Education

I began pursuing a career in medicine with the fervent desire to become a neurosurgeon one day. When someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I answered neurosurgeon without missing a beat. I chose neurosurgery in high school after falling in love with the nervous system and watching Gifted Hands.…

Here I am, 17 years out of my fellowship training, and I’m just getting some of the most important training of my medical career. I continue to believe that my medical school, residency, and fellowship training were all outstanding. However, either I missed something in the course catalogue, or like for most medical students, residents,…

There should be no grades in medical school. Forty-something percent of applicants get accepted to one or more medical schools. To even apply to medical school, one needs to have not only graduated or be on track to graduate college, but also needs to have passed the MCAT and have the support of a pre-medical…

The highly anticipated A Promised Land was the first book I could not wait to crack open over my two-week break for the winter holidays. Former President Barack Obama explains in his introduction that this work is the first of two autobiographical accounts covering the period from his state legislature run in Illinois through his…

Moving across the country and beginning my medical training during a global pandemic is definitely a non-ideal way to embark on what will be a very long journey. I came to medical school expecting to do all of the activities that first-year students typically engage in, like shadowing, volunteering, and other forms of career exploration.…

I go to medical school with a girl who is universally disliked, perhaps more than anyone I’ve met before. It began innocuously enough: She was too active in the group chat, too pushy about ordering class jackets, this and that. In lecture, she barked out obscure answers like “Saturday Night Palsy” with physical force; her…

Multifaceted diversity continues to be a challenge to achieve in medicine, which is concerning given the irreplaceable value that a diverse community of clinicians provides to research, patient care, and medical education. Current initiatives to expand diversity are centered around academic mentorship models, in which striving to teach more students the life sciences and frontiers…

On those brisk walks across the hospital, I briefly look over at the instillations from local artists. Those pieces ignite a chain reaction of creative empathy and even critique from both patient and provider alike. In the briefest moment, we mentally collide into the artist’s creation, catching glimpses of their point of view. The result…

So, what is street medicine, or “street med” to those who are closely acquainted with the field? In a few words, it is a rapidly expanding sector of medicine that addresses the unique health and social service needs surrounding the unsheltered homeless population. As street medders, we embrace a philosophy of harm reduction and kinship…