Romaine Johnson, MD MPH
@pediairwaydoc.bsky.social
Pediatric ENT Specialist | Professor | UT Southwestern Medical Center | Editor in Chief | Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology | ΑΦΑ
What AI Gets Right about Pre Med Advice - And What Fits in Your Pocket.
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
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Seven Things on an Index Card
What AI Gets Right About Pre-Med Advice—and What Fits in Your Pocket
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 12:47 AM
What AI Gets Right about Pre Med Advice - And What Fits in Your Pocket.
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
New paper out: Multidisciplinary tracheostomy teams cut ED visits in half for pediatric patients—and the benefit grew over time (50% → 65% → 91% reduction across study periods). open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
The System That Learned
What 364 Children Taught Us About Teams, Coordination, and the Limits of Our Interventions
open.substack.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:22 AM
New paper out: Multidisciplinary tracheostomy teams cut ED visits in half for pediatric patients—and the benefit grew over time (50% → 65% → 91% reduction across study periods). open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
It's Not Where You Start—It's the Slope. How weight gain trajectory impact ssleep among adolescents.
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
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It's Not Where You Start—It's the Slope
New research from our group challenges a common assumption about childhood obesity and sleep apnea.
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 12:40 PM
It's Not Where You Start—It's the Slope. How weight gain trajectory impact ssleep among adolescents.
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
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The Belonging Paradox
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How Our Greatest Strength Becomes Our Gravest Vulnerability
The Belonging Paradox
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 1:19 PM
The Belonging Paradox
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Hepatitis B vaccine guidance set to be rolled back for US babies: what the science says www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Hepatitis B vaccine guidance set to be rolled back for US babies: what the science says
A panel of US vaccine advisers voted to rescind a recommendation that all newborns should receive a hepatitis B vaccine at birth.
www.nature.com
December 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Hepatitis B vaccine guidance set to be rolled back for US babies: what the science says www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The NYT piece on Kennedy’s tenure at HHS highlights a dangerous trend: dismantling evidence-based processes, marginalizing career scientists, and reorienting vaccine policy through ideology rather than data. This is how complex systems become brittle.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
Inside Kennedy’s Methodical Quest to Shake Up America’s Vaccine System
www.nytimes.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:10 PM
The NYT piece on Kennedy’s tenure at HHS highlights a dangerous trend: dismantling evidence-based processes, marginalizing career scientists, and reorienting vaccine policy through ideology rather than data. This is how complex systems become brittle.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...
Why the Obese Child with "Mild" Sleep Apnea Deserves Your Attention open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
Why the Obese Child with "Mild" Sleep Apnea Deserves Your Attention
Two Phenotypes of Pediatric OSA
open.substack.com
November 29, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Why the Obese Child with "Mild" Sleep Apnea Deserves Your Attention open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
The Graphite is Showing.
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open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
The Graphite Is Showing
Peter Marks has written a thoughtful essay in NEJM diagnosing the collapse of public health confidence in America.
open.substack.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:34 PM
The Graphite is Showing.
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
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Why are 30% of pediatric tracheostomy patients Black when they're only 15% of kids?"
That question only emerged because we compared local data to national data.
Here's the framework for how one observation generates increasingly sophisticated research: open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
That question only emerged because we compared local data to national data.
Here's the framework for how one observation generates increasingly sophisticated research: open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
The Clinical Research Flywheel: From Volume to Discovery
How surgeon expertise and patient volume create a self-reinforcing ecosystem for generating increasingly sophisticated research questions
open.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Why are 30% of pediatric tracheostomy patients Black when they're only 15% of kids?"
That question only emerged because we compared local data to national data.
Here's the framework for how one observation generates increasingly sophisticated research: open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
That question only emerged because we compared local data to national data.
Here's the framework for how one observation generates increasingly sophisticated research: open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
Virtual Versus In‐Person Interviews: The Impact of Perceived Success on the Applicant Experience - Moufarrej - 2025 - Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Virtual Versus In‐Person Interviews: The Impact of Perceived Success on the Applicant Experience
In light of continuing changes to graduate medical education interview approaches, this cross-sectional survey-based study comparatively assesses otolaryngology residency applicant perspectives on vi...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Virtual Versus In‐Person Interviews: The Impact of Perceived Success on the Applicant Experience - Moufarrej - 2025 - Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
After 20+ years, we have finally updated the @atscommunity.bsky.social guidelines for pediatric tracheostomy. Strong recs on ethics, caregiver training, airway endoscopy, and decannulation pathways—built for the real world. Proud to be a co-author. doi.org/10.1164/rccm...
