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The Medical Commencement Archive

“Creating Your Legacy”: Dr. Carol Nadelson, 2017 Commencement Address of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

This week we have the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Carol Nadelson, who delivered her speech titled “Creating Your Legacy” at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry 2017 commencement.

In 1985, Dr. Nadelson became the first female president of the American Psychiatric Association. She was also the first female editor-in-chief of the APA Press, and the first director of Partners Office for Women’s Careers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she continues as the director today. As a Harvard Medical School psychiatrist and Brigham and Women’s Hospital expert on promoting academic medical careers for women, she has had a major influence on the lives of women in medicine by advocating for mental health resources and by leading the office for the professional development, career planning, and mentoring of female hospital staff.

Dr. Nadelson was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society at the University of Rochester Medical School in 1961. From 1979 to 1993, she served as vice chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the New England Medical Center in Boston. She became a clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in 1995. In 1985, Dr. Nadelson received the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for “contributions to the cause of women in the field of medicine” and in 2002, she was honored with the Alexandra Symonds Award for sustained high-level contributions to the field of psychiatry and leadership in advancing women’s health. She currently serves as president and CEO of the American Psychiatric Association Press, president of the Association for Academic Psychiatry, and president of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry.

 

The road to practicing medicine is arduous, and few will deny this fact.  For Dr. Carol Nadelson—a female in the 1950’s—the dream of a career in medicine seemed unachievable.  Giving up on this dream, however, was not an option for Dr. Nadelson.

“Most people, including my parents, thought that there were other, more reasonable careers for women. But I was determined……What did I learn from it? To accept challenges, find role models and support, and persist in pursuing my dream. While the threat of imminent failure was always on my mind, I had to learn to believe in myself. “

Throughout medical school we are required to memorize an infinite amount of information. We are exposed to brilliant professors who are capable of helping us with this task, and simultaneously inspiring us. For Dr. Nadelson, however, the most informative and inspiring teachers were her patients.

“Most important was what I learned from my patients. They taught me to listen and to care for them. It wasn’t only a physical exam, a procedure or a new medication; they needed me to understand them, be honest with them, and help them come to terms with their pain, loneliness and fear. They needed to trust that I would commit myself to helping them; they needed caring and hope. Their needs could not be met in short, hurried and impersonal exchanges, nor if I were absorbed with filling out forms, more recently looking away from them to a computer screen.“

Dr. Nadelson closes with a reminder that we are entering the most noble of careers, a career without bounds, and with unlimited opportunities to apply the skills and knowledge base we have developed.

“As I welcome you into this compassionate and honorable profession, always remember that it is a privilege to be accepted into the lives of your patients and to serve them. At every age in our history, being a physician has been demanding, but at this time you face unique obstacles and challenges. You have the opportunity, indeed the mandate, to create a legacy that builds from the past and leads to a better future for medicine, for yourselves and for your patients. Congratulations!”

Read the full speech in the Commencement Archive: https://www.themspress.org/journal/index.php/commencement/article/view/293/310

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Public Health The Medical Commencement Archive

“Circles of Compassion”: Dr. Kinari Webb, 2017 Commencement Address of Yale School of Medicine

This week, the Commencement Archive features Dr. Kinari Webb’s speech titled “Circles of Compassion.” She delivered the keynote address at the 2017 Yale School of Medicine Commencement.

Kinari Webb, M.D. is the founder of Health In Harmony, an organization that establishes links between the health of humans, ecosystems, and the planet in order to solve problems of poverty, poor health, and environmental destruction. During a life-changing experience in Indonesia studying orangutans, Dr. Webb encountered not only a beautiful and threatened natural environment, but also the dire health needs of the people surrounding the National Park. After her experience in Indonesia, Dr. Webb decided to become a physician and return to Indonesia to work together with local communities to improve their health and preserve their natural environment.

After graduating from Yale University School of Medicine with honors, Dr. Webb completed her residency in Family Medicine at Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, California. Dr. Webb founded Health In Harmony in 2005 to support the combined human and environmental work that she planned in Indonesia. After a year of traveling around Indonesia looking for the best site for this program, Dr. Webb co-founded the ASRI program in West Kalimantan Indonesia with Hotlin Ompusunggu and Antonia Gorog. Dr. Webb currently splits her time between Indonesia and the U.S.

 

Dr. Webb did not take the typical path towards a career in medicine. She went—as she simply puts it—“against the grain.” Despite excelling as a top student at a top-tier medical school, she was drawn back to Indonesia, where she previously studied orangutans as an undergraduate. This time, however, she returned with a much greater vision: using medical approaches to improve the health of humans and the planet.

Dr. Webb argues that our medical knowledge base and clinical skills are applicable to all species:

“I first came to know just how profoundly lucky I was during the year that I spent deep in the rain forest of Borneo when I was 21. I discovered there that people were often forced to cut down rain forest trees in order to pay for health care. I found myself feeling angry and deeply sad that such an injustice was occurring in the world. After residency I founded a non-profit called Health In Harmony and I have spent the last twelve years working on this issue. You may not have thought of your stethoscope as a tool to help heal the lungs of the earth – otherwise known as the rain forest – but it turns out it can be.

Your medical skills have all kinds of unexpected powers and I want to argue that we actually all need to become planet doctors. We are at an unprecedented time in the 4.6 billion year history of the planet: this is the time when a species that actually has the capacity to understand what it is doing is dramatically altering life on earth. And the health of our planet is the greatest threat to your patients’ health that they are likely to face over your career. Without a stable climate, enough drinkable water, food to eat, and healthy air you will have a very hard time keeping your patients well.”

Before I finished reading Dr. Webb’s speech, I found myself on her organization’s website, out of sheer curiosity. Health In Harmony is unique because of its dual efforts to promote environmental and healthcare reform in rural, impoverished communities across the globe. From training organic farmers to establishing tuberculosis treatment programs, the organization substantiates the role of “planet doctors”, one of whom Dr. Webb considers herself.

As Dr. Webb continues in her speech, she discusses the steps necessary to further a career as a physician, which she refers to as “Circles of Compassion.” The first circle emphasizes self-care. Regardless of the direction a career takes you, Dr. Webb argues that you are the most important patient.

