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Alyssa BurgartBioethix Profile
Alyssa BurgartBioethix

@BurgartBioethix

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🧭 Your Bioethics Navigator | Board Cert x2 Anesthesiology | ✍️ Poppies & Propofol | Editor

Palo Alto, CA
Joined October 2016
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
I cannot understand physicians who believe their personal beliefs outweigh a patient’s right to evidence-based healthcare, even when death is on the line. And I never will.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
My stomach is in knots over the EMTALA case in the Supreme Court today. Here’s what’s at stake:
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
5 years
We paid off my medical school loans!!!!!!! I own my own brain!!!!!!!!! 🥂💃👩🏼‍⚕️👩‍🏫📟🥂
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
Or both.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
5 years
This is what physician parenting looks like at bedtime. 😢
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
5 years
Hi! I’m an anesthesiologist. You may remember me from... let’s be real, you don’t remember me because I give you forget-me-drugs. I am pleasantly forgettable.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@fuzzymittens Do you treat all nurses this disrespectfully, or am I getting special treatment for being an attending physician?
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) requires hospitals to provide emergency treatment to people, even if they don’t have insurance. The law enacted by congress in 1986, requires hospitals that receive federal funds to stabilize patients. EMTALA is a
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
backbone of medical ethics and necessary to protect patients from corporate greed. Codifying protections like this into law is supposed to protect patients from laws like Idaho’s near total abortion ban.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
If you want to know who the great surgeons are ask the anesthesiologists.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
The Supreme Court will hear arguments today about whether Idaho’s near-total abortion ban conflicts with EMTALA. Idaho wants to deny emergency, life saving medical and surgical treatments to pregnant patients who need abortions - to save their lives.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
This is about Idaho, but if the Court allows Idaho law to override EMTALA requirements, then the 14 other anti-abortions states either similar laws may follow suit. This case will determine access to EMERGENCY abortions in emergency rooms across the country.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Listening to the arguments this morning - as a physician and bioethicist and as a pregnant capable person - is infuriating. I don’t trust this conservative court to protect patients AT ALL.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
It’s unethical for the AHA to tell you not to don PPE before starting CPR. You are not disposable. (They jumped way too quickly with their Oct 2021 guidance.) - Your Local Twitter Bioethicist
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
5 years
I am a woman in scrubs sitting at a desk charting. I am not a nurse, but thanks for interrupting my work, not introducing yourself, and assuming I am a nurse. The man sitting next to me in nearly identical outfit, also not a nurse. . . . . . . . . . . . . Not that you asked him.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
I put off doing something for months because it felt like it would take forever. I just did the thing in 2 hours. I will learn nothing from this experience.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Doctor: This patient could die without an emergency abortion! Idaho: How sure are you? We want you to make sure she's mostly dead before you do anything to help her.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
10 months
Damn it… after three years, I caught the Rona. It’s run amok in the Bay Area. Feel like garbage. Picking up Paxlovid soon. I wish this country had invested in improved ventilation instead of letting the discussion be all about masks and vaccines.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@fuzzymittens In reality, this student is probably wildly insecure and desperate to be seen as worthy. This is a really dysfunctional and inefficient way to go about it.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
This is a narrow slice of the many patients who need abortion. Specifically the patients who are most at risk for emergency related harm and death. In the setting of the US’s abysmal rate of maternal morbidity and mortality is outrageous.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Another risk today is that the court will create an avenue for fetal personhood - which makes no sense on multiple levels. We already saw Alabama’s supreme court rule that frozen embryos in test tubes should be considered children - with inherent rights. Ironically, arguments
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
When your recovering patient *really really* wants horchata once they can drink, sometimes you @DoorDash it from a local taqueria and hand deliver to the ICU.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
I thought we need to pay nurses more. 🤨
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
for fetal personhood undermine the conservative ideology related to parental rights. They only want parental rights when it’s convenient to the anti-abortion ideology.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
Healthcare workers who are sick should be paid to stay home. (Paid sick leave should be available to everyone)
