Ethan Craig was not pleased. As a reader of this column, you know that Dr. Craig is an assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Pennsylvania and an associate editor of The Rheumatologist. On this particular morning, however, he was the father of a 5-year-old who woke up…
Physician Editor Philip Seo, MD, MHS, is associate professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also serves as director of the Johns Hopkins Vasculitis Center and the Johns Hopkins Rheumatology Fellowship Training Program. He has worked at Johns Hopkins in a variety of roles, including as an intern, resident, hospitalist, assistant chief of service and rheumatology fellow, prior to joining the faculty. In addition to serving as the physician editor of The Rheumatologist, he is a member of the American College of Rheumatology's Annual Meeting Planning Committee and Committee on Training and Workforce, and is co-chair of the In-Training Examination Subcommittee.
Articles by Philip Seo, MD, MHS
What I Saw at the Pandemic
I never wake up late. This wasn’t always the case. All the way through residency, I was completely dependent on alarm clocks to keep from oversleeping. So much so that when my alarm clock broke halfway through my internship, I replaced it the next day. I remember driving in the middle of the night to…
Space & Other Races
On April 5, 1950, a small group of scientists met in Silver Spring, Md., to talk about geophysics. I know this is not the most riveting way to start, but if you stick with me, I promise the story will get much more interesting. This group of scientists met to discuss all that was still…
Every Vote Counts
It came down to the toss of a coin. David Yancey represented the Newport News district in the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 2011. In 2017, he had a challenger. Shelly Simonds, a member of the local school board, decided to run for the privilege of representing the 94th District. The final tally: 11,608…
The Problem with Peer Review
I should have paid more attention in medical school. If I had, I might have remembered enough about basic pathophysiology to know why everyone was suddenly pulling their patients off of lisinopril. For those of you who need a quick primer: When the pressure in the renal artery drops, the kidney secretes renin. Working together,…
The Half-Life of the Truth
My fellow was laughing at me. By itself, I don’t think this was an unusual occurrence. I am quite certain that my fellows laugh at me all the time. That said, when such laughter is called for, I am accustomed to a certain protocol being observed. In general, I expect the laughter to be contained,…
We Make a Difference
“No!” she screamed. My niece just finished her first semester as a freshman at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. If the institution sounds familiar to you, it may be because you remember a particularly famous graduate—William Windsor, who sometimes goes by his formal titles: Duke of Cambridge and heir to the British throne….
Enemy at the Gates: The Emerging Threat of COVID-19
On Dec. 30, 2019, an ophthalmologist named Li Wenliang notified his colleagues about an illness that was reminiscent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in a city in the Hubei province of China called Wuhan. As an ophthalmologist, this was not directly relevant to his practice; he merely wanted to warn colleagues that they might…
The Plight of the Retail Pharmacist
She wanted me to call in an antibiotic. My sister, a lawyer, often tells me how the ethics of her profession govern even her extra-professional acts. She feels that when she was sworn into the New York State bar, she lost the freedom to bend the truth. She would never, for example, attempt to smuggle…
The Third Choice: The Predatory Journal Scam
“Greetings of the day!” My email account used to be flooded by these cheerful salutations, referring to me as an esteemed colleague or a thought leader. I have to admit: at first, I enjoyed receiving these messages. Normally, when I log into my email account, I’m greeted by messages—punctuated by red, capital letters—that announce dire…