Hi, I’m Zed.
I am a physician, author, speaker, and medical cultural critic.
My upcoming book Consented: A Doctor’s Call to End Medical Violence and Reclaim Patient Autonomy challenges the hidden injustices within healthcare.
In my children’s book, Why We Eat Fried Peanuts, I explore heritage and resilience through my great-grandmother’s extraordinary sacrifice a century ago.
As an active OpEd writer, I examine medical ethics, social justice, weight stigma, medical racism, misogyny, reproductive rights, and more.
And in my newsletter, Ask The Patient, I share personal insights as both a doctor and a fellow human.
Why We Eat Fried Peanuts: A celebration of Family and Lunar New Year Traditions
Based on a true story from a century ago!
My first book was a children’s book based on the true story of my great-grandmother’s heroic act of saving a baby 100 years ago in China. The book invites kids and their families to learn about Lunar New Year traditions, practice simple Chinese phrases, and make a yummy treat together.
Recent Public Lecture - Racism in Medical Education
Dartmouth College, 2/6/2025
The Problematic Racial History of Medical Education
The Rabbi Marshall Meyer Great Issues Lecture on Social Justice
Recent Blog Posts
Newest OpEd
MedPage Today, October 23, 2024
A friend texted out of the blue: “When are you having children?”
I answered: “I am intentionally child-free.”
“Without children, what kind of legacy do you plan to leave?” They said.
My newest OpEd on MedPage Today dissects the ways we STILL can't look beyond the uterus and its childbearing potential in society and in medicine. As childfree women are under attack again, this IS personal.
Storytelling
On November 4, 2023, during the storytelling event hosted by the Nocturnists and the Bellevue Literary Review, Zed went on the stage of the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre in New York City to tell the story of her thieving mother. Well, the story of an ice cream for her thieving mother, to be exact. And so, so much more.
This story was made into a viral comic strip by the amazing artist and social justice advocate Pan Cooke, which has received over 500,000 likes on Instagram. Pan and Zed have since begun collaborating on a graphic memoir project, My Mother Was a Thief (tentative title). You can get a sneak peek of it in Zed’s newsletter.
Courtesy of Pan Cooke.
Book Deal Announcement!
Book Deal Announcement!
Consented: Medical Rape Culture and What We Can Do About It is a doctor’s provocative and deeply personal diagnosis of what is wrong with medicine. Weaving together medical history, current data, and intimate patient stories, Zed writes about her own transformative journey as a patient advocate, calls for a feminist revolution in medicine, and proposes a bold, unifying vision that remedies the trust crisis in medicine.
Award-winning OpeEd
Zed’s MedPage Today opinion piece on the importance of accessing abortions among underprivileged teens won Gold during the 24th Annual Digital Health Awards.
I am an immigrant physician treating immigrant patients. And here are our stories.