“The first circle is caring for yourself. Most of you are about to go into indentured servitude, so this isn’t going to be easy. I remember massive sleep deprivation, feeling pushed beyond the limits of my skills, terrified I’d make a mistake, and being right in the middle of profoundly traumatic experiences. I encourage you to prioritize taking time to soothe and care for your body and soul even in the midst of all that. In my own journey of personal and spiritual growth, I have found help in faith communities, meditation, time with loved ones, therapy, and maybe most especially, being in nature. There might be nothing better for healing the soul.”

Dr. Webb’s next circle of compassion underscores the care we provide to patients:

“As a doctor, the second circle of compassion beyond you and your family is caring for your patients – both their physical well-being and their capacity to be their fullest selves. In Borneo, when we hire medical staff, we are looking for people who know they don’t know everything, who will be life-long learners, and most especially we want providers who will care for their patients as though they were their own family.”

Dr. Webb leaves the audience with the following concluding remarks:

“I wish to leave you with three key points:

First, don’t be afraid to take the road less traveled – or as my classmate Margaret Bourdeaux used to say: the deer path less traveled. The expectation superhighway is hard to resist but if you can see it all laid out in front of you, it likely isn’t your path. And this earth needs all of us to do whatever we are most passionate about – even if your deer path leads you to beautiful North Dakota.

Second, compassion matters. It starts with you, it spreads to those around you, and then to the whole planet.

Third, I encourage you to ask yourself: “Am I willing to be one of the sacred planetary healers that the earth so greatly needs?”

Congratulations again on this amazing accomplishment. May you go forth and heal!”

Read the full speech in the Commencement Archive: https://www.themspress.org/journal/index.php/commencement/article/view/291/308

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Technology The Medical Commencement Archive

“Talk to the Radiologist”: Dr. Robert Wachter, 2017 Commencement Address of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

This week we have the pleasure of hearing Dr. Robert Wachter’s speech at the 2017 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Commencement, titled “Talk to the Radiologist.”

Robert M. Wachter, M.D. is Professor and current Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also former President of the Society of Hospital Medicine and former Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Having coined the term “hospitalist” in 1996, he is often considered the “father” of the hospitalist field, the fastest growing specialty in the history of modern medicine. Dr. Wachter is the author of 250 articles and 6 books.

In the safety and quality arenas, he edits the U.S. government’s leading website on patient safety and has written two books on the subject, including Internal Bleeding and Understanding Patient Safety, the world’s best selling safety primer. In 2004, he received the nation’s top honor in patient safety the John M. Eisenberg Award. In 2016, Modern Healthcare magazine ranked him as the fourth most influential physician-executive in the U.S., his ninth consecutive year in the top 50 (he was #1 on the list in 2015). He has additionally served on the healthcare advisory boards of several companies, including Google. His 2015 book, The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age, is a New York Times science bestseller. He recently chaired a blue ribbon commission advising England’s National Health Service on its digital strategy.

We all have people in our lives that we credit with influencing our decision to become physicians. For Dr. Wachter, it was his father who played a significant role in this decision-making.  His father held a fascination with the medical profession. He went so far as to wear a garage door opener on his belt in imitation of a physician’s pager. Altogether, his father’s intrigue with medicine, as well as his unexpected and emergent cancer diagnosis, guided Dr. Wachter toward a career in medicine. He states:

“The experience taught me many things. How terrifying illness is for patients and family members. How doctors aren’t necessarily too great at prognosticating. And how important human-to-human contact is in medicine – not just between doctors and patients, but also among members of the care team.”

“Medicine is changing.”  Dr. Wachter conveys this message throughout the speech.  In particular, he focuses on the technological surge that is making its way through medicine.  He calls it “widespread digitization.” Is this change for better or for worse?  He does not explicitly answer this question.  Instead, he encourages us to take these technologies and apply them creatively, namely in a manner that will improve our ability to care for patients.  He implores caution, however, as he reminds us that we signed up for this career to treat patients, not diseases.

“As the work becomes digitized and the software gets better, we will spend more of our time interacting with our digital tools, and less interacting with each other, and with our patients. This is natural, and –assuming the tools are any good – it might even be OK. After all, computers will hold much of the information, and they will be where we develop and implement many of our diagnostic and treatment plans.

But, there is a huge danger from hunkering down in our digital caves. You can never fully understand a consultant’s thinking by reading her note. You can never place a complex radiology finding in context without speaking to the radiologist. You can never allay the anxiety of a sick patient’s spouse by sending a text message. And you can never comfort a dying patient without             sitting at the bedside and holding his hand.”

Indeed, technology will allow us to push the bounds of diagnostic and treatment capabilities.  In this regard I remain optimistic, though Dr. Wachter’s words have reminded me that at the end of the day, technology is a tool.  Tools supplement –not replace— our creativity, compassion, and ability to connect with others.

Dr. Wachter concludes with a call to action:

“We have the opportunity today to do more for our patients than ever before. And you have the knowledge, skills, values, and habits of mind to thrive in this changing world. You are the ones who will reinvent the work to deliver for our patients. And you will figure out how to balance our new digital capabilities with the enduring truth that medicine is, and must remain, the most human of professions.

Thank you for the honor of speaking to you today. Congratulations to each and every one of you.”

 

Read the full speech in the Commencement Archive: https://www.themspress.org/journal/index.php/commencement/article/view/289/307

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Lecture The Medical Commencement Archive

Humanism in Medicine and Healthcare in the Community

Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting me to be your speaker today. My name is Paul Rothman, and I am the dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. It’s my privilege to be here on this memorable occasion to celebrate you, the esteemed graduates of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Class of 2016.

First, I want to say congratulations. You should be incredibly proud of yourselves. You have succeeded in one of the country’s most prestigious and rigorous programs, which is a testament to your immense talent, intelligence and drive.

Whether you are moving on to a residency, a postdoc, a job in industry or another professional stepping stone, today opens up great possibilities for you. You are forging ahead in an era of unprecedented opportunities in science and medicine.

