Power of Diagnosis: Delivering Bad News Is Just the Beginning
I first met TJ when he was newly diagnosed with HIV. Good-looking and soft-spoken, he was an out, young, gay black man who considered himself a leader amongst his peers. TJ had been infected recently, and knowing that patients diagnosed early are thought to enjoy better outcomes if they start medications quickly, I figured he would do well. We agreed to try Triumeq (abacavir, dolutegravir and lamivudine). Although that medication is...
Try PROBE Tool to Help Stave Off Burnout
When a friend of a friend of mine committed suicide recently, it hit me harder than I would have imagined. I didn’t know the man and knew little about him other than that he was an emergency medicine resident and a member of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. When I learned of his tragic passing, I went back and read something he had posted on social media a couple of years ago that stood out as particularly...
Marie-Elizabeth Ramas, MD … Family Physicians Are Dream Catchers
It helps to remember that we hold the key to the health of our patients, a point that was driven home at this year’s AAFP National Conference of Constituency Leaders. I often hear that this conference is the heartbeat of the Academy, the place where key issues are tackled with an emphasis on change. Each chapter is invited to send representatives from constituencies historically underrepresented in AAFP leadership: women;...
Accelerating into Family Medicine
In the summer of 2013 I was sitting in a small humid room in a coastal agricultural town in Ecuador, a young community health Peace Corps volunteer working on his personal statement to get into medical school. A few months later I received good news, acceptance to UC Davis, specifically the new accelerated medical school experience into primary care. I had worked a year in Ecuador, and as I reflected back on the parts of the work that...
Retiring Physician Reflects on Career in Family Medicine
Many years ago, I brought my new stethoscope up to Community Hospital and the Family Practice Center across the street on Chanate, and spent three wonderful, intense years starting to learn to be a family doctor. And began building relationships with people who came to call me their physician, and with people who came to call me their colleague or co-worker. Or friend. I then took my stethoscope down to Rohnert Park and continued...