December 10, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed hospitals and healthcare like nothing else this past century. Physicians themselves have fallen ill or died, passed the infection to their loved ones, and weathered grief, burnout, suicides, furloughs, and financial losses. As case numbers and fatalities continue to mount, some doctors are pinning their hopes on the notion that the pandemic has rocked the foundation of medicine, deconstructing and reinventing standard procedures in ways that could improve care down the road. That by providing a footing for new ideas, new technology, new voices, and new ways of working, COVID-19 could change the practice of medicine.