In 2016, we are on the verge of some astounding breakthroughs, thanks to increasingly sophisticated medical imaging tools, next-generation gene sequencing, computational modeling, and other technologies that allow us to obtain and analyze complex data sets.

I started my career in 1984, when our work as medical professionals was far different than it is today. Over the past 30 years, I have had the pleasure of witnessing stupefying advances in medicine—progress that has had enormous impact on how we diagnose disease, deliver health care and conduct health-related research.

The rate of progress should be even more stunning during your careers. Soon, your whole genome is going to be accessible on your iPhone. An EKG will be self-administered at home with a hand-held device, and an iWatch will monitor seizure activity. Highly accurate autonomous robots will assist surgeons in the OR. And health behaviors will be tracked so closely that we will know in real time whether patients are adhering to their treatment regimens. There’s no doubt that technological innovation will save many, many lives.

Which raises the question, as I look out at all of you newly minted doctors: What is the role of the human doctor in this brave new world of medicine, which threatens to reduce the patient to a data set and “doctoring” to an algorithm? How can we harness the power of technology without undermining the doctor-patient relationship?

I recently read a striking study by an assistant professor of medicine here at Northwestern named Enid Montague. She used videos to analyze eye-gaze patterns in the exam room and found that doctors who use electronic health records spend roughly onethird of each visit staring at the computer. Not only is that alienating, but it can mean that we doctors aren’t picking up on important non-verbal cues from our patients.

And the more sophisticated our medical technologies get, the more potential there is for this distancing effect. For example, a hand-held ultrasound is more precise than a traditional physical exam—be it percussing a patient’s abdomen to determine the size of the liver or putting a stethoscope to someone’s chest to listen for abnormal heart rhythms.

But the human touch is an important part of building trust between doctor and patient. Can you imagine a scenario in which a doctor did a physical exam without once actually laying hands on the patient?

I like to argue that technology serves to get the unneeded variation out while the physician is there to keep the needed variation in health care.

The computer can ensure that the diagnostic process is efficient and thorough, with all potential diagnoses considered. But the physician must be there to help interpret findings or to say, maybe that patient can’t afford that drug, or that treatment regimen is too complex for that patient to manage. We as human doctors can factor in so many subtle observations and make an appropriate judgment call.

In order to do that, we need to listen. William Osler, one of Johns Hopkins’ founding fathers, is famous for saying: “Listen to your patient. He is telling you the diagnosis.” And I would take this opportunity today to echo that advice to all of you.

Here’s the thing: I believe that most of us who go into this field start out compassionate— motivated to help our fellow humans and relieve suffering. I can tell you that’s what drew me to medicine, and I’m sure the same is true for you.

It used to be we would train residents out of this inclination to be humanistic—through impossibly grueling hours and a culture of browbeating. When my wife and I trained, we worked more than 100 hours a week, and it took us years to start feeling human again after that.

Fortunately, I believe medical schools have made great strides over the past decade in nurturing empathy. We’ve changed our selection criteria to attract more caring, well-rounded people, and our residents are now limited to a somewhat more humane 80-hour workweek.

The problem is that in trying to teach our trainees to be more humanistic, we’re going against the grain of society. In 2016, efficiency is the name of the game, so doctors’ visits and hospital stays are growing shorter, making it harder to form meaningful relationships with our patients. Furthermore, so much of our communication today is now mediated through technology. Think about it: People vet potential mates through online dating sites. Friends stay in touch over Facebook. We communicate with our officemates via email.

Health care is a service industry, so look at other service industries and you’ll see a trend of dramatic depersonalization over the past couple of decades. When was the last time you spoke to a human while making a travel reservation or depositing a check? I just read that Wendy’s is adding self-service ordering kiosks to all its restaurants this year. For better or worse, DIY gene testing is already on the scene. As younger generations enter the workforce, this trend will only intensify.

But here is the really good news about your generation, and this gives me a lot of hope. Even though millennials have been raised on technology, study after study shows that your generation is more community-minded than the Gen Xers and baby boomers who preceded you.

You’re more likely than previous generations to state that you want to be leaders in your communities and make a contribution to society, and roughly 70 percent of people your age spend time volunteering in a given year. Not only do you all have the idealism of youth, but you’re also matching that idealism with action. And it’s inspiring.

At Johns Hopkins, all our trainees participate in service projects, and I suspect that’s true for most of you as well—whether it’s providing free hepatitis B screenings for community members in Chicago’s Chinatown or donating your time to CLOCC, Northwestern’s Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children. In my view, the very best physicians are those who possess a service ethos—who are not just humanists, but humanitarians.

Recently, I was helping my daughter with her medical school applications, and one of the essay prompts included this quote from the late Nobel Laureate George Wald: “The trouble with living with contradictions is that one gets used to them. The time has come when physicians must think not only of treating patients but also of trying to help heal society, if only so that their work is not incompatible with … surrounding circumstances, partly of their own making.”

Let’s unpack that quote.

In American cities, long-standing systemic inequities mean that many members of our communities lack access to adequate health care, decent schools and other advantages that many of us here today take for granted. What Wald is saying is that we can’t be content to cure sick people and lecture them on how to stay well without also addressing these underlying social conditions that contribute to poor health and the glaring health disparities we see in our cities.

We cannot satisfy ourselves with doing one and not the other—particularly in light of the social unrest that has been happening here in Chicago and in my city, Baltimore, over the last year and a half following the deaths of Laquan McDonald and Freddie Gray. These and other events have provoked Americans to confront some difficult truths. Wherever your career takes you next, I ask that you try to channel those feelings into positive action.

After all, why put such herculean efforts into healing people and finding cures if we will stand for an environment that contributes to shortening their lives?

When we do make scientific advances, we have to ensure that everyone in our society—regardless of race or income—has equal access to the latest and greatest medicine has to offer.

In January, the director of our gynecologic oncology service at Johns Hopkins published an article looking at trends in the way we treat cancer of the uterus.

It used to be when you operated on a patient with early-stage uterine cancer, you did a hysterectomy by slicing open the abdomen. The incisions were large and sometimes could lead to infection, blood clots, major blood loss, etc. These days, minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic or robotic) has become the standard of care, curing roughly two-thirds of these patients with far fewer complications than the old method.

