It doesn’t take long in the practice of medicine, indeed in the training for the practice of medicine, to learn humility. To understand our limits in our understanding of a disease process, in our abilities to heal patients, and in our own importance in the grand scheme of things. Yet as physicians and as experts […]
Hooding a Medical School Graduate
Last week I attended graduation at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago where I had the honour of hooding my cousin during the Special Hooding Ceremony. Our grandfather, now departed, a champion of academic excellence, would have been so proud. Later at the Graduation Ceremony itself I was reminded of the high […]
Nobel Peace Prize Recognizes Sexual Violence
The 2018 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Nadia Murad and Denis Mukwege for their work to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of armed conflict and I couldn’t be more elated. Nadia Murad and Dr. Denis Mukwege have “both put their own personal security at risk by courageously combatting war […]
Black Women in Medicine
Black women in medicine have taken over social media and for good reason. On Sunday, Dr. Tamika Cross, a resident in Obstetrics-Gynaecology who also happens to be a young Black woman, took to Facebook to voice her displeasure at being treated condescendingly by a flight attendant when she tried to offer her medical services for […]
Patients Lie
Patients lie. That’s not a secret. It’s the reason doctor notes read like police reports. “The patient denies smoking.” “The patient states they lost the prescription for Vicodin that the ER gave her two days ago.” It would be kinder if we wrote “the patient doesn’t smoke” and “the patient lost her prescription” but do […]