LA Examiner

Author: Will Jones

  • Dr. Dana: Bridging Medicine and Music with a Voice That Heals

    Dr. Dana: Bridging Medicine and Music with a Voice That Heals

    In a city known for dreamers and doers, few stories stand out quite like that of Dr. Dana. By day, she is a respected breast radiologist, dedicated to caring for patients and advocating for cancer awareness. By night, she transforms into a soulful singer-songwriter, creating music that blends folk, jazz, rock, and soul into something deeply cinematic and undeniably moving.

    For Dana, these two worlds aren’t as far apart as they may seem. “Being a physician and musician feels like two sides of the same coin. Both are about healing,” she says. “In medicine, I care for people’s bodies. In music, I reach their hearts.”

    A Journey Rooted in Resilience

    Dana’s relationship with music began early, singing alongside her grandmother, a Palestinian refugee whose soulful voice left a lasting imprint. That foundation carried her through piano lessons, guitar practice, and the start of songwriting in her teenage years.

    But when medical school demanded her full focus, music became a quiet passion in the background. It wasn’t until 2020, while working at Tampa’s renowned Moffitt Cancer Center, that Dana rediscovered her love of performing. Joining The ReMissions, a band made up of healthcare professionals, reignited her passion. From that point on, music was no longer optional. It was a calling.

    “Finding music again after years of focusing solely on medicine was like reclaiming a piece of my spirit,” she reflects. “It’s brought joy and balance back to my life.”

    Music With Purpose

    Her upcoming EP, The Space Between, highlights Dana’s ability to weave her personal experiences and medical advocacy into songs that resonate far beyond her own story. Tracks like “Not Alone,” “Stage 4 Needs More,” “The Cure,” and “End the Confusion” capture themes of resilience, urgency, and human connection.

    With “Stage 4 Needs More,” Dana channels her experiences in oncology to spotlight the critical need for more research and treatments for advanced cancer patients. “I sing to give voice to those who need more—more effective treatments and more hope,” she says.

    Unlike many rising artists, Dana’s songs are written not for fleeting trends but for lasting impact. “My songs are an invitation to feel everything—the raw, the real, the beautiful—and to find something bigger that binds us all together.”

    Building a Platform Beyond the Exam Room

    Dana has already performed at local festivals and community events, as well as national stages, including delivering the national anthem at major league baseball games. Each performance reinforces her commitment to blending artistry with advocacy, showing audiences that music can heal in ways medicine alone cannot.

    Her vision goes beyond the stage. Dana is positioning her music for film and television placements, recognizing that her cinematic style lends itself naturally to storytelling on screen. “My music is written for those moments where you just need to feel,” she says.

    dana solo

    Why She Stands Out

    In today’s music industry, where image often overshadows message, Dr. Dana offers a refreshing reminder that authenticity matters. She doesn’t shy away from sharing her dual identity as physician and artist. Instead, she embraces it fully, using her unique perspective to shape both her medical career and her artistry.

    “Being a musician has taught me to be fearless in showing my true self,” Dana says. “That vulnerability makes me a better doctor, artist, and advocate.”

    It’s a story that resonates in Los Angeles, a city where reinvention and passion are celebrated. Dr. Dana isn’t just another artist hoping to make it big. She is a professional already at the top of one demanding field who chose not to ignore her creative calling. That balance between two worlds makes her a standout voice in both.

    What’s Next

    As she prepares to release The Space Between, Dr. Dana is looking ahead to more performances, broader collaborations, and an expanding audience. Her message is clear: healing doesn’t stop at the hospital doors. With her music, she hopes to bring comfort, courage, and connection to listeners everywhere.

    To learn more about her journey and music, visit DrDanaRocks.com. You can also follow her on Instagram, stream her songs on Spotify, or watch her latest performances on YouTube.

    Written in partnership with Tom White

  • The Benefits of Electrical Stimulation for Pain Management

    The Benefits of Electrical Stimulation for Pain Management

    Image credit: Unsplash

    When you’re a child, it’s easy to feel impervious to pain. Your bones and your body are so fresh and new that they are precision-engineered to bounce back from all kinds of duress with little to no residual soreness. However, as you get older, your bones become less malleable and far more rigid, in conjunction with your life itself. As an adult, you have rigidly defined rules and structures by which you live your life, as opposed to when you were a child and lived a much more sporadic and free-wheeling existence. Your body follows this exact evolutionary path as well, which can result in severe, debilitating pain.

    In decades past, people simply lived with these issues. However, thanks to the miracles of modern science and medicine, you don’t have to suffer through such pain anymore. People are now living longer, healthier, and more fulfilled lives than ever before, largely due to the way new technological tools have enabled them to alleviate their pain.