At Johns Hopkins, we choose this method more than 90 percent of the time, unless there’s a complicating factor. Yet when our scientists looked at the national data, they found a troubling trend: African-American and Hispanic women are less likely to get the better, minimally invasive brand of surgery, as are patients who are on Medicaid or are uninsured.

  • I wish I could say this was a shocking finding, but unfortunately, it’s all too common. Here are a few startling facts on health inequity in the U.S. today:
    African-American adults are at least 50 percent more likely to die prematurely of heart disease or stroke than their white counterparts.
  • The prevalence of adult diabetes is higher among low-income adults and those without college degrees.
  • The infant mortality rate for non-Hispanic blacks is more than double the rate for non-Hispanic whites.
  • In Chicago, predominately white communities have much lower rates of overweight/obese children than communities that are predominantly African-American and Hispanic.
  • In the area surrounding The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, the life expectancy changes dramatically from neighborhood to neighborhood— by as much as 20 years!

In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” So what can we—or, more specifically, you—do about it?

Any strategy health care professionals develop to address population health must address the root causes of poor health, including poverty. Of course, the problems associated with poverty are incredibly complex, and breaking the poverty cycle requires an approach with many prongs, beginning with education.

I don’t expect you all to have the answers right out of medical school. All I ask, as you set off on your quest to eradicate disease, is that you take seriously your role as leaders in the community. The degree you are earning today confers a measure of responsibility, and I have total faith that your generation will get us closer to solutions to these pressing problems.

As busy as we are, trying to make our mark on the profession and, by extension, “human health,” we can’t lose sight of the people in the very neighborhoods our institutions exist to serve. I believe the medical community has a real opportunity to lead in helping to heal our cities, conquer inequality and create better opportunities for all. That work starts with the humanity and compassion in each of you.

Again, I want to congratulate you for this terrific accomplishment. We know you are going to achieve great things. Thank you.

Paul B. Rothman is the Frances Watt Baker, M.D., and Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., Dean of the Medical Faculty, vice president for medicine of The Johns Hopkins University, and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. As dean/CEO, Rothman oversees both the School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Health System, which encompasses six hospitals, hundreds of community physicians and a self-funded health plan.

Paul B. Rothman, MD
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Commencement Address

The Medical Commencement Archive
Volume 3, 2016

Categories
Lecture The Medical Commencement Archive

The Past, Present, and Future of Medicine

It is a special time in medicine.

This is a time of the most rapid transformation in generations! You have scientific knowledge and technical abilities that far surpass those of your predecessors. You can multitask better than most. I know– I’ve seen you on the wards and in clinics—whipping out your smart phones, clicking on answers to clever questions barely out of my mouth. Us older  physicians struggle to keep up with you.

What a privilege you have for a patient to say, “That’s my doctor!” You will care for thousands of patients during your careers. But remember, they will only see a small number of doctors. You will be very special to them in ways beyond your comprehension. They need an anchor, a belief that someone is thinking about and looking after them…and you will provide this without even knowing.

You will experience a better balance between your work and your family life than existed for our generation. You will no longer be such a slave to the profession in which family and friends who nourished us were too long neglected. Our multi-professional teams help us achieve this, with each member complementing and supporting each other. Such a balance is healthy, leads to better care and prevents burnout!

It is a challenging time in medicine.

The demographics are changing in our society. There is an increased demand for your services due to population growth and aging, as well as the arrival of healthcare reform. Soon, the majority of our nation’s population will be “ethnic minorities,” looking like New Mexico. Diversity brings a rich sharing of culture, language and values. But it also poses threats that could divide us. We must find
a way to overcome divides by race and ethnicity, by gender and sexual preference, by income and geographic isolation.

Your challenge is to bridge these divides, finding connections with patients far removed from your own upbringing, economic status, religious or ethnic beliefs. While we have the means to treat virtually everyone that crosses our doors, access to our care is not guaranteed—either because of transportation challenges, linguistic barriers, financial impediments or social marginalization of certain
groups.

Our nuclear families are shrinking as young people leave for schooling or for jobs. This leaves no grandmother around to offer guidance to a young, single mom about how to treat her feverish child in the middle of the night. In such an isolaisolation-
generating environment, clinics and emergency rooms often replace family for comfort, re-assurance and social connection. Some people feel so alienated, they have given up on the healthcare system except for late night runs to the emergency room for a neglected toothache, or an infected needle track, or for a sick teen who delayed treatment while waiting for access to the lone family car.

We will be challenged to gain skills and an understanding of domains far from our traditional areas of strength—population health, management of health teams, the business of medicine. Thus, our generation of physicians leaves you both with a legacy and a mess!

Medicine has a powerful history.

Look how rapidly our field has progressed in just a few generations and what a terrific time it is to enter the physician workforce.

First, let me recall some recent history: when your entered medical school four years ago. I’m sure the week you began medical school your grandma asked you, “What’s this bump on my arm?” You protested, “Grandma, I’m only a beginning medical student!” But she said, “Yes, I know, but just tell me what you think this is.” That’s when you found out that what you think of yourself in this
profession is not important—it’s what your family, your patients and your society thinks of you that is so very important.

There is an expectation of your competence and ability to heal which feels uncomfortable—an expectation you can’t fulfill. But, as time marches on, you’ll grow into these new clothes.

Now, let’s go back further in history and reflect on what doctors in New Mexico faced more than a century ago.

We begin with impotence in the face of diphtheria. In 1882, there were no immunizations against diphtheria, so the physician’s presence at the bedside WAS the medicine in his “doctor’s bag.”

Still, the cases were difficult:

Case 1- “I was called to bedside on Saturday. Found patient with difficult respiration and suppression of urine. On introduction of catheter, no urine was found in bladder. Performed tracheotomy; breathing very difficult; death in about 24 hours.”

Case 2 – “Patient a five year old…performed tracheostomy…lamp went out…operated with difficulty taking about ½ hour…spasms…died in about 12 hours.”

