Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry

So let's talk about the recap of the Autism in Black conference...

How important is it for us to build a community rooted in compassion and support, especially for our autistic and/or neurodivergent loved ones?

As we conclude the third annual Autism in Black Virtual Conference, we are coming off a natural high coming fresh off the success of the event. It's been a wonderful and loving weekend, and our hearts are fully grateful for all that's been part of it.

It is truly fulfilling to see how everyone's been so consistent from its first to the very last day. But behind this great success, there lies stories, efforts, and hard work made by the organizer herself.

Without her and her love for the community, this conference won't even be an event. Each and every year, she puts her all to be able to provide this space. Because after all, she recognizes the need to empower people, and she's decided to have that mission as hers to take.

Join me as we do a recap on the third annual Black in Autism Conference, again with one of my favorite guests, obviously, with no bias—Maria Davis-Pierre, my beloved wife and CEO of Autism in Black.

Why you need to check this episode:

• Understand the importance of having networks and sharing knowledge and wisdom with each other in relation to our journey toward empowerment and a better world;
• Discover the highlights of the recently concluded Autism in Black Virtual Conference 2023 along with some behind-the-scenes stories from the brains behind the event; and
• Find out how Maria-Davis Pierre and the Autism in Black can help and support you through the Autism in Black Community and next year's conference

"We definitely want to make sure that the individuals in the community have the information, they have the support, they have the backup because it can also feel isolating and lonely when you don't have anybody in your support circle who is raising an autistic child or any autistic family members so they're not understanding these sorts of things. Having that community where you can have that space where you don't have to explain as you are trying to get your support just makes it easier and more fulfilling." – Maria Davis-Pierre

Notable Quotes:

"That's one of the things we wanted to be able to do—to make sure we're having the right information, make sure we're well-equipped when we're going to these meetings and advocating on behalf of ourselves or our children, and that we know what needs to be said to get things done, because a lot of times, we put our trust into the school system or the healthcare system, thinking that they have our best interests in heart or our children's best interests in heart, and oftentimes, that's not the case." – Maria Davis-Pierre

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Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, and Spotify

Links/Resources:

• Autism in Black Membership
• Autism in Black Conference 2024
• Autism in Black Website
• Autism in Black Instagram
• Autism in Black Podcast

So let's talk about the COVID-19 pandemic update...

This week will mark the end of the public health emergency declaration from the United States government. On May 11, 2023, COVID-19 is no longer going to be a public health emergency.

With this coming to an end, there will be a lot of changes that will soon come into effect. From having free vaccines, there will eventually come a time when we'll have to visit Pfizer, Moderna, and other companies and hope that our insurance can cover the cost that comes with protecting our life and health.

But just because the government has said 'We're done funding, we're done putting the amount of support that we're doing' doesn't mean that this is the end of the road; because COVID is not just going to disappear on May 11th. It's still going to be here. COVID-19 is still going to affect people.

But as we move towards this stage of COVID-19 being endemic, the question that remains is how well are we prepared, knowing that we no longer have the government as the safety blanket.

Join me again in this week's episode as we discuss the future that lies ahead.

Why you need to check this episode:

• Find out how the US government was able to make history with the largest adult vaccination program, and how that response helped make things a bit better during the pandemic;
• Understand the changes that can and will happen once the public health emergency declaration ends on the 11th of May, 2023; and
• Recognize the importance of being well-prepared and protected as we move towards this stage of COVID-19 being endemic

"I'm hoping that we don't ever have to see what it's like for our nation to operate as a community and show its community efforts to get better. I'm hoping that we recognize our mistakes and say, 'Hey, you know what? I'm going to make sure I shore up the public health scene so they can deal with the threats before it gets to us."– Dr. Berry Pierre

Notable Quotes:

"I'm hoping that we don't ever have to see what it's like for our nation to operate as a community and show its community efforts to get better. I'm hoping that we recognize our mistakes and say, 'Hey, you know what? I'm going to make sure I shore up the public health scene so they can deal with the threats before it gets to us." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"When we talk about community building, not only are we talking about education; not only are we talking about prevention; not only are we talking about doing things together; but more importantly, empowering others to do so." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"Just because the government has said 'we're done funding, we're done putting the amount of support that we're doing doesn't mean that this is the end of the road because COVID is not just going to disappear on May 11th." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"I do believe that as it continues to get further and further away from May 11, 2023, it's going to be harder and harder for you to just get anything free associated with COVID-19." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"Understand that you are part of an ecosystem, whether that ecosystem is you and your family, you and your loved ones, you and your gym buddies. You are part of an ecosystem that needs to be addressed and taken care of." – Dr. Berry Pierre

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Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share the episode with a friend or family member.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, and Spotify

Links:

COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Transition Roadmap

Let's Connect:

Instagram

TikTok

Lunch and Learn Patreon Family

In this week's episode of the Real Physician Reacts series we return with our miniseries - "Ask the Internist" where I field questions from our live audience. This week's topic is how to become a Great Hospitalist physician.