Care of Infants and Children with Tracheostomies. An Official American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline | American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine | Articles in Press
doi.org
October 23, 2025 at 12:38 PM
After 20+ years, we have finally updated the @atscommunity.bsky.social guidelines for pediatric tracheostomy. Strong recs on ethics, caregiver training, airway endoscopy, and decannulation pathways—built for the real world. Proud to be a co-author. doi.org/10.1164/rccm...
Happy Birthday to my pops who apparently is having a street named aftet him. What an honor! oaklandside.org/2025/10/20/b...
Bobby Seale, a Black Panther founder, will have an Oakland intersection named after him
The city will host a dedication event Wednesday, Oct. 22 which will be designated "Bobby Seale Day" in Oakland.
oaklandside.org
October 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Happy Birthday to my pops who apparently is having a street named aftet him. What an honor! oaklandside.org/2025/10/20/b...
What I would write today if I was applying for ENT again.
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Personal Statement — Romaine F. Johnson, M.D., M.P.H.
Imaging what I would write if I had to apply to ENT again
open.substack.com
October 16, 2025 at 6:19 PM
What I would write today if I was applying for ENT again.
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
The Research Arms Race. open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
The Research Arms Race in Residency Applications
A Costly Distraction
open.substack.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:53 PM
The Research Arms Race. open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
America’s cancer research system, which has helped save millions of lives, is under threat in one of its most productive moments.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...
Trump Is Shutting Down the War on Cancer
www.nytimes.com
September 23, 2025 at 11:25 AM
America’s cancer research system, which has helped save millions of lives, is under threat in one of its most productive moments.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/14/m...
Do We Celebrate Our Wins Enough?
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open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
Do We Celebrate Our Wins Enough?
Something has been weighing on my mind lately, and I suspect I'm not alone in this reflection.
open.substack.com
September 20, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Do We Celebrate Our Wins Enough?
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The Adaption Gap.
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The Adaptation Gap
The Mismatch at the Heart of Modern Life
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September 19, 2025 at 11:06 AM
The Adaption Gap.
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There's Box Office and There's Oscars open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
There's Box Office and There's Oscars
A Soliloquy in the Voice of Denzel Washington
open.substack.com
August 31, 2025 at 5:39 PM
There's Box Office and There's Oscars open.substack.com/pub/pediairw...
Big Brother doesn't need to rewrite history when our algorithmic feeds do it for us, one swipe at a time.
August 27, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Big Brother doesn't need to rewrite history when our algorithmic feeds do it for us, one swipe at a time.
This piece exemplifies how journalism can serve democracy by recognizing when standard practices (treating each policy as an isolated event) fail to capture systematic threats to democratic norms.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
In Trump’s Ideal Picture of America, Diversity Is Taboo
www.nytimes.com
August 21, 2025 at 11:26 AM
This piece exemplifies how journalism can serve democracy by recognizing when standard practices (treating each policy as an isolated event) fail to capture systematic threats to democratic norms.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/u...
My inner dialogue has become a nonstop Tik Tok fyp. Current loop:
Golden
Darlin hold my hand
Slow mo political satire.
Golden
Darlin hold my hand
Slow mo political satire.
August 12, 2025 at 2:45 PM
My inner dialogue has become a nonstop Tik Tok fyp. Current loop:
Golden
Darlin hold my hand
Slow mo political satire.
Golden
Darlin hold my hand
Slow mo political satire.
It starts with a perfect circle of universal rights. Then, "We must act outside of the law to save it." The erosion is not a single, dramatic event, but a creeping, iterative process until universal protection under the law becomes a fractured reality where the boundary of justice is arbitrary.
August 6, 2025 at 11:55 PM
It starts with a perfect circle of universal rights. Then, "We must act outside of the law to save it." The erosion is not a single, dramatic event, but a creeping, iterative process until universal protection under the law becomes a fractured reality where the boundary of justice is arbitrary.