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The Paradox of the Doctor-Patient Relationship

I watched a birth. More than watched: an hour or so after first meeting the mom-to-be as she lay in her bed in a hospital gown, I was helping her push. I was the one who retrieved her glasses so that she could see her new, perfect baby girl. I might be a footnote in some of the stories she and her husband later tell their family about the day their first child entered the world. I’m probably in some of the photos. But it’s almost certain that I will never see those new parents or their daughter again.

My career will be a series of moments like that. Sharing good news, delivering bad, offering a diagnosis or treatment that may change someone else’s life — and then moving on with my own. I will be present at some of the biggest turning points in my patients’ experience, but I will never really be part of their lives.

Read more of my latest at TIME Healthland: http://healthland.time.com/2013/06/23/the-paradox-of-the-doctor-patient-relationship-a-medical-students-view/#ixzz2XBG4P54R

Anatomy memorial service

A nice piece about the memorial service we held to honor the people who so generously donated their bodies to further our medical educations: http://weill.cornell.edu/news/deans/2013/04_26_13.shtml

Anatomy Lesson

I skinned a man. Strange as it sounds, it felt more natural than I expected.

Fresh off winter break, we first-year medical students were slated for our first two days in the anatomy lab: Thursday would be orientation. Friday (gulp), dissecting a human body. The professor ran us through the ground rules—no music, no food, utmost respect for the cadavers. If we want extra study time, he assured us, the lab is open 24 hours a day. I can’t imagine any place I’d less like to be in the dead of night than in a room full of half-dissected bodies.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2013/01/29/doctor-in-training-anatomy-lesson/#ixzz2JPxFBagA


And here is my previous Doctor-in-Training essay, which I neglected to post, about taking my first medical history from a real patient: http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/26/reality-strikes-a-doctor-in-training-encounters-her-first-patient/ 

Shock and Awe: Dispatches from Med School

I've just started medical school and will be chronicling my experiences in a series of "Doctor in Training" essays on TIME's Healthland blog. You can read the first installment here. An excerpt:

My very first patient died — twice. 

Less than a week after our White Coat Ceremony — the symbolic start of our medical education, in which we donned short white student coats in front of faculty, friends and family — I, along with a dozen other first-year medical students, am training in basic cardiac life support. 

Our mock clinical scenario: an elderly woman (fortunately, a mannequin, whose vital signs the EMS instructor makes up as we go along) collapses in a ShopRite supermarket, aisle 3. Unresponsive, she has stopped breathing. We check: no pulse. The instructor is quizzing us on the emergency response protocol. Then he asks a different type of question: “Is the patient dead or alive?”

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/14/shock-and-awe-dispatches-from-a-first-year-med-student/#ixzz26SjxUhY3

Worth a read: the doctor-patient relationship

Now that I'm back in school doing my prerequisites for medical school, I'm more interested than ever in health news, particularly when it comes to the way physicians interact with the people they treat. (A classmate and I are co-chairing a focus group on the doctor-patient relationship in my postbac premed program.) This story about the ways in which medical schools are changing their curricula to encourage future doctors to consider the whole patient caught my eye. I especially like the idea that focusing on relating to patients as human beings by adding humanities classes to med school isn't a nice touchy-feely bonus; it's a key part of medical training.

Study: Exercise Can Counteract Obesity Genes

Some families, alas, are fatter than others. But for dieters continually at war with their genes, there's good news in a study published in this week's PLoS Medicine: they can burn off 40% of their genetic predisposition to obesity by exercising. Read the full story on Time.com.

How we fail our female vets

My latest piece, from the 7/12 issue, is about the VA hospital system's struggle to accommodate growing numbers of female veterans. Read it here.

A Brief History of YouTube

YouTube turns five this month. It's changed a lot since its simple beginnings in an office above a California pizza joint. Click here for a brief history of YouTube.

Best in Show: Jane Lynch

I missed this week's Madonna episode, but I'm nonetheless psyched Glee has returned from its 4-month hiatus. To mark the occasion, I sat down with Jane Lynch, who plays the show's deliciously evil cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester. She's actually really nice! Read the profile in this week's mag here.

Why Do Women Still Earn Less Than Men?

On Equal Pay Day--an advocacy day intended to raise awareness of the fact that American women still earn 77 cents on the male dollar--my Time.com story explores reasons for the persistent gap. One study I find compelling explored the wage trajectory for workers who underwent a sex change. Even when controlling for factors like education, men who transitioned to women earned, on average, 32% less after the surgery. Women who became men, on the other hand, earned 1.5% more.

Which U.S. Presidents Have Appointed the most Supreme Court Justices?

Once Obama's nominee to succeed Justice Stevens is confirmed (whoever that nominee turns out to be), the President will have seated as many Justices as any first-termer since Richard Nixon, who pushed through four. And we're barely into Year 2.

My piece on Time.com today looks at prolific appointers of ages past.

Q&A: The Male Brain

Despite all that old talk about Mars and Venus, men and women are much more biologically alike than not. But differences in the way our brains are built shed light on everything from the way we flirt, to the way we fight, to how we raise our boys, argues neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine in her provocative new book, The Male Brain. She and I talked about what neurology tells us about sex, the daddy brain, and why some men cheat. Read the interview here.

Why do Americans eat so much salt?

Pepsi's plans for "designer salt" that preserves taste while slashing sodium content are intended to combat a growing public-health problem: Americans consume about twice as much salt as our bodies need, a habit that contributes to hypertension and heart disease. We started developing our salt addiction after World War II, and today it's tough to tell how much we're ingesting. My piece in the mag this week explores why.

The New Sexism

The blatant sexism of eras past, author Susan Douglas argues in our interview up today (available here), has been supplanted by a more insidious form of bias, which suggests that sexist messages are O.K. if delivered with a wink and a nod. (It's fine to enjoy watching catty contestants on The Bachelor snipe at one another — because, come on, we all know most women aren't like that. Ha-ha. Right?) We talked about the economic plight of women today, the dangers of powerful female TV characters and the future of feminism.

How Trust Creates Wealth

I chatted with the interesting Anna Bernasek about her new book, The Economics of Integrity, and how trust is one of the most valuable economic assets we have. She argues that too often we labor under the mistaken impression that doing the right thing keeps us from getting ahead--and that in fact, it's just the opposite.

The death penalty: racist, classist and unfair?

I have an interview up today with David Dow, an appellate lawyer in Texas whose new book, The Autobiography of an Execution, covers his two decades of defending more than 100 death-row inmates. We talked about why he does his job, the problem with juries and what it's like to look murderers in the eye.

The Asian Carp are Coming!!

Not since jaws has a piscine predator caused such a commotion. Inspired by the Asian carp threatening the Great Lakes fishing industry, for this week's magazine I wrote a brief history of invasive species.

Study: Hepatitis threat underestimated

A new Institute of Medicine report this month finds that hepatitis -- which affects 3 to 5 times as many Americans as HIV/AIDS but receives a fraction of the funding and attention -- is a "major" public health problem in the U.S. My Time.com story is here.

What happens to the Haiti relief money?

Millions are pouring in from around the world to aid survivors of the Haiti quake. What happens when it gets there?