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Apparently unless a physician is *confident* a patient will die from the lack of abortion, then they can’t provide it. There is no opportunity in this scenario to err on the side of preserving a person’s life and health. This runs counter to our duty to care.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Conservative justices showed no regard for Pregnant people’s Personhood Autonomy Right to care Physician’s duty to care - they’re so keen to protect doctors who don’t want to do their job, that they will hose any doctor who DOES want to provide standard medical care
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Listening to lawyers talk about the ethical and moral duties of physicians is painful - ESPECIALLY when the Idaho AG he’ll bent on preventing docs from actually acting in good faith - which would involve preventing morbidity & mortality by providing emergency abortion care.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Listening to Alito, you would think that a fetus comes in arguing on its own behalf. Again the massive conflict with parental rights movement is huge because they don’t want women to be able to make our own decisions.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
The Idaho AG refuses to acknowledge that a standard of care exists when a patient may be harmed, including the loss of reproductive organs.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Women in Idaho are NOT getting regular emergency care - they’re being airlifted to neighboring states. ER docs have to be worried about fines and jail time TO DO THEIR jobs
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
Ever wondered what karaoke is like for pediatric anesthesiologists? We all know the first 15 seconds of every single Disney song. (None of us have ever heard the rest of the song. 🤷‍♀️ )
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
This guy is claiming differences opioid laws from state to state prove his theory that there is no national standard of care for emergency services to pregnant patients. He lacks a depth of knowledge that opioid prescribing laws have caused immense harm to patients.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
EMTALA requires transfer when a hospital can’t provide stabilization. Unfortunately, with so many abortion bans - MANY PATIENTS ALREADY HAVE NO WHERE CLOSE TO GO
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
@DGlaucomflecken “Nope, no surgeries” “I notice this long scar on your flank. What’s that from?” “Oh, that’s from my kidney transplant.”
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
Just a reminder that you can be an atheist and not behave like an asshole to religious people.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
Goodbye Scout. Scout was my medical school dog, our first baby, an honorary double board certified pediatric anesthesiologist, my first therapist. His satellite dish ears were jaunty and soft as velvet. He was the best boy.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
No one tells pre-meds to work in fast food. But maybe we should. As a doctor, I'm still using lessons I learned working at In-N-Out as a college student. Here are six fast food lessons I'll keep forever:
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
@SenTedCruz @US_FDA Make no mistake, the extensive data on mifepristone shows it is SIGNIFICANTLY safer than preganancy. *Mifepristone is safer than viagra & penicillin *safer than a large dose of Tylenol @ANSIRH has a handy summary on the FDA surveillance data.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
US healthcare workers must be prepared to care for incarcerated people. Unfortunately, few of us are taught how to do this. For 19 years, I have answered ethics questions, including re: patients in prison. Here are 7 pieces of ethical advice to protect your patients. 🧵👇
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
My intern year was my child’s 1st year of life. I was home so infrequently in her waking life that I think she thought I was a visitor or some nice lady that nursed her in the middle of the night. So yeah I went home ASAP whenever possible. I’m still a fantastic physician.
@kidney_boy
Joel M. Topf, MD FACP
3 years
I have had students and residents that want to get out as soon as possible to see their family and others that are willing to spend an extra few to spin the urine or walk down to the ER to see the patient with the sodium of 103. I know which ones I would want to care for me.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Main takeaways from the SCOTUS oral arguments today to let Idaho law gut EMTALA: Conservative justices were eager to make this about 🛑 Conscientious objection (already well protected) 🫄Fetal personhood 🏳️‍⚧️ denying Gender affirming care
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
Mifepristone is way safer than Tylenol.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
Here come the fetal personhood arguments… FML
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
@thatsochianti Not in trouble.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
I'm pretty confused by seeing ppl saying "go ahead an unmask" when we're - not actually done with omicron - vaccine still not approved for <5 year olds - and we're actively watching another omicron variant to see if it will be problematic
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
10 months
No, it’s not. Love, A Liver Transplant Anesthesiologist
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
Anyone else just so damn tired right now?
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
Your medical degree is a piece of paper. Real education is seen in how we treat our most marginalized patients.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
It is possible that I absolutely, truly have no fucks left to give.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@HarrietHopfMD @fuzzymittens “Wow, med student. You must be going through a lot being a student in the pandemic. I’m sure your experiences have been really different than mine. Are you open to some advice about building relationships in the OR?”