Click here to watch the full video on YouTube

Several discussion points today;

• What is a hospitalist physician?
• What are the 4 phases that I process when taking care of patients in the hospital?
• Why trust is so important in the acute care setting.

So let's talk about the importance of building a community...

In everything that you are trying to achieve - be it in your business, your spirituality, or most importantly, your health - everything is a lot easier to do when you have a system that's there to support you when you're up and when you're down. And if you already know me, you'd know that I love to call that system a "community".

Surrounding ourselves with people who are supportive enough to cheer for us and empowered enough to call us out when we're not doing what we're supposed to do plays a big factor in whether we will become successful or not; unfortunately, many still believe that doing things alone is the way to go.

Truth is, many of us need that group of supportive people who will encourage us, lift us up, and hold us accountable for our actions or the lack thereof; we just don't know or acknowledge it yet.

So join me today as I shed light on why having that community around you is crucial to your success, and guide you on how you can build one for yourself.

Why you need to check this episode:

• Learn why you should build a supportive and empowered environment within your community early in your life;
• Find out what an empowered community looks like; and
• Learn how to select the right people to include in your community

"You can't be successful in your goals and aspirations if you do not have partners along the way who are going to be there when you're up, and more importantly, going to be there when you're down."– Dr. Berry Pierre

Notable Quotes:

"We have to get rid of this myth that being by ourselves is what's needed to get to the next level. That's just not true. It's never been true." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"You have to develop a community that encourages you and lifts you up when you need it, but are also able to say 'Hey, you're not doing what you need to do; get back on the path." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"For some people, having a good community or a bad community can be a life or death decision." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"We talked about making sure that we empower our community members with the support that they need to feel empowered and feel some sense of ownership within the community; because if they feel that sense of ownership, they're ready to rock." – Dr. Berry Pierre

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In this week's episode of the Real Physician Reacts series we decided to open up the conversation and medical students and how to successfully manage the transition of going from medical student to resident physician.

In a physician's career one of the biggest transitions they have to go through is becoming the physician they dreamed of being just several months after being just the medical student on the team.

Click here to watch the full video on YouTube

Several discussion points today;

• Why do 4th-year medical students struggle to become good resident physicians?
• The need to ask questions of yourself while learning to take care of others.
• Learning to lean on the support of your senior physicians
• My thoughts on what makes a good PGY-1 as a former Program Director

So let's talk about bioethical intervention...

The medical community has a rich history of false information, and it even got to a point when the community itself was the perpetrator of fake news. Mis- and disinformation have become so prevalent that even in the age of the internet, it remains to be the most difficult challenge healthcare workers have to win against.

But that doesn't mean that we will and shall remain silent against all the misinformation and disinformation that's been thrown our way, especially in the middle of the pandemic.

That's why for this episode, I invited Evan Thornburg, a bioethicist and TikTok content creator who aims to battle public health disinformation and misinformation by educating people on issues concerning public health.

Do not become a victim of these social media "experts" and their unverified and mostly untruthful claims. Join Evan and me as we talk about the importance of acknowledging and understanding the roots of both mis- and disinformation in the medical field. Gather tips on how to effectively combat fake news both as a content creator and as part of the audience.

Why you need to check this episode:

• Discover how the internet has affected the overall situation of medical misinformation and disinformation, both positively and negatively;
• Find out why you should first acknowledge and validate the reasons of people who believe in conspiracy theories instead of dismissing them right away; and
• Learn why you should never talk to an audience in such a way that would make you sound like the smartest person in the room.

"I don't want to explain 'why this is wrong'. What I want to explain is what someone is doing. What I want to explain is the technique they're using. What I want to explain is how you can see this for yourself. Fortifying or sharpening everybody's abilities to identify the problem means that I don't have to be there every time a new concept comes out." – Evan Thornburg

Notable Quotes:

"Misinformation has been a bit of a keystone in medicine when we start to look at it through the lens of the history of medicine, especially of black and brown bodies." – Evan Thornburg

"One of the things that I've learned in researching and trying to understand people's consumption of disinformation and misinformation and conspiracy theories is that they experience an intensity of fear and anxiety around health and health information. And I think it's fair to affirm that. I think the first place that a lot of folks go wrong is denying them that reality." – Evan Thornburg

"We've overbought into the marketplace of ideas. We've overdrunk that Kool-Aid too deep like the best idea will just naturally float on top. It doesn't. The most exciting idea, the most promoted idea, the most beneficial financially idea does." – Evan Thornburg

"We don't have a natural propensity towards integrity… Most people choose integrity when they think something has the integrity to it. But it's not a natural propensity for us to just know what's the thing with the most integrity." – Evan Thornburg

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Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share the episode with a friend or family member.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, and Spotify

Links/Resources:

• Evan's TikTok

Let's Connect:

Instagram

TikTok

Lunch and Learn Patreon Family

In this week's episode of the Real Physician Reacts series we decided to open up the conversation and start a miniseries - "Ask the Internist" where I field questions from our live audience.