In Las Vegas, NM in 1914, doctors had many medicinal purposes for whiskey—to steady their own nerves, to use as anti-septic in the belief that they could kill off germs that cause diphtheria, even in kids, and as a pain killer. I relate to this last use, for I once had shingles, which felt like a hot branding iron on my side. I went to the local hospital and was prescribed narcotics, which didn’t
touch the pain. I was desperate. A colleague suggested I try alcohol. “I don’t drink,” I objected. But I bought a bottle of whiskey. It tasted terrible…and my pain disappeared. Swigging whiskey, I remained drunk for a week and felt no pain!

Prejudice and stigmatization were as rampant among our forebears as they are today with AIDS, mental illness, or in the attitudes of some toward immigrants. In 1904 a distinguished physician from Las Cruces warned of those with tuberculosis coming to NM for “the cure.” He said, “The army of tubercular invalids should be brought under control, promiscuous expectoration should be stopped
and every possible means taken to prevent these unfortunates from becoming a danger to the population… I most assuredly do believe that in return for the health-giving properties of our glorious climate, they should be willing to submit to some legal regulation!

This sounds remarkably like our national political dialogue today.

You have skills and tools for diagnosis and treatment that many of us on stage could only have dreamed of when we were students. Not long ago, when I was a student, we treated congestive heart failure by bleeding patients and tying tourniquets to their limbs to prevent too much venous blood returning to overwhelm their failing hearts. Today, you’re equipped with powerful diuretics, medicines
to lessen heart stress, and coronary catheters to unblock clogged arteries.

Not long ago we warehoused the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled and the tuberculous in sanatoriums. Today, with stronger therapeutic means at your disposal, and better understanding of the pathophysiology of disease, most of these individuals live at home or in the community.

And not long ago, at the turn of the last century, most health providers were physicians. Today, physicians make up less than 10% of the health workforce—for we train with and rely on multi-professional teams to better care for our patients. While we train mostly in isolation from other health professions, we will spend our professional careers in interdependent collaboration with a growing number of health professionals skilled in vital areas which complement our own skills. We depend upon pharmacists, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists and even community health workers.

And look what we face today. No matter what specialty you enter, the care you give will be affected by the social determinants of disease faced by your patients: educational attainment, income and poverty, access to nutritious food, yearning for social inclusion. These socioeconomic forces contribute more to health than all the medical care we provide. This is a humbling thought. But we’re
rising to the challenge. Community health workers, our frontline in addressing social determinants, are now hired for each of our primary care clinics. Our own Gwen Blueeyes sent me this note summarizing her work with one of our patients:

“Patient came to see me in clinic so I could help her obtain food. She appeared overwhelmed with her current situation. She said, “I’m losing my car at the end of this month because I’m behind on my car payments. I’m afraid I’ll be evicted because I’m unable to pay my rent. I receive some social security benefits, but it’s not enough to cover my living expenses. My  local churches couldn’t find me any assistance.

I did the following: Helped her complete her food voucher benefits application, connected her with “adopted families” to
help pay last month’s rent, helped her complete paperwork for the Income Support Division to help cover cost of her Medicare premiums, and scheduled an appointment for her with the hospital Patient Financial Services Office,
which I’ll also attend to give her moral support.”

Now THAT’s an example of a powerful
addition to our heath team!

You should all be engaged in health policy. I want you to promise me that whatever field you enter, you will ALWAYS ask of the patient coming to clinic or admitted to the hospital bed, “How could this visit or admission have been prevented?” Our Chief of Neurosurgery asked, “Why do so many patients from rural hospitals with strokes and head injuries have to be flown to our Hospital at enormous
expense to patients and to those rural hospitals?” He set up a telemedicine program to review head CT scans sent from rural sites so he could advise local physicians on which patients to send, and which could safely stay put in their home community.

A pediatric endocrinologist wondered why her diabetic patients in New Mexico had to travel so far to Albuquerque for checkups. Half her diabetic children were on insulin pumps, allowing them to use the internet to download their glucose readings and send them to Albuquerque for review. This doctor can now advise patients on fine-tuning their management in their homes, sharply reducing
their trips to Albuquerque.

One of your classmates noticed that despite the recommendation that all patients with congestive heart failure contact their doctor at the first sign they are retaining too much fluid—3 lb in a day or 5 lb in a week- when asked, 4 of 5 patients admitted with congestive failure on our service had no bathroom scale. So she is working with cardiology and our hospital administration to propose buying $20 digital scales for all discharged patients with congestive failure who don’t have scales, which is aimed at reducing re-admissions for this condition.

And finally, a medical student and resident on our inpatient service explored how they could have prevented the admission of two patients admitted to our service in diabetic ketoacidosis. Both were poor, on UNM Care, and since insulin was so expensive, they had to use our hospital pharmacy to get affordable insulin. The problem, they discovered, was that our UNM Pharmacy was only open
8-5 when the patients were at work. They worked at jobs without benefits and feared if they took off from work, they could lose their jobs. The student and resident presented their findings to the UNM Pharmacy which agreed to stay open after-hours. Different generations teach each other.

Like Jedis, we taught you the ancient ways of diagnosis–using the “scratch test” to assess liver size, tapping muscles to check for “myo-edema” to diagnose protein malnutrition, and observing “sighing respiration,” a sign of anxiety.

But you upstarts taught our generation how to use dynamic documentation, how to quickly pull up x-rays on the computer, and how to access the latest evidence on your iPhones in seconds.

Older and younger generations in medicine offer continuity and mutual learning. I experienced this in my own home when I bought my first iPhone. I was typing away with my thumbs when my son looked over and asked what I was doing. “I’m texting,” I said. “No you’re not,” he said. “What am I doing?” I asked. “You’re e-mailing!” he said. “What’s the difference?” I asked. He had to show me that
little texting icon. Don’t ask me about Twitter!

Finally…why is your class so great?

I interviewed faculty and staff who worked with you over the past 4 years. And their general
consensus was: “You’re just so damned nice!” Your class character has made a great impression on all of us.

You have to be the kindest, most mutually supportive, most community-minded class in a generation. The welfare of your classmates and their academic and professional success, not just your own achievement, meant something to you. In the community, you helped the homeless, the immigrants, the disabled, the elderly and youth at risk. You’ve increased access to a life-saving drug- Narcan- for opiate overdoses; you’ve testified at the state legislature for health improvement bills; you’ve helped communities fight youth obesity; you’ve brought a range of services to inner city school kids, from dental health to sex ed; you’ve organized one of the largest, free flu shot clinics imaginable (>3,000 received shots in our parking lot).