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
We are not cops. Healthcare workers have an ethical obligation to protect patients’ confidentiality. We shouldn’t be telling cops ANYTHING without a warrant - minimum.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@RainaBrands This is my life. My partner is the primary contact for everything. “Hey, I’m in the operating room, please call their dad.”
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
5 years
I’ve touched fentanyl many times. This is nonsense.
@NBCLA
NBC Los Angeles
5 years
It's a drug 50 times more potent than heroin, and doctors say just touching it can send you to the emergency room. The synthetic opioid, fentanyl, its not only dangerous, but it contributes to a frightening spike in deaths in LA County.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
6 years
An emergency craniotomy on an otherwise healthy baby is terrifying. I spent the whole case hoping we could work fast enough to reduce damage to her brain. Give your baby vitamin K so we don’t have to do #BabyBrainSurgery and cut open their skull. #vitaminK #neurosurgery
@SBMPediatrics
Clay Jones
6 years
Every time I am confronted with refusal of newborn vitamin K I die just a little inside. Family plans to refuse all interventions. Odds are the baby will be fine, but I bet they wouldn’t refuse an emergency craniotomy.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
“Open when your 1st patient dies” I wrote this letter to myself as a first year medical student. Then I lost it. I’ve lost more than one patient in the last 15 years… I’ll open it when the time is right. What do you hope I told myself? (Or that you would tell caregivers?)
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@notreallyjcm This makes my lecture tomorrow touching on the ongoing trauma from the U.S. genocide against Native Americans, forced removal of children from their families and culture, and forced assimilation of children feel even more relevant.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
6 years
Siri tried to autocorrect “C. diff” to “coffee.” HOW DARE YOU.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
My babies would have died without formula. I tortured myself with #breastisbest while me infant lost weight - feeling it was my fault. When I noticed my first smelled like ketones, I opened a can of formula. #fedisbest
@WHO
World Health Organization (WHO)
4 years
Despite efforts to stop the harmful promotion of breast-milk substitutes, countries are still falling short in protecting parents from misleading information: WHO, @UNICEF , @babyfoodaction new report 🤱🏾 #breastfeeding
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
The highlight of the “wellness retreat” was definitely a colleague shouting I was “an ignorant slut” to “shut me up.” Don’t worry. It was “just a joke.”
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
Imagine if we’d spent all this time updating ventilation systems.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
6 years
I had an awful #USMLE score. Based on that, I should not have been able to get into anesthesia. I have bad multiple choice anxiety & do not retain useless minutia. I am a solid doctor and clutch in an emergency. USMLE doesn’t test for what I bring to the table. #USMLEPassFail
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@HarrietHopfMD @fuzzymittens I usually opt for things that are less funny, but work for me. “I notice you snapped your fingers at me and used my name, but we haven’t properly met. I’m @fuzzymittens , the attending anesthesiologist. What’s your name? What’s your role?”
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
How’s everyone’s sense of despair going?
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
The incident at ACOG didn’t happen because “there wasn’t enough security.” A spouse turned to violent public humiliation because of generations of institutional betrayal - organizations at every level protecting harassers and assaulters.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
My mom made this mask out of a Crown Royal bag and she is hilarious and amazing and talented AF. Bottoms up, folks. #goals
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
I don’t need AI to write my papers. I want AI to sort/delete most of my emails, do the dishes, and pay bills.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
@moira_here All those years of gaslighting and being called a feminazi…. And yet here we are…
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
When I was an intern in the ER, I was pressured to suture a lac unsupervised on a young lady’s face. I had NEVER sutured on anyone conscious besides myself. I told the attending I was worried it would look bad. My protests were scoffed. I wish the patient had asked for plastics.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
8 months
Everyone thinks they value patient autonomy until a woman refuses a medical intervention.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
Never forget for one second, how much absolute courage it took in 2019 to walk into work at a healthcare job. In late 2021, the courage required has only increased, demands for your altruism never ending, taken for granted, and the opportunities to refuel diminished.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
When incensed by an anti-abortion speech, it is profoundly professional to walk out. It is one of the most civil responses one can have in the face of the loss of human rights, bodily autonomy, & medical education. It is the very least we should expect of future physicians.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
I really lucked out getting this mom. ❤️
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
I hoped this pandemic had taught us HCWs that we should stay home when we’re sick and recover, rather than foolishly work through an illness. But instead, the CDC recommends sending us back to work. Once again, HCW being told to pick up the slack in a crisis.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
I never stopped masking.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
We are all basically dysthymic at this point, right?
