Approximately a year ago, our CEO hired a healthcare performance company to evaluate our hospitalist group’s performance and make recommendations as to how to cut costs and improve efficiency. What soon followed was a Request for Proposal (RFP) which was released in the summer of 2014. Our CEO was searching for a third-party company to take over management of our hospitalists and save our non-profit corporation the cost of employing and managing the hospitalists. Needless to say, this was more than upsetting for the 37 employed hospitalists. Were our jobs secure? Were we going to be fired and have to apply to be hired by this third-party corporation if we wanted to stay in this community?
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Up in Smoke: The Challenges of Physician Burnout
The days are long, the nights short – unless you’re on call or night float, in which case that is reversed. Regardless of where you are in your training, whether in medical school or already out of residency, there will be days when it all just feels like too much. Too much work, too much emotional energy expended, too much illness. Too many petty tasks or meaningless phone calls or purposeless turf wars. Hopefully, those times will be few and far between, buoyed by the days where you make a tricky diagnosis, have an appreciative patient, or just get out of the hospital with daylight left and go for a run. However, for a significant number of physicians, these despondent days stack one atop the next, stretching into weeks where they feel to exhausted to invest energy in their patients, let alone themselves. These individuals are likely suffering from burnout.
20 Questions: Allan S. Stewart, MD: Cardiothoracic Surgery
Thoracic surgeon Dr. Allan S. Stewart is director of the aortic surgery program and co-director of the valve repair center at Mount Sinai Health System. Stewart received his bachelor’s degree in biology magna cum laude from St. Peters College (1991), and his MD from University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (1995). Dr. Stewart completed an internship and residency in general surgery at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the division of cardiothoracic surgery/department of physiology at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, a chief residency in general surgery at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a residency in cardiothoracic surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. Lastly, he completed a fellowship in ventricular assistance at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Stewart is currently associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Health System.
Tips from the Trenches: 5 Tips for Surviving Intern Year
Dear Incoming Interns,
Congratulations on matching and reaching the end of medical school! I am sure you are very excited to be graduating, and we interns are equally excited for you as it means we are about ready to say “so long” to our intern year. (Right now, I have 62 clinical days left – but who’s counting?) Intern year is one steep learning curve after another. Just about the time you figure out a particular service, you switch to the next. Over time, however, themes emerge, the transitions become easier, and the mass of random lab values, medications, signs and symptoms, slowly gel into cohesive patient narratives. Below is some of my own hard-earned advice from this year, some practical, some personal.
Helping Hands: A Conversation with Paul Rockar, Jr., DPT, MS
The first thing you notice about Paul Rockar, Jr., PT, DPT, MS, is his energy. Focused and friendly, he speaks enthusiastically about his chosen profession, using his hands to punctuate the points he’s making.
Those hands have not only helped patients function more comfortably for the past 30 years, but also have written textbooks, taught classes, and helped shape policy as President of the American Physical Therapy Association. So his favorite aspect of his career as a physical therapist comes as no surprise: “It’s not a ‘stand back and watch profession’, its a hands on profession,” he told Student Doctor Network at the 2014 UC Davis Pre-Health Conference last fall.
How to Use Study Abroad to Set Your Medical School Application Apart
All in all, studying abroad provides students with invaluable personal growth, which will translate to … Read more
10 College Classes Pre-Meds Should Take
College as a pre-medical student can be challenging; unlike many other programs, pre-medical programs are … Read more
Picking the Right Medical School Program
There’s a popular phrase, “If you’ve seen one medical school… you’ve seen one medical school.” Every school is completely different, so it’s a good idea to thoroughly research what programs would be best for you before you start the application process.
What are you looking for?
When you’re deciding which medical schools to apply to, consider some of the same factors you weighed when applying to college: Are you looking for a public or private university? Do you want to attend school in your home state or out-of-state? You may also narrow your choices by considering the specialties offered or even which clubs and organizations are available to med students.