You’ve shown the power of medical students as leaders, reviving and sharply increasing participation in the Student Council as a force
for positive change in our academic health center. You’ve organized mentors within your class to help all pass the Boards! And during Match Day, instead of rushing the table to grab and open your residency match envelopes like most classes, you politely approached the table calmly, helping each other find your respective named envelopes.

These are the skills that predict success in our highly social, interdependent field of Medicine. I was touched by an e-mail I received from one of your schoolmates relating an experience she had during her first year PIE rotation in rural New Mexico. She was attending a school-based clinic near her clinical site. Through fresh eyes, she summarized her following interaction with a teen patient:

“I can’t get out of my mind a 16 year old I saw today. She wouldn’t look me in the eye, and sat in the exam room sort of slumped over. I asked “What’s going on?” “My stomach hurts and I have a headache,” she said. Then all this craziness
started pouring out. “I haven’t slept in days,” she said. “My aunt keeps getting incredibly drunk. Last night my uncle was beating her and my aunt was so drunk, she wandered away.” “I can’t concentrate… My grandfather is dying. I
just lost 3 family members to alcohol. My mom says there’s not enough room in her house for me. I was just
separated from my sister…the one person who understands me. I can’t call her—her phone’s been disconnected.
I only eat what they have here in school—I get one or two meals a day…there’s no food at home. Even when I do eat, I sometimes throw up…I can’t help it…I’m so tired.”
With my mouth gaping, I collected myself. I got her some extra food from the school cafeteria, gave her a little something to settle her stomach, gave her a hug, and referred her to New Horizons. Deep down, I wanted to adopt her. She said she trusted me. God, she trusted me!”

THESE are the qualities that our field is looking for. Class of 2016, you’ve got it!

 

Dr. Kaufman received his medical degree from the State University of New York, Brooklyn in 1969 and
is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Family Practice. He served in the U.S. Indian Health Service,
caring for Sioux Indians in South Dakota and Pueblo and Navajo Indians in New Mexico, before joining the
Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico in 1974, where he has
remained throughout his career, providing leadership in teaching, research and clinical service. He was promoted
to full Professor in 1984 and Department Chair in 1993. In 2007, he was appointed as the first Vice
Chancellor for Community Health, and was promoted to Distinguished Professor in 2011.

Arthur Kaufman, MD
University of New Mexico
School of Medicine Commencement

The Medical Commencement Archive
Volume 3, 2016

Categories
Lecture The Medical Commencement Archive

The Power of Not Knowing

Dr. Akram Boutros joined The MetroHealth System as President and Chief Executive Officer in June 2013. He serves as the leader of The MetroHealth System and is its primary public representative, reporting to the MetroHealth Board of Trustees. He works in partnership with the Board to ensure that the organization fulfills its mission and creates strategies that ensure its future success.

Dr. Boutros has more than 20 years of leadership experience in large community hospitals, specialty hospitals and academic medical centers. Most recently, he was President of BusinessFirst Healthcare Solutions, a health care advisory firm focused on clinical  transformation, operational turnarounds and emerging health delivery and reimbursement models. Dr. Boutros previously served as Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of St. Francis Hospital – The Heart Center in Roslyn, New York, and as  executive Vice President, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operating Officer of South Nassau Hospital in Oceanside, New York. An internist, Dr. Boutros received his Doctor of Medicine from the State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Brooklyn. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program and is a recognized thought leader in management systems.

Dr. Boutros also serves on the boards of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, United Way of Greater Cleveland, the Cuyahoga Community College Foundation and the Cleveland Ballet. Most recently, he served as Chair of the American Heart Association 2015 Cleveland Heart Ball, the most successful in the city’s history. He has been named to Power 150 by Crain’s Cleveland Business, Power 100 by Inside Business Magazine and EY 2015 Entrepreneur of the Year for Community Impact in Northeast Ohio.

Twenty-eight years ago, I sat where you sat, thought what you thought, and asked myself, is medical school really over? 

Will I be a good doctor?
What will the future of health care look like?
Where do I fit into that future?
Will I survive those coming changes?

My answer to each of those questions was the same: I don’t know. No one knows. But I do know a few things after nearly 30 years in this crazy profession that you are a “flip of a tassel” away from entering. I learned the first one when I was a little older than most of you.

I was in my second year of residency, near the end of one of my every-third-night ICU rotations. Exhausted, I had fallen into a deep sleep when a nurse woke me to tell me a patient who was septic – filled with infection – had become acidotic – possessing a level of acid in bodily fluids so high, it can kill you. Still foggy, I sat up in bed and said, “Give her an amp of bicarb.” It was a reflexive response. I knew bicarbonate, a base, would correct the acidosis. And as soon as I said it, I laid my head down and fell back asleep.

Five minutes later I woke again, covered in cold sweat. I’m not just using that phrase here. I was in a cold sweat. Somewhere in my subconscious, I remembered that this woman, this septic patient, also had end-stage renal disease. Her kidneys had failed. And she was retaining so much fluid it was straining her heart. As many of you know, bicarb is short for sodium bicarbonate and sodium is salt and that salt would make her retain even more fluid. I had just ordered a remedy that could kill her.

Fully awake, heart racing, I ran to her room. I was too late. The nurse had followed my orders. What I experienced next was panic. My stomach churned. My heart raced even harder. Will she die? God, I hope not. How am I going to fix this? Who should I tell? What should I do? Is this the end of my career? What the hell is wrong with me?

No one likes to risk their reputation, to claim they made a mistake, especially a potentially deadly one. But at 2 a.m., I called my ICU attending. I called the patient’s attending. I called the nursing supervisor. I called the renal fellow. And I told them all the same thing: “I screwed up.”

Nobody yelled. And nobody fired me. Instead, together, we agreed to assemble a team to perform ultrafiltration to draw off the fluid – before it did its damage. It worked. The patient made it. She survived. Not because of me. Because of the team that gathered around me. They all wanted her to live. And they all wanted me to succeed.

