Portland Direct Primary Care
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Beyond 7 minutes

I trained as a Family Doctor so that I would be ready to help patients with any challenge. The old school family doc used to take that skill set out into the community on house calls, sports sidelines, and town hall meetings. At some point the job description was boiled down into a job that started and ended with a 7 minute office visit. That setup is not good for patients, and it's not good for doctors. In this column I hope to start to push the boundary of where the doctor patient interaction takes place - onto the page, into the community, and beyond 7 minutes.

Practical considerations post vaccine

It is important to understand that getting a vaccine does not allow one to return to "normal life". Getting a vaccine is like getting a coat of sunscreen. It should protect you for some amount of time from a bad sunburn (bad sunburn = getting severe COVID). Even if you apply sunscreen it is not a good idea to spend all day at the beach exposing yourself to harmful rays (all day at the beach = situations in which you are likely to be exposed to others with COVID). Sunscreen is a good additional measure to other protective measures like clothing, shade, sunglasses, and limiting sun exposure (For COVID protection this would be masks, hand washing and social distancing).

As a practicing physician, my vaccination will allow me to do my job safely and start seeing more patient in person again. It will allow me a little less worry about spreading COVID to my family at home. I'm not going to go visit my elderly relatives, I'm not going to go out to bars and restaurants, and I'm not going to stop wearing my mask and social distancing.

Remember we are all in this together. Until we are all protected, we are all still vulnerable. Continued vigilance is key to weathering this storm.

Oren Gersten, MD