Opinions

Jacob Walker (4 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

Boston University School of Medicine

Jacob Walker is a member of Boston University School of Medicine's class of 2016. Jacob's passions can be hard to pin down but lie somewhere in the intersections of geriatrics, infectious disease, public health, and game design.

6 Quick Fixes Toward an LGBTQ-friendly Medical School

Published by Jacob Walker

Starting an LGBTQ student group… Leading sensitivity or safe-space training sessions… Overhauling the LGBTQ health curriculum… Planning and promoting a visiting lecture series… These are but a few of the tried-and-true techniques to promote a safe and enriching environment for medical students and faculty of sexual and gender minority groups. They’re also a lot of work. If you’re short on time and resources but care a whole hell of a lot about promoting LGBTQ health …

A Bias Towards Present: Why Investing in Personal Health is So Difficult, and Why Behavioral Economics Has the Answer

Published by Birju Rao

We have now entered a world where most the obviously good ideas are already taken. Someone has already invented the chair. Someone has already invented the desk. The spaces where innovation will occur now are in the crevices of where academic disciplines come together. By using paradigms from behavioral economics, I believe physicians and public health officials can utilize this interdisciplinary terrain to solve the U.S.’s current obesity problem. In the late 1970s, famous behavioral …

The “Specialist” Doctor: The Problem of Competition in Indian Medical Education

Published by Yashwin Tah

Competition since time immemorial has forged the spirit to excel. It has driven us to learn, to evolve, to survive. In every aspect of life, from sports to politics to education, competition plays its part. After all, it was competition which put man on the moon. So naturally, medicine, and more precisely medical education, also has competition. All of the examinations, tests and everyday learning involve some form of competition. Competition motivates us to learn …

My Take on Obamacare: Why Teaching Lessons by Denying Care Will Fail

Published by Will Jaffee, DO

This past weekend I had the pleasure of talking about Obamacare (or the ACA, the death, the uplifting of America, depending on your stance) with a stranger at a local brewery. He, like many I’ve heard before him, feels that he shouldn’t have to pay for other people’s care (which he already is, in a different way). Not their blood pressure meds for self-induced diabetes, not for oxygen for a 35 pack-year smoker, and not …

The Problem With Playing Doctor: A Critique of Student Medical Outreach from Within

Published by Shraddha Dalwadi

“Is the pain sharp or dull?” I say to the teenaged translator next to me. Rolling her eyes, she quickly mutters something in Spanish to my distressed patient and then relays his response back in English. As she returns to texting on her cell phone, I make the final notes for this patient. Although I have reached the end of an extensive two-page history, I can’t help but feel completely unaccomplished. I’ve been told this …

A Meaningful Life

Published by Maria Georgievsky

Should we live a life with meaning? Yes, of course. What a silly question, you may think. But, what is a meaningful life? Is it feeling happy and being successful? Is it feeling good every day? Is it doing good things for others? Perhaps the better question is: do we make room for a meaningful life? We can live life every day in a meaningful way, doing our responsibilities and carrying out our promises. But, I wonder …

Understanding Changing Health Care

Published by Daniel Lefler

It is probably no surprise to any of in-Training’s readers that health care is changing. On October 1, the health insurance marketplaces opened for business … and then promptly became the victim of the largest Internet traffic jam in recent memory. Obviously, people are looking for a better way (or any way) to afford medical care. It is the job of health care professionals to make sure that their uninsured and underinsured patients are educated …

On Becoming a Doctor: Excellent Medical Student, Terrible Clinician

Published by Amy Ho

There is a saying that you enter medical school wanting to help people but exit it wanting to help yourself. It may be a cynical view, but a realistic one. The criteria to being a good medical student are far different from being a good doctor. Medical education may be breeding a legion of self-serving, grade-grubbing, SOAP-note spewing machines rather than the “empathetic,” “compassionate” and “caring” physicians of admission essays yore. I was no different. …

Response to a Newly Published U.S. Health Map on Obesity

Published by Qing Meng Zhang

It has been reported by media countless times. Everyone has been talking about it, most people know of its existence, and many have come up with a plethora of remedies—sometimes misleading and unfounded—for it. And yet, not only is it still plaguing the United States, it has transformed into an epidemic. That’s right, “it” is obesity. A longitudinal study done by the University of Washington measured several parameters, including physical activity, obesity, hypertension and longevity …

An Open Letter to the Self-Loathing D.O. Students

Published by Will Jaffee, DO

Here’s a curious phenomenon I can’t help but notice as an osteopathic medical student: the attempt that some osteopathic medical students make to distance themselves from the two letters that will soon piggyback their names forever. (I’ll give you a hint: the first letter isn’t M). As a member of my school’s curriculum committee, I sent out a handful of formal and informal surveys to gather students’ input on a variety of topics. Without fail, there would …

The Ethnicity Factor in Choosing a Physician

Published by Qing Meng Zhang

I would like to begin this article with a question: Do the name and ethnicity of a doctor affect your decision when choosing a physician? America has always been a melting pot with diverse cultures and ethnicity. The medical field is a melting pot in its own right with its own politics, conflicts, racial disparities and the like. When I was starting medical school, my mother suggested that I should change my Chinese first name …

Qing Meng Zhang (9 Posts)

Reporter and in-Training Staff Member

Rush Medical College

Meng Zhang is a medical student at Rush Medical College, Class of 2017, in Chicago. Meng obtained her bachelor degree in Biological Science in 2010 from University of California - San Diego. Her professional interests are writing, underserved communities, and holistic medicine.

When she's not being a 5/8th of a doctor and writing patient notes "for educational purpose only", she likes to sleep until sunrise, eat a healthy meal, and enjoy every bit of sunshine Chicago offers. Reading, watching TV shows/movies, froyo-ing, and shopping are always welcomed when possible.