kudos to Dr. Gomez!!

Dr. Gomez' presentation has been accepted by the NAPCRG Program Committee for presentation at the 2008 NAPCRG Annual Meeting being held Nov 15 - 19 at Wyndham Rio Mar, Rio Grande, PR.

Poster on Research in Progress Submission
Submission Title: Relationship between Depression and glycemic control and its correlation with medication adherence in patients with Diabetes Mellitus type 2: a cohort study in a primary care setting

Interesting discussions

Today I attended a school of medicine committee meeting where one of the agenda items involved a discussion about teaching behavior change counseling techniques to medical students. As part of the discussion, a concern was raised about identifying and teaching skills for students to deal with their own personal biases that might affect their patient care... primarily biases that center around choices patients make that are not in the best interest of their health. And whether or not students personally make some of those same choices and how that impacts their patient care. Interesting discussion.

Which led me to remember something that happened to me during medical school and residency, and some lingering thoughts about how the things that happen TO us during training also create some biases that have the potential for affecting our patient care.

Have you ever read the book House of God? I hadn't read it until medical school. There was a great deal of discussion about that book among a group of my peers at some point and I was pretty out of the loop, having not read it. So, as a first year medical student, I read it. I was horrified and apalled that anyone could possibly conceive of health professionals thinking about and acting toward their patients in some of the ways described. Horrified. And personally insulted, actually. Certainly I would never do such things. Would I?

Five years later, as a second year resident, I read the book again. (Because, let's face it, who has time as an intern to read anything not absolutely necessary and related to what might confront you immediately or in the next 24 hours?!) My experience this time was vastly different. Vastly. So much that I'm at least a little bit ashamed. I remember laughing until tears ran out my eyes at some points. I remember completely identifying with some of the circumstances and situations described. At the time, I remember thinking how naive and idealistic I was as a first year medical student.

Now, a good number of years removed (we won't go into detail about how many) from the supreme endurance test of q3 call blocks and 100+ hour work weeks (yes, I pre-date duty hour restrictions), I once again have a different perspective. I think about discussions among my current faculty peers, about how we seem to do our best to "train out" some of the very best qualities in medical students and residents. We all seem to lose some of our humanity in the process. I like to think that these days that I'm a lot closer to the humanity and idealism I started out with than to the ridiculously over-fatigued and callous R2 I became for a time.

I invite your thoughts and reflections on this topic...

Play-Doh Workshop

We recently had our Circumcision workshop for the interns during Orientation. They were all quite excited about getting to play with Play-Doh during this experience. Unfortunately, we had a few untoward outcomes with detachment of certain important anatomic structures, but in the end it was a successful activity. And a good time was had by all, including me! What a great group of interns!

Information for applicants 2009

Update to reflect the impact of Hurricane Ike:

10/16/08 The UTMB campus continues its recovery efforts. As of today, FM is seeing patients in three clinical sites... a new shared/borrowed space on the mainland at League City, our faculty clinic Stewart Rd location and temporary space in the Fast Track area of the ER. We are in negotiations at present for the relocation of our hospital service, which I expect to take place in the next week or two. This will be a temporary measure until the John Sealy Hospital on campus reopens.

We will be recruiting for a class of 4 in the 2009 Match and have just as of yesterday begun to issue interview invitations. I anticipate that we will interview about 40 - 45 applicants. You can help us greatly by keeping your application status up to date and advising whether you plan to accept or decline the invitation to interview once received.

Thank you for your interest in our program. If you enjoy being part of building something new and dynamic, you will find great experiences, training and professional community as we emerge from the effects of hurricane Ike!

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your interest in our residency training program.

Our basic requirements for consideration for interview include:

• graduation from medical school within the past five years (not flexible)
• passage of USMLE I and II, including CSA (preferably on first attempt) OR COMLEX for Osteopathic students. Obviously, the better your scores, the stronger will be your application.
• some U.S. clinical experience
• three letters of recommendation, at least two of which MUST be from family doctors.

We accept applications only through ERAS. Please do not email me long attachments in an attempt to circumvent the process because I will not read them. If you meet our criteria outlined above, then apply through ERAS. This will ensure that your application is reviewed.

Osteopathic students may apply to our program through either or both Match processes, however you will only be guaranteed a dual-accredited slot by matching through the AOA Match.

We will begin our interview season for the class entering in 2009 in September 2008 for Osteopathic students and October 2008 for all. We hope to conclude interviews by end of January 2009. We will begin screening applications immediately as they become available through ERAS. We will schedule interviews until we have interviewed sufficient candidates to fill our class, so you are encouraged to apply early.

Our program does sponsor J1 visas. Our program does NOT sponsor H-1 visas.
UTMB does NOT sponsor externships or observerships for persons who have already graduated from medical school.

Please see our Residency website for more detailed information regarding our program. For specific questions that may not be covered, please contact our recruiter, Mr. Louis Johnston. His contact information is listed on the webpage.

Lisa R. Nash, D.O.
Program Director
UTMB Family Medicine Residency