Opinions

Mae Huo (1 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

Albany Medical College

Mae Huo completed her undergraduate education at University of California, Berkeley majoring in neurobiology and minoring in dance performances. She then spent a year and a half working at Children's Hospital in Oakland in Infection Control and Patient Safety. Her next position as a consultant at STAT Revenue was cut short after only a few months due to her acceptance to Albany Medical College as a part of the Class of 2016.

Defining Disability: A Personal Story

Published by Mae Huo

Rebecca Garden, in her article “Disability and narrative: new directions for medicine and the medical humanities” wrote that “rather than coping with or overcoming their impairment, many disabled people see their impairments as integral to their lives.” This message regarding new directions in medicine for working with people with disabilities may sometimes be overlooked despite its importance. I would like to share a personal story that illustrates this point. I’ve been short all my life–but not short enough …

Stress Management in Medicine

Published by Paul Thomas

Editor’s note: This article was originally published here by contributing writer Paul Thomas. Stress in medicine is a topic that often comes up in the medical literature, in the popular press and in our own interpersonal experiences. But what does stress management look like for a young physician in training? And what are large health systems doing to promote stress management among their employees? This week, I had the good fortune of attending a one-hour session on …

Why Health Policy Matters (as Told by a Health Policy Fellow)

Published by Meena Thatikunta

While this is a serious essay and I should probably first allude to a great literary work, I’ll just keep it real and reference Inception. There’s a fantastic scene in which Ellen Page has her first go at building a dream. She builds a cityscape with ease and is quickly bored. With a spark in her eye she remarks: “What happens when you start messing with the physics of it all?” Likewise, we are questioning …

Chikungunya Virus 2012: A Global Public Health Challenge

Published by Hormuz Nicolwala

A 28-year-old woman with acute joint pains attends a clinic in Switzerland after returning from Mauritius. A 66-year-old man develops severe myalgias in Hong Kong after returning from Africa. These clinical cases summarize one disease: Chikungunya. Chikungunya–linked neither to chickens nor to the deadly avian flu–means in the Tanzanian dialect Makonde ‘that which bends up,’ referring to the stooped posture of afflicted patients. This nonfatal viral illness transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, which started as an urban phenomenon, …

Organ Donation: To Opt In Or Opt Out

Published by Ryan Denu

Organ shortage is a serious problem in the United States. About 20,000 organ transplants occur every year in the U.S., and 116,689 Americans are currently on a waiting list for an organ, with kidneys being the most needed. The obesity epidemic is contributing to the shortage; a quarter of prospective donors are too obese to donate their kidneys. People typically wait 3-5 years for an organ, and thousands die every year (an average of 18 …

A Whole New Breed of Doctors: Changes in Medical School Admissions

Published by Ryan Denu

The body of students being admitted to medical school has changed drastically in recent years as institutions are trying harder to find students who are well-rounded. As a result, the coming years will witness the birth of a whole new breed of doctors. The question I will address is what this change will mean for the practice of medicine. One major change seen in students admitted to medical school is their undergraduate course of study. …

Remember, Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Published by Jennifer Evan

In histology, we are taught that ‘structure dictates function.’ It is a simply stated phrase that tells medical students to think about how the structure of a tissue determines what its role is in the human body. Does it secrete substances? Is it involved in mechanical abrasive stress? Does it have a large layer of muscle? Of collagen? Many ducts? Extensive folding of the epithelium? These questions, answered entirely by staring at a slide of …

The Role of Research in Medicine

Published by Ankit Modh

What is the role of research in medicine? While it is impossible to quantify, it is important to analyze if we are to continue expending countless hours and money into the medical sciences. Some have argued that the two should not and cannot mix in the first place. Paul De Kruif spends chapters in Our Medicine Men trying prove that the entities of science and that of medicine should be left separate, and that the …

Reading Fiction in Medical School? Surely You Jest.

Published by Patrick McCabe

When he visited UAB last year, Abraham Verghese opened his talk with the statement that if one no longer read fiction, the brain would die. His strong words offered reassurance that at least some medical professionals value literature. Further, the statement suggested that he makes time for it and would allot time for it for others. Indeed, at Stanford, he spends his afternoons brainstorming within a thinking room instead of a laboratory. Verghese’s declaration also …

Gray Matter

Published by Samuel Jacobowitz

While watching one of my favorite television medical shows recently, I came across a line — uttered fast and so obviously not meant to draw attention — yet it had the opposite effect. I heard one of the attendings tell a resident or student, “Continue if you’d like.” I think my fixation is a bit more understandable if I set the scene: There was a trauma in the ER. A patient was carted in on a …

Where I Come From

Published by VyVy Trinh

I wrote this reflection several months ago when I was working at a health nonprofit serving the Vietnamese community in San Jose, California. Though at first glance it may not relate directly to medicine, a lot of the things I was ruminating on apply to our work as future docs. Plus, this publication is sort of new, so I thought I’d stretch the scope of what is considered “relevant” or “appropriate,” both on in-Training and in medicine …

Medicine, Meaning and Fluency

Published by Jocelyn Mary-Estelle Wilson

(My search for a lingua franca.) What I love about medicine is that it is, in one sense, just another culture. It is a world of operational definitions. The ability to accurately describe an injury or procedure may be likened to gaining proficiency in a language. I remember learning French and pushing myself in order to express myself — to communicate. The desire to share ideas was so great that I had to learn; not just …

Jocelyn Mary-Estelle Wilson (5 Posts)

Contributing Writer Emeritus

East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine

My education includes a BS in biology from Whitworth University, a MPH from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and an MD from East Tennessee State University. In addition to family medicine, my interests include Christian apologetics and French, British, and American literature.