health Plan and Hospitals, commitment to evidence based medicine, and strong physician leadership allow us to leverage knowledge, innovation, and communication to all be on the same page about how to best respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our leaders have come out early and strong with a statements about what we know about the novel coronavirus and a strategy for how to meet this challenge head on, including this JAMA online article titled “From Containment to Mitigation of COVID-19 in the US” co-authored by Stephen Parodi and Vincent Liu.
In addition, among your colleagues are some physicians who have lived through war time conditions, when things were not fully under their control, and survived to tell about it. These people can lend us a perspective that most of us are unfamiliar with, a perspective that will help you know that you are not the only one who feels unprepared and inadequate for the task at hand, and that your best effort put forth in collaboration with your outstanding colleagues is part of a noble cause. One such person is Richmond neurologist Carson Lawall who served in Afghanistan in 2010-2011 in mass casualty situations. Click here for his comments about modified expectations in the era of COVID-19.
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