Welcome back to Inside Medicine!
Hello wonderful Inside Medicine readers!
Whether you’re a long-time subscriber or just joined us, I wanted to take this moment to re-introduce myself and this newsletter now that we have migrated over to Substack (effective today, November 15th).
About me: I’m an emergency medicine physician working in a busy hospital in Boston and I’m a public health researcher. This puts me in the position to see the world of medicine and health through a unique lens. I’m here to share that view with you, and to give you unusual access to what’s really happening on the inside.
Big splash: Starting this week, I will be writing Inside Medicine at least five days per week for a few months. Each week, one or two of the pieces will be “classic” Inside Medicine—big ideas, complex analyses of hot topics, and deep dives on important topics in medicine and public health. Cutting-edge insights from the data I’m devouring or, sometimes, reflections on my clinical work in the ER.
Other days, Inside Medicine will be short and sweet—sometimes just a quick observation or two about what’s top of mind for a working physician like me, what I’m reading (with links and, yes, my commentary—you think I can resist?), or follow-ups to earlier pieces. More on this below in the “What’s Inside Medicine?” section.
The point is that you’ll be hearing from me, a practicing ER physician, every day.
That said, I need your help: Here’s where you come in. The main content of Inside Medicine will always be free. I am committed to that because I believe good information that helps people should be free. Whether I can sustain writing this thing five days per week (!) will honestly depend on how many of you, my wonderful readers, join me on this incredible journey by supporting the newsletter financially. We don’t need everyone to upgrade to paid to make this work. But we definitely need some of you!
Who should upgrade? Are you are one of my long-time readers and supporters? Or maybe you’re new and you’re just digging the vibe! Either way, if you can, and you feel that this is a worthy endeavor, I hope you’ll…
What is Inside Medicine? This newsletter is where I come to meld my frontline on-the-ground experience as a ER doctor with my dedication to (okay, obsession with) rigorously analyzing and untangling complicated emerging data and medical currents. Whether it’s translating the latest Covid-19 paper, describing how monkeypox actually spreads, or demystifying what that headline-grabbing study on colonoscopy in the New England Journal of Medicine really said, Inside Medicine where I record my thoughts and insights, and try to move our thinking ahead on important issues.
I’m proud that here at Inside Medicine, we are often way ahead of the curve. In several cases, Inside Medicine essays have offered insights on data that came out weeks or months later in major medical journals. So, we are not just going Inside Medicine; Quite often, we are way “out in front” of medicine.
Also, I’ve realized that readers want to know about what I’m seeing day-to-day. So, increasingly, I also am “opening up” to you, my awesome readers, about cases I see in the ER (always maintaining patient privacy by changing details). I realize that how doctors process information and why we do what we do is often a “black box” for people. In the “Field Notes,” section, I let you in.
Who reads Inside Medicine?
Inside Medicine is meant to be useful for everyone from my parents to CDC officials, to members of the Covid-19 Response Team at the White House. (I know that members of the latter two groups read it, and I’m fairly certain my parents still read it too!) I’m always threading that needle, trying to reach and influence my professional colleagues at the local, national, and international level, while giving “regular people” genuine and actionable insights that they can use to help guide important choices.
Why support Inside Medicine?
Straight up: I can’t do it without you! Writing Inside Medicine is a labor of love—but it is hard work and takes up a big part of my week. To keep Inside Medicine going, I am hoping that the wonderful community that has brought us this far will help me make it sustainable. Writing Inside Medicine at the level that readers have come to expect means I see patients less often. In order to make that work in the long run, I’m hoping you’ll support the newsletter with a paid subscription. I’m asking for just $5 per month to get daily insights into the medical universe that you can’t get elsewhere. I honestly believe (and hope) that’s a good value proposition! If so, and it’s something you feel you can do…
…or gift one!
By upgrading, you’ll not only be supporting Inside Medicine to make it sustainable, but you’ll gain access to special articles and paywalled content, like interviews with major voices and influencers in medicine. It’ll also help me pay for things like a copy editor and other bells and whistles that will make the newsletter better than ever. But most importantly, if you are able to support Inside Medicine, that will help keep the main content free for everyone.
In a world of medical misinformation and disinformation, I truly don’t want to put fighting the good fight behind a paywall. I know some of you will want to help me in that and I thank you in advance!
Lastly, I’m here to answer your questions. If you have ideas for something you’d like me to cover, I’d love to hear them. Your ideas, questions, and support mean so much to me. More than anything, hearing from you—your feedback—is what makes this so deeply rewarding for me.
Thanks and stay safe!
Jeremy