Now that I have matched I would like to discuss what attracted me to Northwestern as one of my top choices for residency. Northwestern first impressed me not in scheduling an interview but canceling one. One of the unique challenges of the virtual application season was the occasional surprise interview invitation. Having scheduled my initial […]
Match Day
The open air was electric with anticipation. My entire med school class had set up camping chairs around a stage erected in the husk of an old drive-in movie theater and each family huddled around their medical student as they frantically refreshed their emails. Up on stage, one of our medical school Deans was extemporizing […]
Where I Matched
On March 19th I along with thousands of my colleagues across the country found out where I would spend the next step of our training. In my case I will be heading to Northwestern, culminating what now jokingly but for a quite some time seriously was considered by my parent’s and I as “the worst […]
Book Review: Walking a Tightrope
As the COVID-19 pandemic approached the 1-year mark I became interested in the history of Wuhan China, particularly from a medical standpoint. For more of this historical reflection in detail feel free to refer to my post “Lessons from Wuhan’s Past and Present“. As part of this effort, I came across the work Walking a […]
Weight of our Words
At the close of 2020, I was struck by two instances of doctors speaking their minds and facing the consequences for it. As both took me greatly by surprise I thought writing through it would help me organize and process my thoughts. The first instance I wanted to think back on was the issuing […]
On the Wings and Mouths of Black Flies
I find it somewhat ironic that Onchocerciasis a.k.a River Blindness is a neglected tropical disease simply because there is sad poetry in being blind to the second most common infectious cause of blindness. The disease of river blindness itself occurs when larvae of the parasite Onchocerca volvulus. Beyond this basic pathogenesis, in terms of […]
Book Review – Strangers Drowning
“Being ethical was not about being pure, he realized; it was caring about suffering.” Strangers Drowning was a read outside of the realm of genres I am accustomed to and was suggested by the professor of a Public Health ethics course I took several months ago. It covers the philosophical concept of the “do-gooder” the […]
Racial Disparities in Preventative Care
Yesterday I had the opportunity to virtually attend a lecture on racial disparities in colorectal cancer screening. This was purposely scheduled to fall in line with Black History Month, which was much appreciated. One of the quotes that I have heard many times previously and still holds so much impact each time I hear it […]
Emotional Triage
Triage is the act of assigning degrees of urgency to patients or situations, and at each stage of medical school this has consistently been an important skill to master. In my first two years, this involved learning specific groups of facts, in my third, this expanded to clinical care, and in my fourth-year, began to […]
Book Review – Enviromedics: The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health
Enviromedics: The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health by Jay Lemery, MD, and Paul Auerbach, MD, is a wide-reaching yet concise review of the evidence for the health consequences of climate change. One of the strengths of this work is the authors’ assertion that while the environmental, geopolitical, and economic consequences of climate change […]