20 Questions: Antoine Sayegh, MD: Medical Oncology/Hematology
Dr. Antoine Sayegh is a hematologist and medical oncologist practicing in Sacramento and Roseville, California. … Read more
The Med Student’s Guide to Analytics in Healthcare
As a future physician, you’re constantly learning. You spend years studying, memorizing, reciting, hypothesizing, shadowing, … Read more
Letter-By-Letter, Word-By-Word
Republished with permission from here. The first day of my medicine rotation, I proudly put on … Read more
20 Questions: Mary Lupo, MD, Dermatologist
Mary Lupo, MD, is a practicing dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Lupo began using combination protocols for her patients that included collagen fillers, light chemical peels, and topical products such as Retin-A and alpha hydroxy acids with sun protection. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Newcomb College of Tulane University (summa cum laude, 1976). She received her MD from Tulane University School of Medicine (1980). She then completed an internal medicine internship at Ochsner Hospital (1980-1981) before entering the dermatology program at Tulane University School of Medicine (1981-1984), where she served as chief resident in her final year.
Dr. Lupo is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology (former committee member); American Dermatological Association; American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (former board of directors and committee member); Women’s Dermatologic Society (former president and committee member); Eastern College of Health Vocations (medical advisory board); TopMD Skin Care (medical advisory board); Strathspey Crown (founding member and operating partner); Annenberg Circle of the Dermatology Foundation; and Stegman Circle of the ASDS Dermasurgery Advancement Fund. Dr. Lupo is the author of more than 60 published articles and book chapters, and she has been a speaker on various dermatological topics at nearly 250 national and international meetings and seminars. She serves on the editorial board of Prevention Magazine, Current International, the Journal of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, and Cosmetic Dermatology. Dr. Lupo has been published in Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, Journal of Clinical Aesthetic Dermatology, Cosmetic Dermatology, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, The Skin Cancer Foundation Journal, Dermatological Surgery, Plastic Reconstructive Surgery, Dialogues in Dermatology, Journal of Dermatological Surgery Oncology, Postgraduate Medicine, and Archives of Dermatology.
Those Who Can Do, Teach….and Lead: A Conversation with Mark Walton, MD
At this past year’s UC Davis Pre-Health Conference, Stanford Health Care’s Chief of Staff, Dr. Mark Welton headlined three popular sessions. His talks centered on what a chief of staff is, how you get to be chief of staff, and what we need to do to maintain health care costs.
No one would have guessed that back in the 1970’s, on this same campus, the distinguished physician and leader was told he’d never make it through UC Davis’s pre-med program, let alone get into medical school.
“I struggled through some of the classes,” Walton, who is also the Chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery, admits. Lucky for the medical profession, he not only managed to make it through pre-med, but successfully finished medical school at UCLA and completed a fellowship in colon and rectal surgery at Washington University. After teaching at University of California, San Francisco for 8 years, Walton transitioned to Stanford in 2001 and has been there ever since.
Breaking Bad (News, That Is)
My stomach sunk. The results of the biopsy were back and it was not good. I had met Ms. Jones eight days ago when she was admitted for a pneumonia that antibiotics couldn’t seem to shake. Once hospitalized, we’d brought out the big guns and she had been clinically improving on that well-loved duo of vanc and zosyn. (Med students take note: vanc/zosyn is almost always an acceptable answer when pimped about which antibiotics to start – they may be overkill, but you’re unlikely to be wrong.) Despite her improvement, things had not been adding up – we kept putting 2 and 2 together and getting 6. A young woman in her late 30s, she had no good reason to have this month-long pneumonia and her chest x-ray looked, in a word, terrible. Even I as an intern could see that what had been a right middle lobe infection when she first presented a month ago was now also in her upper lobes and – oddly – her left lung was looking increasingly cloudy.
Strategies for Success on Retaking the MCAT
Retaking the MCAT requires a different approach to prep than your first time around. Because … Read more
Take It From Me…
About to head out on some interviews? First spend some time with these physicians as … Read more
Q & A: Pharmacy Admissions Insider
Applying to professional school can be one of the most daunting challenges of a student’s career. The pharmacy admissions process is no exception, and students may find it overwhelming at times. The Student Doctor Network recently sat down with Jeff, a member of a pharmacy school admissions committee, who shared his perspective on the process and some advice for students.