Everybody wants you to succeed, too. That’s the first thing I want to leave you with today, one of the things I hope you’ll never forget: We are ALL rooting for you. Your teachers are rooting for you. Your bosses are rooting for you. The institution you work for is rooting for you. So are your patients, your family, your friends, and your spouse. ALL of us. We love you. We need you. We want you to be happy, confident, good at what you do, and in love with it. We want that for all kinds of reasons.

One of those is that someday we may need you to take our pain away, to help us walk again, to give us back enough energy to play with our kids or grandkids, to save our lives. Close your eyes now, for just a minute, and picture in your mind, the world of people who are behind you. So many of them are here today. Imagine them, in the stands, on their feet, cheering you on. And whenever you find yourself in a tough situation, come back to that image. Imagine everyone who cares about you cheering you on. Because we are.

I have another message today. This one comes from a different moment early in my career, another one I’ll never forget. It was July 1, 1988: the first day of my internship, and my first day as a doctor. I was on call and because my last name begins with B, I got the first admission to internal medicine: a transfer from another hospital. When I walked into the room in the ED, a middle-aged woman was sitting up in bed, dressed in a hospital gown, looking very anxious. I began with the textbook question: “What brought you to the hospital?”

“They think I have Churg-Strauss vasculitis,” she said.

I remembered that I’d studied the disease awhile back. I remembered that it was serious. But I couldn’t remember what it was or what organ system it affected. In fact, I couldn’t remember anything else about it. I felt unprepared, like I had nothing to offer, that I was useless.

But I kept going. I thought, alright Akram, just keep asking questions – as many questions as possible – and maybe you’ll get a clue. If that doesn’t work, try the ‘fake it ‘til you make it’ method. Maybe that works for doctors, too. I took a detailed history, asking questions about diseases in her family and what medications she was on. As I was wrapping up, she looked at me and said “So what do you think, Doc?”

I stopped and thought for a few seconds. I thought about saying “Oh, we’ll have to see,” or “We need to run some tests” or something else that would make me sound like I really knew what was going on. But when I looked at her again, I saw how concerned she was. And different words popped out of my mouth.

“I don’t know.”

I was embarrassed to admit it. But, to my surprise, she wasn’t angry or afraid. She chose understanding instead. Immediately, I promised her that I would learn as much as I could about Churg-Strauss before the next day. I told her that every day she was there, in the hospital, I would do my very best to gain the knowledge I needed to take good care of her.

She died. But it was 13 years later. And every one of those 13 years, she was my patient. During those years, she told me, more than once, that the reason she trusted me with her life was because I had been honest with her. That honesty humanized me. Those three little words – “I don’t know” – made her believe in me.

I kept my promise to her. I sought out those who knew more about her deadly vasculitis than I did. And I asked them to teach me what they knew, to be my partners in her care. Together, we gave her 13 years she might never have had.

“I don’t know.” Don’t ever be afraid of those words. They are the start of something beautiful. And they’re a reminder, every day, that we are doctors, not Supermen or Superwomen.

In America, we celebrate the Lone Ranger. And what we really need to celebrate is the Fantastic Four, no The Justice League. Sometimes – no, often – you need the Elongated Man, the Red Tornado and Wonder Woman to get the job done. Having Martian
Manhunter with his genius intellect and regenerative healing helps, too.

Remember: You don’t have to be able to do it all or know everything. Your teachers don’t expect you to. Your colleagues don’t expect you to. And your patients don’t expect you to. The only person who insists that you have all the answers is you.

Say “I don’t know.” It’s one of the smartest, bravest things you can say. It will take the pressure off. People will trust you. Nobody believes a know-it-all. Amazing things will happen when you say “I don’t know.”

I think the late poet Wislawa Szymborska said it best. In her 1997 speech accepting the Nobel Prize for literature, she talked about why she loved that three-word phrase:

“It’s small,” she said, “but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended. If Isaac Newton had never said to himself “I don’t know,” the apples in his little orchard might have dropped to the ground like hailstones and at best he would have stooped to pick them up and gobble them with gusto. Had my compatriot Marie Sklodowska-Curie never said to herself “I don’t know,” she probably would have wound up teaching chemistry at some private high school for young ladies from good families, and would have ended her days performing this otherwise perfectly  respectable job. But she kept on saying “I don’t know,” and these words led her, not just once but twice, to Stockholm, where restless,
questing spirits are occasionally rewarded with the Nobel Prize.”

Be restless, questing spirits. Explore, always. Exploring leads to discovery, and discovery to whole new worlds. And those worlds to the theory of radioactivity, the laws of motion and great things we never imagined were possible, things that make the world a better place.

That is why you – with this beautiful knowledge you’ve spent years acquiring – are here. You are here to make your patients better, your communities better, and the world better. And you do that by being restless, questing spirits. You do that by saying “I don’t
know.” Those three words are the start of something beautiful. THAT is one thing I know for sure.

 

Akram Boutros, MD
Northeast Ohio Medical University
Commencement Address

The Medical Commencement Archive Volume 3, 2016

 

 

Categories
Clinical Emotion Reflection The Medical Commencement Archive

Compassion, The Heart of Medicine

Dr. Rob Horowitz is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Pediatrics, and is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Hospice & Palliative Care Medicine. After 14 years of working as a rural Emergency Physician, in 2012 he moved his professional come to the University of Rochester Medical Center division of Palliative Care, where he cares for children and adults who have serious illness. Dr. Horowitz also established and served as Medical Director of URMC’s Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program from 1999 until 2015.

In addition to his clinical duties, Dr. Horowitz is Director of the Medical School’s Year 2 and Year 3 Comprehensive Assessments, which are longitudinal formative assessments of student communication skills, medical knowledge and professionalism utilizing patient-actor interviews, multi-source feedback, peer- and self-assessments, and other modalities. He also teaches medical students in multiple other small and large group settings and facilitates several groups for clinicians, including Balint groups for physicians and Nurse Practitioners, and a support group for Palliative Care Unit nurses, techs and others.

