Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

Contributing Writer

Batya Swift Yasgur MA, LSW, is a freelance medical writer who writes news, features, CME materials, and books for a variety of venues and target audiences, including healthcare professionals and consumers. She has a passion for human rights activism and is the author of Behind the Burqa (John Wiley, 2002), a memoir of 2 Afghan sisters who escaped Afghanistan. In addition, she holds the 1995 Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Published Mystery Story. Her fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and several other publications. Beyond her desire to contribute to people's health and wellbeing through her writing, Batya offers emotional/spiritual support to clients in her Teaneck, New Jersey-based counseling practice to facilitate their journeys toward healing.

All articles by Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

The pitfall of self-reported stress levels is that the baseline stress for some people is so high, a cancer diagnosis doesn’t even register.

Practice Management

Addressing Patient Emotions: Communication Style May Impact Visit Length

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

March 18, 2022

Visits were shorter when the clinician’s responses explicitly focused on the patient’s affect.

Practice Management

Language in Patient Records Can Convey More Than Medical History

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

September 10, 2021

The language in a patient’s medical record can convey information not only about the patient’s condition but about the attitude of the clinician writing the report.

Lung Infection

COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation: Ethical Concerns, Practical Challenges

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

November 10, 2020

In the event of a likely scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines, a framework must be developed to inform who should get priority.

Practice Management

Seven Tips for Managing Healthcare Teamwork During a Pandemic

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

July 20, 2020

COVID-19 has brought unprecedented stress to society at large and perhaps most of all to frontline healthcare teams in a variety of settings.

Lung Infection

Transitioning to Telemedicine During COVID-19: 7 Things to Consider

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

May 1, 2020

The use of telemedicine has been surging since the onset of COVID-19, with millions of Americans now using this medium for connecting with their clinicians.

Lung Infection

Support and Self-Care for Clinicians During COVID-19: An Interview With Jesse Clark, DO

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

April 13, 2020

To shed light on how clinical practice is dealing in this time of COVID-19, we spoke with Jesse Clark, DO, Associate Program Director of Education at the Community East Family Medicine Residency and Clinical Chairperson of Family Medicine at Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Smoking

Helping Patients Quit Smoking: A Road Map for Clinicians

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

January 29, 2020

Successful smoking cessation involves a 2-pronged approach, since there are 2 components to smoking – physiological and behavioral, according to Nervana Elkhadragy, PharmD, MS, TTS, of Purdue University, College of Pharmacy, Indianapolis.

Practice Management

Dress for Success: Physician Attire May Influence Patients’ Perception of Care

Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW

January 2, 2020

To shed further light on the role of physician attire in the medical setting, MPR interviewed Nathan Houchens, MD, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Next post in Practice Management