    Electrical stimulation therapy is a tool that utilizes concentrated bursts of electrical current to stimulate specific muscle groups, helping relieve tension, stress, and aches substantially. 

    The Persistent Problem of Pain

    Chronic pain affects millions of people around the globe, preventing them from leading their lives to the fullest. You spend your whole life working tirelessly so that you can get to a point in life where you feel accomplished, like you can finally slow down and start to smell the roses. For as sweet as that notion is, it’s challenging to enjoy the roses if you’re preoccupied with a sharp pain in your body. To this end, electrical stimulation therapy strives to bring relief to patients through healthy, holistic means. 

    Whereas traditional treatments such as medication and surgery have limitations and side effects, electrical stimulation can uniquely circumvent these issues. As a non-invasive, drug-free option, it is gaining popularity in clinical and home settings.

    Understanding Electrical Stimulation

    Common types of electrical stimulation:

    • TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation): for blocking pain signals.
    • EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation): for muscle rehabilitation.
    • IFC (Interferential Current Therapy): for deeper pain relief.

    By sending mild electrical impulses through electrodes on the skin, electrical stimulation therapy is able to access deeper tissue and muscle without ever breaking the skin.

    Benefits of Electrical Stimulation for Pain Management

    There are numerous benefits to electrical stimulation therapy when compared to other methods. 

    Non-Invasive & Drug-Free Relief

    This type of therapy avoids medication altogether, meaning that there are no short-term or long-term side effects. Additionally, this makes electrical stimulation therapy ideal for patients who can’t tolerate certain drugs.

    Chronic Pain Management

    People struggling with arthritis, fibromyalgia, back pain, or nerve pain can alleviate their pain in a way that other methods are often incapable of achieving.

    Post-Surgical & Injury Recovery

    This therapy also works to reduce inflammation and swelling, which helps promote faster healing and recovery.

    Improved Mobility & Function

    It also helps restore range of motion by reducing pain during activity.

    Customizable & Targeted Treatment
    Electrical stimulation therapy is an extremely fluid procedure that has adjustable intensity and frequency settings to suit patients’ needs.

    Future of Electrical Stimulation Therapy

    Over the last several years, there have been key advancements in portable home-use devices. In tandem with the integration of wearable technology and AI for personalized pain management, this has brought electrical stimulation therapy to a whole new host of patients in need. 

    Electrical stimulation is now an accessible, evidence-based tool for improving quality of life. You no longer have to simply accept your pain and write it off as just a side effect of aging. You can live your life to the fullest once more with electrical stimulation therapy.

    FAQ

    How does ES therapy work?

    The procedure sends electrical currents through the areas in pain, targeting specific muscles or groups.

    Is it safe?

    It’s always best to seek professional medical advice, but ES therapy is conducted by experienced individuals who know how to utilize the tools effectively.

    Is it only for elderly patients?

    Not at all, the therapy is beneficial to anyone, young or old, who is struggling with chronic pain. 

    Written in partnership with Tom White

  • Smokey Robinson Accused of Multiple Sexual Assaults

    Smokey Robinson Accused of Multiple Sexual Assaults

    Image credit: Unsplash

    Four women have recently come forward and accused singer and producer Smokey Robinson of sexually harassing and repeatedly assaulting them while they worked as housekeepers for the Motown icon and his wife at various times going back to 2007.

    “We’re seeking damages of $50 million. Obviously, no amount of money can compensate these women for what Mr. Robinson subjected them to, but given the gravity of Mr. Robinson’s despicable and reprehensible misconduct, that is further detailed in the complaint, this amount is clearly warranted,” lawyer John W. Harris said at a press conference attended by the women Tuesday.

    The Lawsuit

    According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe 1, alleges Robinson sexually battered her at least seven times between January 2023 and February 2024. She claims Robinson would take his wife out, rush home, and then lure her into his “blue bedroom,” where he would lock the door and place a white towel on his bed so he wouldn’t “soil the bed lines.” The woman alleges Robinson ignored her resistance to his advances and would “roughly penetrate” her. “She quit in February 2024 because she could no longer endure these sexual assaults,” Harris said.

    Jane Doe 2 alleges she worked for Robinson and his wife between May 2014 and February 2020. She claims Robinson forced her into unwanted sexual acts on at least 23 occasions. She says Robinson would force her to perform oral sex on him before he penetrated her without using a condom. She claims he “enjoyed ejaculating all over [her] face, much to his satisfaction and her abject humiliation.”

