Guest Writer
University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine
Megan is a dental student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in Philadelphia, PA class of 2026. After graduation, Megan is pursuing a post-doctoral certificate in Orthodontics at CTOR Academy. In 2022, she graduated from Brandeis University with a Bachelor of Science in biology. She enjoys try new restaurants, taking walks around the city, and learning to ice skate. After graduating dental school, Megan would like to pursue a career in dentistry that creates inclusive dental care for those with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
“Good morning. My name is Megan, and I am the student dentist who will be taking care of you today.” As a dental student, encounters with new patients always excite me. There is truly nothing like the opportunity to meet patients and discover how I can play a role in improving their lives from a dental standpoint, which in turn impacts their total physical and mental well-being.
The rapid introduction of revolutionary technologies like minimally invasive robotic-assisted surgeries will exponentially increase complexity in medicine, law, education and ethics. Roboethics deals with the code of conduct that robotic engineers must implement in the artificial intelligence of a robot. Through this kind of ethics, roboticists must guarantee that autonomous systems will exhibit ethically acceptable behavior in situations in which robots interact with patients.
Today, I made a two-year-old cry because I wanted to look into his eyes to rule out vision-threatening disease. The light was too bright, the lens was too close, and the attention was too much.
Residency is a challenging time plagued by long hours, overwhelming clinical service loads, escalating documentation requirements, and inadequate resources for support. A recently published study in the New England Journal of Medicine illustrates how mistreatment in the training environment takes an additional toll on medical trainees.
It wasn’t caterpillars turning into beautiful butterflies, that’s for sure. “The Change” was when a bright-eyed, optimistic female junior resident turned into an angry, and sometimes mean, senior resident with very little patience for anyone.
In 2019, sexual harassment and discrimination in medicine prevent patients from receiving the best possible care. We all deserve better. Not only do all who practice medicine and care for patients deserve an equitable workplace, patients deserve optimal care provided by medical teams in which all members are respected and valued. This is why I’m proud to be a founding member of TIME’S UP Healthcare.
To help a soul / To heal a wound / To hold a hand / To walk again
In order for the country to make meaningful progress in tackling the opioid epidemic, we need a cultural shift in the way patients and providers think about pain.
Pharmaceutical companies and physicians are being demonized for their manufacturing and dispensing of opioid analgesics. Money-hungry executives from Big Pharma caused the crisis by brainwashing doctors to prescribe these medications left and right. Greedy doctors want patients dependent upon them for years, ensuring a steady stream of paying patients in their waiting room. Drugs drive the market. Drugs lead to big profits for everyone involved. The more drugs, the better.
It seems that each week we learn of a new mass shooting. Gunfire from a legally-purchased AR-15 assault rifle hits innocent high school students, nightclub patrons, and mall-goers. A politician reassures the nation that our brave first responders are bringing the victims to a nearby hospital. The media’s report to the public generally ends, but when I hear “trauma team to ED STAT,” my work only just begins.
“How are you doing this morning, Mr. Tracy? Sorry we’re running late. You’ve been waiting an hour.”
Over the past 50 years, the demographics of medical school graduates in the United States has changed dramatically with the number of women (47%) almost equaling the number of men in 2014. However, the Association of American Medical Colleges reports that out of all the sub-specialties, orthopaedic surgery has the lowest proportion of female residents, instructors, assistant, associate, and full professors.
The unexpected suicide of a graduate of our surgical residency program — nearly seven years ago — still reverberates off the walls of Stanford Hospital. While he didn’t end his life on the premises (that happened during fellowship in another city), the effects of his tragic death subdue the residency to this day
Fellow Physician Contributing Writer
Stanford University
Cliff was born and raised in California’s Eastern Sierra. His passions included motocross and ski racing in his hometown of Mammoth Lakes. He attended college at UCLA where he majored in anthropology and excavated pre-contact Guaymi burials on remote Panamanian shores. After graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA, he went to USC for medical school on an academic scholarship. His research focused on surgical education in designing perfused cadaver models, and cost-effective means of delivering burn care. He graduated AOA and valedictorian, and matched into Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford. Cliff completed a postdoc fellowship at Stanford’s Clinical Excellence Research Center learning value-based care, studying health policy, and getting a foundation in health services research. His current investigations include cost-effective delivery systems for burn patients, understanding the effects of reimbursement variation on surgeon decision making, and improving resident physician performance through targeting variation. Cliff aspires to be a burn surgeon with the goal of improving outcomes following reconstructive surgery. He also aims to improve shared-decision making when undergoing reconstructive burn surgery.
More than anything, Cliff loves spending time with his wife Cassandra, who is a patent litigator in Palo Alto. They are raising twin boys, Jake and Charlie, who have quickly become their raison-d'etre. The family of four loves traveling.
