A Day in the Life of Dr. Charles Richardson, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

What got you interested in your field of medicine?  

My grandmother got me to go into medicine because of her heart health. She couldn’t get the proper treatment so I wanted to invent something that I knew would help her. 

Tell us about your practice and the neighborhood/different locations you work in.

 I’m currently working in Boca Raton, FL, as an owner of KRS Global Biotechnology, but was issued my emergency license in South Carolina earlier this year so I could help combat the COVID-19 epidemic. 

How has your routine changed since the pandemic?

Most standard operating practices are changing now. I think everyone in the medical fields are really rewriting the books on what the process is in handling day to day interaction, not only in medicine, but even walking to their car. Hopefully we can get back to normal schedule soon. 

How does trust play a role in your daily routine, especially in the current Covid atmosphere?

 Trust is earned, whether it’s trust in business, trust in a person, or trust in your environment. Right now, a lot of trust has been broken. People are in survival mode and they tend not to trust anyone when in that flight or fight state. As doctors we have to continue to grow, look beyond our means for answers, and rebuild that trust with our community and make sure people feel safe when entering our spaces. 

What do you wish the public knew about what you experience, in your field of health?

 I wish the public took their heart health and diabetes more seriously. Even those who work out every day and eat perfectly should go get yearly testing for heart conditions. So often genetics or malformation can sneak up on someone and it only take one ill-fated day for things to go wrong.

What is the best part of your day? The hardest?

Right now, addressing the constant changing needs of drugs shortages is brutally hard. Trying to supply ‘crash cart drugs’ and others to be on the front-line of COVID is our main objective, but the best part is knowing we are saving lives with every medication we get into hospitals. 

How will Covid-19 change your approach to medicine, going forward?

 It really has helped me become more versatile. I have always been an inventor. I have been involved in over 150 US patents, but this really made me think outside the box of how I could help the most amount of people when the entire world was affected by this virus. I even caught it, it shook me to my core for a few days, but honestly am happy I have the perspective of someone who has been through it.

What is the best life/career advice anyone has ever given you?

Be fearless, be passionate, and believe in yourself - Grandma Seacrest 

Is there anything else about being a health practitioner in a pandemic that you’d like the public to know about?

 The people practicing medicine everyday right now are absolute heroes. They leave their families and friends to work 12-20 hour shifts to make sure they can save just one more life than the day before. It’s not just the well paid (or underpaid) doctors, but people making minimum wage keeping the hospitals clean, the administrative staff checking the patients in and the wonderful nurses and staff constantly keeping hope present in a sometimes hopeless situation.