Click here to watch the full video on YouTube

Several discussion points today;

• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Covid Vaccine, Pan-Vaccine, and the newest variants
• Difference between an Internist and a Family Medicine Physician
• My thoughts on the nurse practitioners in health care

So let's talk about the Autism in Black conference...

There are a lot of stigmas that's been surrounding autism for a very long time now. And even today, in 2023, many people still lack compassion and understanding toward autistic people. On top of that, things get even trickier if you come from the black community.

Being a part of the minority in America is already hard enough, but being part of the black community while dealing with the stigma that people have about autism just unlocks a whole new level of struggle. I know, for I, myself, am a father of two beautiful children who has autism, and I had to face its challenges when our first daughter was diagnosed at a very early age.

This, exactly, is what inspired my wife, Maria Davis-Pierre, to start Autism in Black.

Since its launch three years ago, she has dedicated herself to helping parents from the black community who have kids with autism by means of providing education and advocacy services. Part of this is the Autism in Black Conference, an annual event where we invite various experts and resource speakers who are also part of the black, neurodivergent community to educate and empower attendees by speaking about their personal and professional experiences on dealing with autism.

Join us today as we talk you through our advocacy at Autism in Black, and how Autism in Black Conference might just be that one big support that you have been longing to have all this time.

Why you need to check this episode:

• Discover the backstory of Autism in Black and why they do what they do;
• Learn what Autism in Black Conference is all about, and get answers to the most frequently asked questions about it; and
• Find out who can attend the conference, what topics will be discussed, where and when the conference will be, and what the different available ticket options/packages are

"[When] we started Autism in Black, we wanted to support parents raising black autistic children through education and empowerment, and we wanted to flip the game and go into organizations and train them on how to be less harmful to the black disability community." – Maria Davis-Pierre

Notable Quotes:

"More than half of our speakers are either autistic or they fall under the neurodivergent umbrella… We are actually a conference that is talking about our lived experiences, in addition to our professional experiences. And I think that's what makes us different." – Maria Davis-Pierre

"Anyone can come to our conference… However, understand that our content centers only on the black experience. We center our experiences at our conference because our experiences are oftentimes not valued and diminished in other environments and under other circumstances." – Maria Davis-Pierre

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Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share the episode with a friend or family member.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, and Spotify

Links/Resources:

• Website
• Instagram
• Podcast
• Autism in Black Conference

Let's Connect:

Instagram

TikTok

Lunch and Learn Patreon Family

In this episode of the Real Physician Reacts series we a video making the rounds by a pediatrician when asked why he doesn't wear a mask in his practice anymore. Now this isn't a new phenomenon within healthcare facilities. Many doctors have elected to go back to a time when masks were not a part of the wardrobe.

The discussion today highlights the rock and hard place many physicians find themselves when deciding on how to move along with this pandemic.

Click here to watch the full video on YouTube

Several discussion points today;

• Is masking in a healthcare setting necessary?
• What are your thoughts when you walk into a sick clinic and there isn't a mask on site
• How tough decisions have to be made in the eyes of the patient

Links

• Tik Tok Video

So let's talk about your second-quarter goals...

Before the beginning of the year 2023, we did an episode wherein I told you my goals and plans for this year. In that same episode and in the ones that followed, I also told you the importance of taking responsibility for why things that you have planned go one way or another.

Now, three months have already passed and we are officially in the second quarter of this year. And as anyone who knows me knows, if I do not teach you the importance of tracking, assessing, and taking accountability for how you are achieving your goals, I'd be remiss.

That's why for today's podcast episode, I'll be talking to you about how my first quarter went, how things are going, and how I plan to do things in the second quarter of this year–all while also sharing how you can do better for your own plans.

Why you need to check this episode:

• Find out where Dr. Berry is in terms of his goals for 2023 while getting tips on how you can track yours;
• Learn the value of always asking for help in order to make progress on things that you want to achieve; and
• Be empowered to do more and know that you still have more opportunities this year if your first three months didn't quite go as planned

"I see a lot of tweets and posts like, 'Wow, the calendar's moving'. No, it's moving the same as it moves every year. The question is, how intentionally are we moving while the calendar is moving?"– Dr. Berry Pierre

Notable Quotes:

"A lot of us' biggest hurdle is we will not ask for help when we need help. We will just rack up our brains and sit in the same position we're in for days, weeks, and months because of our pride in not asking for help. I don't want y'all to do that" – Dr. Berry Pierre

"We got three more quarters to go, which means that we have three more opportunities to improve upon what was good; but more importantly, to improve on what is bad." – Dr. Berry Pierre

"When I stress about the good stuff, I don't want you to just do the good stuff one time and then not think of it again. I want you to keep doing the good stuff over and over and over again. That's really the name of the game" – Dr. Berry Pierre

"You are never going to improve upon yourself if you don't acknowledge the things that need to be improved upon or things that you need to do less of." – Dr. Berry Pierre

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Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share the episode with a friend or family member.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, and Spotify