Thursday, June 01, 2006

Trust me I'm a Doctor

After 9 years of post-high school education, I've finally got my MD. It's exciting right now, but I will quickly become humbled when my first patient asks me a question I don't know. But questions are something I like and are ultimately only good. Every time a patient asks me something, I will be pushed to learn more to provide the best care for my patients.

As you can tell by my blog's title, I like to ask questions too. A lot of this came from my undergraduate education in nutrition at Cornell! where we were trained to analyze nutrition research carefully. We learned how to ask questions that develop research to figure out the "truth". To be in medicine, I think you have to be comfortable with questions, as research and policies are always changing with new information.

I questioned a lot of things in medical school: from antibiotics to nutrition policy to evidence based care to changing our health insurance system. I often felt like Patch Adams in medical school, in a sense I was always questioning to make things better. I think my questions and drive for change were often met with encouragement. But, there were many times I got the response Patch got, with resistance from those who don't want change. I'm excited now that I'm further on the path to making my own ideas into reality on how to help to have healthy happy lives.

I want to thank all my friends and family for supporting me on my road to becoming a doctor. I could not have done it without all of you. I'm hoping you will keep me sane as I go through the next stage of my training.

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