Curator of Inside Stories and in-Training Staff Member
Columbia University
Annie Robinson completed a Master of Science in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University in 2014. She previously studied the healing power of stories as an undergraduate at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Annie works as Narrative Coaching Specialist with Eating Disorder Recovery Specialists, helping individuals in the early stages of eating disorder recovery through mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and narrative practices. She is also the Program Officer at Health Story Collaborative, a non-profit that creates forums for individuals to tell their stories of personal health challenges, and curates another oral narratives projects called On the Road to Recovered: Voices from the Eating Disorder Recovery Community.
Annie is a coordinator and full-spectrum doula for The Doula Project in New York City, providing compassionate care for women during experiences of abortion, miscarriage, and fetal loss.
As a yoga teacher, writer, educator, and co-founder of NYC-based wellness community Pause, Breathe, and Connect, Annie shares her passion for integrative approaches to wellbeing. She is dedicated to creating spaces for people to explore the healing potential of interweaving of stories, spirituality, and somatic experience.
Inside Stories
Inside Stories is an oral narratives project which invites medical students to share their experiences in medical school in the form of brief podcasts published and archived on in-Training. The project aims to provide a means of personal healing, self-realization and empowerment through the sharing and receiving of personal stories, as well as to cultivate community among students in the often isolating medical school environment. The title Inside Stories reflects the project's mission to encourage students to go inside themselves and bring forth things that often go unspoken. It also represents the inside look listeners are granted into the sometimes private, challenging and confusing experiences students may have.
Made possible in part by a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and FJC.
How can doctors-in-training not let beautiful moments with patients get buried beneath the challenges and monotony often experienced during medical school? Lisa, a fourth-year medical student about to join the University of Chicago NorthShore family medicine residency, recounts her favorite rotation on which she experienced the magic of delivering babies. She also reflects on what it means to not just be a good medical student, but a good physician.
Pursuing a career in health care has created opportunities I could have never imagined possible, welcomed or not. The bond a physician has with his patient is not something that can be recreated in any other field. Prior to medical school, I knew I would be exposed to situations and learn the intricate privacies that most people do not have the blessing to learn. But of course I could have never predicted how deep the …
How can doctors-in-training prioritize human connection with their patients, especially during beginning and end-of-life experiences? Ellie, a fourth-year medical student in New York heading to Santa Rosa, California for a family medicine residency, reflects on what she can offer — and gain — from being present with patients during birth and death.
How can doctors-in-training put narrative medicine into practice? Gab, a third-year medical student in Pittsburgh planning to pursue internal medicine and pediatrics, discovered narrative medicine as an undergraduate majoring in English literature. She describes how engagement with medical humanities not only facilitates deeper patient relationships but also provides a vital means of self-care.
Imagine an active neuron in the temporal lobe of the brain. This neuron receives a message through its dendrites and passes it to other neurons via its axons. This is the basic process of cell signaling. It shows the role of neurons and, more importantly, how neuronal disorders develop. Now imagine the neuron becomes overwhelmed by repetitive high priority messages. By the nature of cell signaling, it relays these messages to its many connected neurons. …
Room One Wendy Smith had thinning hair, penciled-in eyebrows, and a frame so thin that you could see, in painstaking detail, bluish-grey veins emanating from beneath her pale skin. Cancer had taken so much from her that she almost didn’t look human. But the feeling in the room was extremely human. Fear — palpable fear. Fear made all the more palpable because this was an aggressive, rare form of cancer. Fear made all the more …
How can doctors-in-training incorporate lessons from their own health experiences into the care of their patients? Brieze, a fourth-year medical student at Mt. Sinai, shares about the serious health issues she had as a child which led her to explore integrative approaches to healing that she now offers to both her patients and fellow health care providers.
Today was not sunny, but today James got to go outside. James is seven years old. Today, he was allowed to drink ginger ale. He’s never been allowed to drink what he wants. He hasn’t left the hospital in weeks. Since James was born, he has had an array of complications. He’s suffered numerous heart attacks, a nearly fatal hemorrhage, a stroke, renal failure, and has lived most of his life on dialysis. His doctors have tried heroic measures “to …
How can doctors-in-training help improve the experience of minority populations in places where there are few providers with whom they can identify? Carlton, a fourth-year at the Medical University of South Carolina interested in anesthesiology, describes his motivation to pursue medicine in the South, where members of his African-American community are relative newcomers to a primarily white health care system. He also discusses the importance of treating patients as he would like himself and his family to be treated.
There exist, in truth, three simple words that strike dread into the hearts of every physician: Do. You. Remember. This phrase was introduced to me in the middle of first year. I was spending time in my medical student lounge when a link popped up on my newsfeed to a TED talk by Dr. Brian Goldman, an emergency physician from Toronto who hosts the radio show White Coat Black Art and who has also authored the book “The Night Shift.” In …
How can doctors-in-training learn to confront mortality with humility and self-compassion? Rehema, a first-year resident training in pediatrics in Washington D.C., reflects on the challenging experience of losing a patient as a medical student. She also shares her motivation for pursuing pediatrics: the significant opportunity to influence and prolong children’s lives.
The medical students, residents and Dr. G stood around the computer with backs hunched. With serious and emotionless faces, we stared directly into the screen. We were taken aback by the MRI results of his brain in front of us. Was this a primary tumor? An AVM? A dreaded metastasis from somewhere else in his body? How long has this mass been in his brain? Look at the size. Look at the calcifications. What did …
Contributing Writer Emeritus
University of Kansas School of Medicine
I am currently a third year medical student at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. I am undecided as to my specialty of choice right now, but narrowing it down as we speak! I enjoy writing reflective pieces as I continue to navigate the waters of medical school. In my free time, I like to travel, run, bike, hike, anything outdoors! I also enjoy spending time with my family, friends, fluffy golden retriever, and my awesome F-15E airman!
