November 7th, 2019
Painting in a Visual (Abstract) Medium
Justin Davis, MBBS
I’m not creative. I wish I were. I listen to music (with my particular choices being classical and music from video games) and wonder to myself how people are able to come up with such amazing pieces of art and media. I’ve tried it myself. I used to play piano back in med school, before […]
August 28th, 2018
So Let’s Chat About Extracurricular Work Activities
Justin Davis, MBBS
Well, we’re finally here. Somehow, an Aussie has sneaked onto a United States-based Chief Resident blog panel dealing with pertinent issues within medicine, and I actually have to think about what to write. (I’m being slightly facetious here, by the way.) So let’s start, shall we? One of the things that has been on my mind […]
September 18th, 2017
Beast Mode Is Back! When Actions Speak Louder
John Junyoung Lee, MD
Cal Football I bleed blue and gold. No, I am not talking about Michigan, West Virginia, or Notre Dame. I am definitely not talking about UCLA Bruins (by the way, UCLA fans, a bruin is a brown bear). That’s right — I am a die-hard Cal Bears fan. Thanks to Cal football, and particularly to legendary Marshawn […]
January 13th, 2017
Ganbare
Jamie Riches, DO
“May I never see in the patient anything but a fellow creature in pain.”- The Oath of Maimonides I am not immune to the post-election frenzy. Never in my relatively short life, nor in my even shorter existence on social media, have I seen people so divided. Shortly after the president-elect was named, I found myself […]
August 19th, 2016
#OrlandoStrong #EndGunViolence
Kashif Shaikh, MD
I will never forget Sunday morning, June 12. I was off that day. I usually sleep with my cell phone on silent mode, and I slept late after binge watching some movie marathon the night before. I was still half asleep when I picked up my cell phone to see what time it was — but what I actually saw on my phone was a jumble of […]
June 17th, 2016
My Last Day in Greece
Ahmad Yousaf, MD
Reflections and observations from my last day in Greece as part of the SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society) medical mission for Syrian refugees: 1) It rained during clinic hours. It was a bit inconvenient for the team. For the refugees, it was catastrophic. Their tents, already damaged, allow the drops of precipitation to find their ways in and soak […]
May 23rd, 2016
My Third Day in Greece
Ahmad Yousaf, MD
1) At one point today in the Idomini refugee camp, I was playing catch with a beautiful baby girl in between some of the tents. She could not have been much older than my own daughter and, like my daughter, would throw the ball backwards over her head instead of towards me and then would […]
May 22nd, 2016
My Second Day in Greece
Ahmad Yousaf, MD
1) The following are real conversations the team has had with patients/refugees in our short time here: Young lady who came in with urinary symptoms: “How old are you?” “I am 27 years old… I hope this is the last year of my life.” Teenage male: “I have to get out of here. I’ve spent 3 months of my […]
May 21st, 2016
My First Day in Greece
Ahmad Yousaf, MD
I am participating in the SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society) medical mission in Greece. 1) Loneliness is truly the darkest consequence of this crisis. The Syrian people haven’t just been kicked out of their homes. They were stripped away from their neighborhoods, friends, and family via death, destruction, sickness, and tough decisions that they had to make about splitting […]
June 30th, 2015
The Storm Is Coming
Ahmad Yousaf, MD
The tempest approaches. July the First. The interns approach the edge of their protected nests and prepare to jump into the whirlwind of senior-hood. The responsibility of managing a team weighs them down like the gravitational force, pulling them toward the unforgiving earth. They will flap their little wings and flex their intellectual muscles frantically […]