Category Archives: Life

Thank You Larry

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One of the difficult aspects at this point in my career is saying goodbye as physicians retire.  Larry Saripkin, who is an amazing person, is retiring (last day yesterday). 

I first met Larry when I was working at Egleston Hospital. Larry, along with Jeff Lewis, provided coverage for me when I had become the single physician in my group.  This allowed me to be off when our youngest son was born.  Then, later, Larry helped convince me to join the merging GI groups at Scottish Rite (23 years ago).  This has been one of my best decisions.  Of course, I feel that our group delivers very good care for our patients.  Yet, the main reason why it has been a good choice is working alongside some terrific individuals. 

Larry has a keen intellect and a wonderful ability to connect with everyone, even families with very stressful medical conditions. He is very generous with his time.  I remember one night when he was on-call, the parents of one of my patients called. They were upset because they could not get the feeding pump to work.  They told me that Larry insisted on driving out to their house (around 11 pm).  He and his wife showed the family how to work the pump.

For about 15 years, he has spent a week every summer at Camp Oasis as the medical director.  At heart, Larry is still a kid.  For years, he would take some of the younger staff (or kids of other physicians) with him when he went to Bonaroo.

He has served as a mentor to many of us in our group and to about a dozen scribes who have moved on to become physician assistants or to medical school/physicians.

Countless families have told me how important Larry has been to them. He has attended many of his patients’ celebrations (eg. weddings).

It will be bittersweet going forward when I walk by Larry’s office & missing out on some great story or some new music.

In this picture with Melissa and Cassie (from 2011), Larry is dressed up
as a cheeseburger (with a fake mustache) at Camp Oasis.

Dark Side of Zoom and Zoombombing

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The video conferencing available via Zoom has been enormously helpful during this sheltering-in place.  However, it has received attention for privacy concerns (thanks to my sister for the following references).

From NPR (4/3/20) A Must For Millions, Zoom Has A Dark Side — And An FBI Warning

An excerpt:

“a new form of harassment known as “Zoombombing,” in which intruders hijack video calls and post hate speech and offensive images such as pornography. It’s a phenomenon so alarming that the FBI has issued a warning about using Zoom…

Researchers have turned up flaws in Zoom’s software that could let hackers spy through a computer’s webcam or microphone. Zoom says it released fixes for these issues on Wednesday…The website Motherboard found that Zoom was sharing data with Facebook, even data on people who are not Facebook users.”

FBI Warning: FBI Warns of Teleconferencing and Online Classroom Hijacking During COVID-19 Pandemic

“The following steps can be taken to mitigate teleconference hijacking threats:

  • Do not make meetings or classrooms public. In Zoom, there are two options to make a meeting private: require a meeting password or use the waiting room feature and control the admittance of guests.
  • Do not share a link to a teleconference or classroom on an unrestricted publicly available social media post. Provide the link directly to specific people.
  • Manage screensharing options. In Zoom, change screensharing to “Host Only.”
  • Ensure users are using the updated version of remote access/meeting applications. In January 2020, Zoom updated their software. In their security update, the teleconference software provider added passwords by default for meetings and disabled the ability to randomly scan for meetings to join.
  • Lastly, ensure that your organization’s telework policy or guide addresses requirements for physical and information security.

If you were a victim of a teleconference hijacking, or any cyber-crime for that matter, report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. Additionally, if you receive a specific threat during a teleconference, please report it to us at tips.fbi.gov or call the FBI Boston Division at (857) 386-2000.”

Advice to avoid hackers from stealing user credentials:  Don’t click on links in Zoom chats from people that you don’t know or when they start with double slashes “\\”.