Lora Shinn

The U.S. Medicare system can change annually—sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Here are this year's big changes.

After Karen Jackson was diagnosed in her 40s with Stage II cancer in her right breast, a mixture of emotions soon followed—anger, fear, disappointment, and worry about the unknown. Many have found themselves in Jackson’s position after a cancer diagnosis—as if in a boat adrift, without a clear map of where they’re headed or a chart to help interpret the night sky.

In the late 1970s, one cancer surgeon at New York’s Harlem Hospital Center found an ongoing tragedy: Black, poor and uninsured women were coming in with advanced breast cancer.
“The women were dying at such a high rate,” Dr. Harold Freeman recalls. Patients had felt the initial lump often months or years back, but getting screened and biopsied involved long crosstown commutes and bureaucratic thickets. That’s challenging when you’re a single parent, for instance, working long hours to meet su...

Maybe you can only imagine the scenario, or perhaps you’ve experienced it. At night in bed, you hope sleep will obliterate the despairing emptiness that’s been looming all day. Or that you’ll finally escape the disembodied whispers saying no one loves you and you don’t deserve to live.
In the morning, a sick swirl of anxiety descends, and your chest tightens after yet another night plagued by racing thoughts. Placing one foot on the floor seems improbable. Calling a list of therapists feels i...

Urgent care facilities have become more widely available in recent years, popping up in urban cores, strip malls and small towns across America. According to a June 2021 report from the National Center for Health Statistics, urgent care and retail health clinic users were more likely to be women, younger (under age 44), non-Hispanic Whites and have either some college or a college degree or higher.
Patients turn to urgent care and retail clinics for many reasons, including more scheduling fle...

Heavily researched long-form journalism on why patients and physicians often talk past one another, and what can be done to improve communication.

Between attending lectures and dissecting cadavers, first-year medical student Ryan Ziltzer volunteers as a medical clown. Several times a month, he pops on a red nose, grabs some wacky props and arrives at L.A.-area hospitals, ready to entertain patients and inject some levity into otherwise sterile environments.
Medical clowning isn’t the newest trend among future physicians. Ziltzer stumbled into it as an undergrad at the University of Southern California, the only school in the country to...

Joining a credit union requires comparing different offerings, learning about membership qualifications, and funding your account. Unlike banks, which are open to the public, credit unions often have membership criteria, so not everyone can join. Find out how to determine whether a credit union would be a good fit for you, and how to join one.

By Lora Shinn
PLU Marketing & Communications Guest Writer
PLU, Dr. Erik Arnits ’11 studied biology and chemistry as a double major. At first, he thought chemistry or dentistry was his future—but a medical mission trip the summer before his senior year to Costa Rica and Panama changed everything.
He kept a journal of his time and felt his perspective shift, reflecting on new ideas about who he was and wanted to do. “After seeing a place that doesn’t have much access to medicine and is very und...

The Seattle literary arts organization Hugo House once made its home in a ramshackle two-story building with peeling paint outside and a yellow bucket to catch leaking rainwater inside. But with a growing number of visitors each year, the house could no longer comfortably support all the nonprofit’s programs. “We loved the old house, but we couldn’t fix it,” says Linda Breneman, who founded Hugo House with Andrea Lewis and Frances McCue in the late nineties. “It didn’t quite have the infrastr...

Whether 47 or 74, few relish contemplating a future funeral and death. End-of-life planning is a heavy topic — even before you start digging into the details and costs of those details.
Yet, arranging and documenting your final goodbyes can avoid confusion, family arguments, and very expensive decisions under pressure. Cremation costs can vary by 770% and burial costs by 440%, according to the Seattle-based nonprofit membership organization People’s Memorial Association.
PMA’s recently releas...

When a spender marries a saver, financial fireworks can ensue, and not the good kind. Should the duo combine accounts to minimize stress and create a new life together -- or keep separate accounts to maximize options and retain financial autonomy? Or, maybe try a mix of the two? We spoke with financial counselors, marriage therapists and individuals about each approach and received these tips.

Browse the items available at a Seattle-area salvage store, and you may find enough to assemble an entire bathroom or kitchen.
It’s the stuff of a remodeler’s dreams: a like-new low-flow toilet; an unopened box of tile; a 1950s sink and faucet — all at a fraction of the price if they were purchased new.
In the right home, salvage success stories can astound. Cabinetry hailing from a 1900s Capitol Hill home went into a huge kitchen being remodeled by Laura Elfline, co-founder and owner of Migh...

You are not alone if you’re craving more privacy in your yard — or if you just need something to distract or shield you from your neighbor’s shenanigans.
Landscapers and gardeners say they frequently hear from Seattleites who hunger for ways to block their neighbor’s view across the property line. But living in the Puget Sound region presents many barriers to that desire, thanks to our narrow lots, multistory townhouses rising next door and other city-living challenges.
The best advice from t...