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Being Comfortable Being Uncomfortable – A Medical Student’s Perspective

Sensible Medicine

The first is from Nihar Rama, a medical student at the University of Chicago. I still remember the email notifying me I was accepted to medical school. Several years later, now deep into my medical education, I often reflect on my path. This feeling is not unique to medical trainees.

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A (re)Visit to an Old-Fashioned Doctor

Sensible Medicine

I read many of his essays including Hyposkillia and Medical Education on the Brink. Old-fashioned doctors spend whatever time it takes to obtain a good medical history and physical examination. The history and physical exam is not something to be fetishized but something to be recognized as a time saver.

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Friday Reflection 25: The Advice I’d Like to Give a Student Entering Medical School

Sensible Medicine

One of the many privileges of being a physician, and a professor of medicine at a “prestigious” medical school, is getting to talk to young people who are considering a career in medicine. After taking his history and doing his physical exam, I recommended HIV testing. I will address this to the future doctor.

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Friday Reflection 44: Diagnostic Enigma

Sensible Medicine

The Medical Detectives by Berton Roueche is a beloved classic. Lisa Sanders has made a career -- beyond her medical practice – of engaging descriptions of struggles to solve difficult cases. Many non-medical friends have asked me to recount interesting cases to them. Always ask, and ask again, about alcohol and drug use.

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Friday Reflection 27: The Poor Historian

Sensible Medicine

Many a medical trainee has been humiliated on morning rounds after proclaiming that their presentation was wanting because the “patient was a poor historian.” There is a differential diagnosis for the patient who cannot describe the history of their medical concerns. Sensible Medicine is a reader-supported publication.

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Friday Reflection 31: 30 Years and Counting

Sensible Medicine

MT’s multiple medical problems and poor functional status made him a poor candidate for any therapy. I’ll admit that I considered this near-delusional rambling, especially when I factored in his lack of symptoms and normal physical exam. The tumor progressed slowly and, month after month, he weakened but held on.

Hospice 272
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Inside Pitt Med School: Innovations in Medical Education 

Accepted Blog

At what is now Drexel Medical School. From the beginning they learn how to take a history, do a physical exam. We do have some neighborhoods right around the medical school that are underserved, and there are areas of need. Let’s turn to medical school admissions, which I know is your specialty. No problem.