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@KelseyObGyn @DuchessSexpert Funny, I saw a patient with sleeves and told him how much I love them and asked him to tell me about why they were meaningful. Not once did it cross my mind to say something profoundly problematic and disparaging. It wasn’t even difficult to not be an ass.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
Just a friendly Thanksgiving reminder
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
A little positive news in 2020: Excited to announce my promotion to Clinical Associate Professor today! 🎉 🤓👩‍🏫 🩺 🥰 #MedTwitter #AcademicTwitter @stanfordanes @StanfordBioethx @StanfordMed
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
@michaelyehmd If your patient doesn’t want trainees - ask them why with genuine curiosity. Are they afraid? We’re they harmed in the past by an inexperienced person? You’ll get a lot more out of it than making shallow assumptions. Consent matters.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
Tell me you don’t understand the role of pharmacists without telling me you don’t know the role of pharmacists.
@jhaskinscabrera
Jennifer Cabrera
3 years
I know people who have had pharmacies refuse to fill Ivermectin prescriptions. The pharmacist's job is not to practice medicine but to check interactions, dosages, etc. Completely inappropriate to refuse to fill prescriptions.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
6 years
Kid: Mom, were you just rolling your eyes? Me: No honey... I’m just searching my brain for patience. Kid: Well, you can’t see inside your brain, silly goose.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 months
@arghavan_salles Rape culture, loud and clear. Gross.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
7 months
Patients profound worry over the costs of medical care - leading them to decline interventions & medications - do not mean they lack capacity to make decisions. It means our healthcare system is broken. Patients know they are choosing food & rent over medical bills.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
@lordbogamol Elective, threatened, inevitable, incomplete, complete, septic, and missed abortion - when property and safety treated are life saving procedures. Pregnancy loss is being criminalized bc of people who have an extremely limited understanding of pregnancy and abortion.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
It’s like he has no idea what he’s doing.... but is proud of it.
@responsibleMDs
Radiologist
4 years
#anesthesiologists of Twitter, how does Dr. Ben Klyachman due at intubation great? How many teeth does he break with that first move?? Well at least he’s wearing @wearfigs . @DrMStiegler @stanfordanes @BurgartBioethix @KristinaBraly @anesthesia @anesthesianews
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
I can line up a baby for a liver transplant faster than I can get my kids out the door for school. One more way to feel like a success at work and a failure at home.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
So many front line workers are on the edge right now. If someone is acting strange - mean or withdrawn or frantic or too quiet or too loud or too much.... please consider taking a moment to recognize the stress we’re all facing. We are not our best selves right now.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
When I was accepted to medical school, I sent back the agreement letter covered in 40-ish star stickers. When I arrived on campus, all the staff told me reviewing my letter made their day. When we do things to express our joy, sometimes it rubs off on other people. 🤩
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
4 years
Is it normal to make your therapist cry? Or is being a healthcare worker just that F-ed up when you say it out loud to someone outside the hospital?
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
2 years
@HarrietHopfMD @fuzzymittens The first (and hardest part for me) is to regulate my own knee jerk reaction to lash out. @fuzzymittens is currently modeling one way to add time and reflection before action.
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
5 years
Medical education costs more than a nice house in most of America, so I have been referring to my brain as “The Summer Home.”
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@BurgartBioethix
Alyssa BurgartBioethix
1 year
Who is turning in abortion patients to the cops? It’s Healthcare Providers: doctors, nurses, and social workers. Want to know more? ⤵️
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
The world sucks right now, but this beautiful, 10lb mutt is giving us joy today. ❤️❤️❤️ What should we name her?
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
So glad to have access to this mask for my patient and family with hearing loss 🦻
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
3 years
It’s actually NOT ok that your family is always last on your list. It can happen a few times, but we can’t continue to have a system that relies on us screwing our families. We must prioritize systems that allow us to have complete lives with social support.
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Alyssa BurgartBioethix
5 years
Anesthesia team rolling in to own a difficult airway.
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