    Jane Doe 3 alleges Robinson “repeatedly sexually harassed, sexually assaulted… [her] during most of her entire employment” between February 2012 and April 2024, according to the official complaint. 

    Jane Doe 4 reports that she began her employment with Robinson and his wife in 2006, but was compelled to resign in April 2024 because of alleged abuse. She asserts that Robinson initially sexually assaulted her in 2007 during a visit to his Las Vegas residence.

    “He would pull [Jane Doe 4’s] clothes off, and against her protestations, push her down on the bed” and proceed to assault her, the 27-page lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone states. “Defendant Smokey Robinson never used a condom during the sexual assaults, ejaculating into [her] vagina or withdrawing and ejaculating all over her body, much to his satisfaction and her abject humiliation.”

    Bringing the Charges to Light

    Three of the Jane Does indicated that they hesitated to report the alleged abuse due to fear of job loss and potential negative consequences for their immigration status. The lawsuit claims they felt “intimidated” by Robinson’s “well-recognized celebrity status and his influential friends and associates.”

    According to the complaint, Robinson’s wife, Frances, “failed to take the appropriate corrective action to prevent defendant Smokey Robinson’s deviant misconduct,” despite allegedly “having full knowledge of his prior acts of sexual misconduct, having settled cases with other women that suffered and experienced similar sexual assaults perpetuated by him.”

  • California Students and Schools Still Struggle to Recover From the Pandemic

    California Students and Schools Still Struggle to Recover From the Pandemic

    Image credits: Unsplash

    It has been almost exactly five years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools across California. Yet, schools and their students continue to recover slowly despite increased funding from state and federal governments.

    According to researchers at Harvard and Stanford, California students continue to underperform on standardized tests compared to pre-pandemic scores. Math scores are equivalent to being 31% of a grade level behind, while reading scores are 40% of a grade level behind. 

    What the average scores mask, however, is wider disparities in scores between schools serving affluent districts and schools serving low-income districts—a gap that Sean Reardon, faculty director of the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford, has called “a pernicious inequality.”

    The Deeper Impact of the Pandemic

    Standardized scores also fail to capture the deeper impact that a year in isolation has had on California’s youth: their mental health, socialization, communication skills, study habits, and resilience. William C. Overfelt High serves 1,400 Hispanic and Vietnamese American students in East San Jose, mostly from low-income households. 

    Principal Vito Chiala shares this about the impact: “We tend to overlook the longer-term effects of the delay in socialization and self-discipline—things that schools nurtured in young people.” 

    Overfelt High’s teachers and staff focused primarily on school-related behavior, self-regulation, and communication skills during students’ first year back from virtual learning. 

    “Students who had spent over a year saying whatever they wanted on social media had to face people in person,” Chiala recalls, “and that was super-uncomfortable sometimes. Now it’s much more about endurance, being willing and able to do hard academic work for longer periods of time.”

    Overfelt High isn’t alone in that experience. In 2021-22, 87% of public schools indicated that the pandemic had delayed students’ socioemotional development, with 56% reporting more frequent cases of classes disrupted by student misconduct, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

    Chronic Absenteeism

    Meanwhile, chronic absenteeism (defined as missing 10% of school days or more) tripled in California from its pre-pandemic level of 12% (in the 2018-19 school year) to 30% in the 2021-22 school year. By 2023-24, the chronic absenteeism rate dropped to 20%, still well above the earlier 12%. 

    Just as with standardized test scores, the gap is wider for disadvantaged communities, with Black students, homeless students, and students in foster families seeing chronic absenteeism at roughly double the rate of white middle-class students. 

    While only 2% of schools serving the most affluent districts reported high or extreme levels of chronic absenteeism, 72% of schools at which over three-quarters of the student population come from low-income households reported frequent absences.

    Heady Chang, founder of Attendance Works, suggests, “If you want to reduce chronic absence, you need to solve the root causes that result in kids not showing up to school in the first place. The barriers—poor transportation, homelessness, and food insecurity—are huge, and these issues are hard to solve.”

    Students With (and Without) Computers

    One thing that may have left many students behind during the COVID-19 pandemic was the lack of access to computers for virtual learning. In June 2020, three months after schools closed their classrooms, the state Department of Education estimated that 700,000 students lived in households without a home computer. This prompted California’s Bridge the Divide Fund, which tapped $18.4 million in philanthropic support to provide 45,000 Chromebooks and over 100,000 internet hot spots.

    In fact, in the past three years, per-student spending by the state of California has grown by 50%, thanks to such initiatives and federal pandemic relief. However, if standardized test scores and absenteeism rates are any indication, California schools and their students still have a long recovery ahead.