Hello Class of 2016 and hello to your family, friends, colleagues and dignitaries. What an honor, that you invited me to deliver your Last lesson from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry faculty. It will be a brief one, less than ten minutes; and it will be a review, a reminder of what you already know. Or, and I say this with sadness and some urgency, it may be a reminder of what you once knew, and may be in the process of forgetting. This Last Lesson is grounded in words from Francis of Assisi, which I paraphrase here:

Work of our hands is labor.
Work of our hands and our head is a craft.
Work of our hands, our head, and our heart is an art.

THIS is the last lesson: doctoring is an art, a work of your hands, head and heart, or more prosaically, a work of skills, knowledge and humanity. This reminder is important, even for you, who were socialized here in Rochester, the home of biopsychosocial medicine. In fact, it’s a response to recent conversations I’ve enjoyed with many of you, who, poised for internship, wondered whether health-care-the-business has taken the heart out of medicine- the-calling. The answer is a resounding NO. But let me respond directly to your words, first about hands and head. Here are two quotes from you, representative of many others:

I just don’t know enough to be a good doctor.
I’m about to be revealed as a phony.

I respond with a story from long ago and yet not so long ago: twenty three years ago I was a Med-Peds intern here in Rochester, just completing my first Medicine rotation at Strong Memorial Hospital, when in Morning Report the chief resident asked me to offer a differential for the case. I was paralyzed. I had no idea how to explain the patient’s symptoms. I tried to smile and charm my way through it, but I stumbled and fumbled, until a fellow intern completed the task that I couldn’t. I felt ashamed…revealed as a phony, an imposter.

As you know, aversive conditioning is deep, and this experience stuck with me. In the succeeding years, whenever I saw a particular colleague who witnessed my humiliation on that day long ago approaching down the hall, I was tempted to, and sometimes DID, turn in the opposite direction, so I wouldn’t have to feel his scorn.

Sounds silly from this vantage, nearly a quarter century later, doesn’t it? In fact, a medical student suggested so last year in response to me sharing this story. He challenged me to find out if my impression was accurate. And so I did. Last June, seated behind me in Grand Rounds was that well-admired physician. I took a deep breath, turned around, and asked him what he recalled about that infamous incident, my unmasking. His response was, “Are you kidding, Rob? I was too busy feeling like a fraud myself to take
in anyone else’s difficulties! Sounds like we were in the same boat.”

What a gift of relief his words were! A few minutes into Grand Rounds, he put a ribbon on the gift when he tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, “Y’know, Rob, I’ve always thought you were a pretty smart guy.

There are two morals here: First, you can’t pack all the information you will ever need into your head. In 1950 the doubling time of medical knowledge was 50 years; in 1980, 7 years; in 2010, 3.5 years. This means during your tenure here—whether 4 years or 13 years—the base of medical knowledge has more than doubled and, for some of you, several times over! So, of course, please learn from your knowledge gaps, and master how and where to seek answers. And please recognize that knowing it all is not the most important  measure of our competence as doctors.

Second, the collision between our cognitive limits and our inherent drive and perfectionism, which made this professional  achievement possible in the first place, is a perfect recipe for self-doubt and self-judgment. And if these become our lifestyle, we will live a  disheartening and depleted life. Please be kind to yourself, and find in your community colleagues and mentors who are open to genuine reflection. Don’t wait 25 long years, like I did, or forever, to make peace with your humanity.

Now, what about the Heart component of Doctoring? I will share two quotes from you, similar to many others:

I know empathy is important, but there isn’t enough time to be empathic.
I’m working so hard to be smart and productive, I’m afraid I’m losing my caring.

Let me respond with a second story, a fresh one about the profound opportunity for compassion in simple moments. Last Friday morning, into the exam room stormed my new patient, a 50-something year old woman I’ll call Wendy, who has widely metastatic cancer and severe pain, for which she was referred to me. You see, I’m a palliative care physician, and as such, I am a pain specialist. She sat opposite me and as she launched into her agenda, she leaned forward so far that I was forced to lean back.

She damned the medical system, and she cursed the siloed subspecialists, and she asked why the hell she should trust me, yet another siloed subspecialist, to help her, or to even care. I asked if I might share an observation with her. She nodded. I told her, “I want
to help make sense of what’s going on, and to care for you and help you, but your manner appears so angry, so critical, I am not sure how to reach through it to you. Can you help me?” She softened a bit, and responded, “I’m afraid that if I stop being angry, I’m going to cry.” I inched closer, until our knees were almost touching, and looking into her now moist eyes, I said, “Then cry.” She gasped and her head bowed, tipping forward as if she was collapsing, and to stop her descent, I reflexively leaned forward, until the tops of our heads were gently touching. We were posed like an A-frame, and she wept. I put my hand on her shoulder and told her, “I am with you, Wendy.” And between sobs, she stuttered, “Yes…now… I know.

There are two morals here. First, you can choose to cultivate the habit of compassion. Indeed, I share this story not to show off my compassion-finesse, but to demystify, to define and to normalize it. We respond compassionately to suffering simply by witnessing it, approaching it, and inquiring about it. And by that alone, we offer healing. And it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.

Second, it is vital to be compassionate to both your patients AND to yourselves. Because just as you can’t possibly know everything that matters, neither can you possibly tend to all those in need. Please remember that you actually DO need to sleep and to eat,
to tend to your spouse, your partner, your children, your friends, your inner life, and your pleasures.

So, this last lesson is a reminder of what you knew when you first came here to enter this amazing, privileged profession: Hands, head and heart are all three essential to the art of doctoring. If you choose to make compassion your default mode, then you will know definitively—in your own heart—that health-care-the-business CAN’T take the heart out of medicine-the-calling.

You can only imagine how inspiring it is, from this stage, to look upon you, our colleagues. To celebrate you, to be awed by you, and to know with great confidence that your skillful hands, your brilliant heads, and yes—your loving, beautiful hearts will be a blessing to your countless beneficiaries, your patients, who now await your arrival. For this we are forever proud and grateful. Congratulations.

 

The Medical Commencement Archive, Volume 3, 2016

Dr. Rob Horowitz, MD
University of Rochester School of Medcine
Commencement Address