SDN: What advice would you give an undergraduate student just starting to explore the field of pharmacy? How can they tell whether pharmacy is right for them?
Jeff: The two things that someone who is interested in pharmacy should do are to make sure that they have a good understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a pharmacist in a variety of settings, and that the degree they are seeking is aligned with their career objectives. Many individuals are drawn to pharmacy school based upon nothing more than their perception of what a pharmacist does, with the perception based upon their visits to community pharmacies as customers or the television commercials produced by the national drugstore chains to promote their pharmacists. As you would suspect, their perception of what a community pharmacist does on a daily basis is usually wrong. Others make it to their admissions interview day and tell their interviewers that they want to work as a hospital pharmacist so they can work with patients to discover the cure for breast cancer or diabetes; a noble goal to be sure, but one better suited for a doctoral degree in pharmacology or medicinal chemistry.
Refuse To Take No For An Answer: How I Got Into Dental School After 6 Tries
By Travis Barr, DDS
This article is reprinted with permission from the American Student Dental Association. It originally appeared in December 2014 issue of ASDA News.
For me, the road to dentistry has been more like a grueling endurance race. The ride consisted of three DAT tests, 19 drafts of personal essays and six application cycles in a row—not to mention three-and-a-half years of chair-side experience as a dental assistant, umpteen semesters of graduate courses and some intensive on-the-job training in the roles of husband and father.
I was not what you’d call an ideal candidate. I started college on a football scholarship as a defensive end in Peru, Nebraska, and I was more concerned with making weight, winning games and having a good time than I was with books and grades. Even after I transferred to the University of Northern Colorado, it wasn’t until my junior year that I started thinking seriously about my future and my academic performance. By the time I graduated the following year, I was proud of how far I’d come. I’d turned my performance around, raising my GPA from 2.0 to 3.2 and earning a biochemistry degree while holding down a full-time job and a tutoring position on campus. I had met the girl of my dreams, and I had set my sights on what seemed to be a perfect career for me: dentistry.
Thriving in School? Integrating Stress Intervention Practices
Mark Twain “The physician who knows only medicine, knows not even medicine.”
Ahhh, spring! A time to shake off winter cobwebs and cabin fever, a season for rejuvenation, long walks in the park, hooking up with friends and family, falling in love, etc. Well, this may be so for “normal” folks, but not for those poor souls who have voluntarily submitted themselves to the unimaginable workload of medical school or pre-health education! Spring for many students just means more seemingly unending psychological and physiological stress. Things such as MCAT, USMLE, COMLEX, DAT, PCAT and, yes, those pesky applications and letters of recommendations around the corner at the end of spring are all things student can look forward to (not to intentionally add more stress). Medical and pre-health students know from experience that this relentless stress can and often does wreak havoc on their body, mind and spirit. It does not come as a surprise that these experiences can result in anxiety disorders, chronic fatigue, depression, and immune deficiency. Students suffer from perpetual fight or flight sensations, as if being chased by a tiger, symptoms which escalate around exams, applications, or interviews.
Barbara Ross Lee: The Beauty of the Broken-Field Run
There’s no doubt that Dr. Barbara Ross Lee has led a distinguished career. The first African-American woman to be appointed Dean of a medical school, her other accomplishments include participation in the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship and garnering numerous awards. But for Ross, the path to success was full of twists and turns.
“At my institution, we call it the ‘broken field run’,” she told Student Doctor Network during an interview at the 2014 UC Davis Pre-Health conference. “It wasn’t as if I (had the typical path and) went to school and did pre-med and then went to medical school and then went into post-graduate training. I went to undergrad, then I got a job, then I got married, had kids, then I went back and got a masters, and then the opportunity arose for me to go to medical school.” And that’s just the beginning of her storied career.