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Shradha Chhabria Shradha Chhabria (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, Pennsylvania

Shradha is a third year medical student at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in Scranton, Pennsylvania class of 2022. In 2016, she graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in international health, and is currently pursuing her Masters of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public health in global health and population with a concentration in obesity epidemiology and prevention before she returns to medical school for her M4 year. She enjoys yoga, meditation and cooking in her free time. After graduating medical school, Shradha would like to pursue a career in Obesity Medicine.




Taking a Wider View: A Medical Student’s Perspective on Reforming Obesity Medicine Training

Published by Shradha Chhabria

As physicians, we must work to lift patients up when they are struggling, rather than shaming them into well-being. As Dr. Donald Berwick once noted, it is not always patients’ diagnoses, but their helplessness that kills them. Indeed, the helplessness we instill through our focus on individualism and molecular pathology in the clinical setting will ensure that this epidemic kills millions prematurely and costs billions of dollars. If obesity is a disease caused by society — its inequities, trauma, and expectations — then the solution for obesity should address more than just the patient sitting in front of us.

Couples Matching for the Uncommitted

Published by Arianna Yanes, MD

After four years of intensive studying, two years with long hours in the hospital and three years of dating, we made the decision to apply to dermatology and plastic surgery. Recognizing the competitive nature of both of these fields, we quickly realized that matching together may not be feasible. We wanted to take each other into account in the process without either one of us making a large sacrifice in the quality of our training program to be together. Open communication and transparency were critical for us throughout the process. 

Dissecting Anatomy Lab: The Lifecycle of Anatomy Instruction

Published by Kate Crofton

It is the day before the first anatomy lab for the first-year medical students, and a single professor walks alone, up and down rows of tables laden with twenty-six naked, embalmed bodies.  He silently shares a few minutes with the donors, a private thank-you. Soon the donors will be covered in white sheets, and the students will tentatively spill through the locked wooden doors of the labs, a rush of anticipation, teamwork, questions and learning.  But right now, no one makes a sound. There is no buzzing of saws, whirring of the suction machine, or gentle clinking of hemostats and Metzenbaum scissors against the metal tables, no nervous laughter, exclamations of discovery or confused mumblings.

The Subtle Art of (Not) Reflecting

Published by Vinayak Jain

Another day passed as I approached the deadline of my latest assignment. Our professor asked students rotating in the ICU to reflect and write up a patient encounter that influenced them deeply. In an effort to encourage a more humane and nuanced understanding of medicine, this was part of a series of reflective assignments being introduced in medical schools. While the budding writer in me was delighted at this prospect, the medical student, ironically, was …

Tissue Paper Skin

Published by Coco Thomas

I believe these inadequate approaches circumvent the answer the interviewer is actually trying to provoke: are you self-aware enough to know your faults?

Every one of us is imperfect, fallible, and vulnerable to making mistakes. Being a strong physician requires self-reflection and awareness, and interviewers want to know if you are willing to be honest with yourself and others. I can’t tell you how to answer this question, but I can tell you how I did.

Dissecting Anatomy Lab: The Assembly of a Medical Student

Published by Kate Crofton

In the golden glow of a fall day, one hundred four first-year medical students parade
out of the medical center carrying boxes of bones to aide our anatomy lab studies. The crates
look suspiciously like instrument cases, perhaps the size of an alto saxophone, and it feels absurd
to march back to our houses a la The Music Man, knowing all the while that we are bringing real
live (well, dead) human skeletons into our living rooms, kitchens and coat closets. Mine resides
propped against a bookshelf in my bedroom. I only open it during daylight hours, and only when
absolutely necessary. For the next four months, as we visit classmates in their homes and
encounter the subtle black or brown cases they’ve tucked into the corners of their lives, the bone
boxes will serve as a reminder of the secret club that we all have newly joined.

The “Problem” with Politics and Medicine

Published by Carly Polcyn

In 2018, a patient filed a complaint against a medical student for wearing a “Black Lives Matter” pin on her white coat. When the student reached out to her school’s administration, she received this response: “It is best to not raise barriers in the way we present ourselves…Some of your political pins may offend some people, and it is probably best not to wear them on your white coat or while you are working in a professional role.”

Course Correction: Growing Distrust in Physicians and Looking Ahead

Published by Faiz Saulat

As we seek to understand this phenomenon, there are many subjective variables that contribute to the trust between patients and providers. Measuring trust in a reliable and consistent fashion is challenging in itself. With these limitations in mind, three salient factors are involved in the decline of patient trust in physicians: one, a commodified healthcare system; two, lack of quality time spent with the patient; and three, racial influences on the patient-provider relationship.

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Narrative in Cirque

Published by Amber Allen

When I was 17, I went to the gynecologist for a Pap smear because my mom said, “Once you have sex you have to get one.” It felt like punishment, but it was also the only way I had a chance of getting birth control. I went to three different doctors and exam after exam, they kept saying I could have cancer. I did a ‘colpo’ — whatever that is. After that, they did three different procedures on me, THREE, all to take pieces of my cervix. I don’t remember what they were called or what even happened. All I remember is the pain.

Dissecting Anatomy Lab: Introduction

Published by Kate Crofton

Over the next four weeks, I will share a series of essays with you in which I tell some of those stories. This writing results from the work of a summer, supported by a Summer Research Fellowship in Medical Humanities & Bioethics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, in which I interviewed nine first-year medical students, two third-year medical students, eight anatomy and medical humanities professors, two Anatomical Gift Program staff, three palliative care clinicians, two preregistered donors and one donor’s family member. Out of respect for their privacy, none of the people interviewed are named, and identifying characteristics have been removed.

Leading the Rounds: The Medical Leadership Podcast — “Death, Humor and Bringing Humanism Back to Medicine with Dr. Ed Creagan”

Published by Caleb Sokolowski

Dr. Creagan was the Mayo Clinic president 1999, 2000, 2001. He was responsible to the Mayo Clinic CEO who directed answered to the internal board of governors and the external trustees. He believes that this gave him a fascinating insight into what he called the “Masters Of The Universe.”

Caleb Sokolowski (17 Posts)

Writer-in-Training and Columnist

Wayne State University School of Medicine

Caleb Sokolowski is a second-year medical student at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. In 2018, he graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of science in Human Biology. Caleb is interested in medical ethics, policy, and education. In his free time, Caleb participates in number of activities including sports, CrossFit, paddle boarding and cycling.

Leading the Rounds: The Medical Leadership Podcast

 As physicians, we are immediately thrust into a leadership position from the moment we finish medical school. Despite this, most medical students will obtain little formal leadership training. We seek to improve our leadership abilities as burgeoning physicians. We developed this podcast to challenge ourselves to explore ideas in leadership development and how they apply to medical training. We hope to educate and motivate others to further develop themselves as leaders in healthcare.