Education

What is professional identity formation in medicine?

Education

September 3, 2025

“Did I get dumber?” This poignant question from a medical student, asked in frustration after receiving a lower-than-expected grade, became the focus of a forty-five-minute academic coaching session. Simply put, my role as a learning specialist was to foster a mindset shift: from “my grade determines my self-worth” to “my grade reflects where I am in my learning right now and guides my next steps.” Helping the student build this …

How Filipino cultural values shape silence around mental health

Victor Fu and Charmaigne Lopez

Education

August 31, 2025

Filipino Americans are one of the fastest-growing and most diverse Asian American subgroups in the U.S.—yet they remain one of the most misunderstood, especially when it comes to mental health. Whether due to the myth of the “model minority” or the aggregation of Asian health data that obscures subgroup differences, Filipino Americans face a growing but overlooked mental health crisis.

Despite strong cultural values rooted in resilience, family, and faith, Filipino …

Why leadership training in medicine needs to start with self-awareness

Amelie Oshikoya, MD, MHA

Education

August 31, 2025

Leadership training in medicine is often framed around titles and administrative skills, preparing students to one day manage teams or step into academic or hospital leadership roles. While these skills are important, they miss the deeper, more urgent need in medical education: helping future physicians understand themselves, navigate complex health care systems, and make intentional career decisions aligned with their values.

Why traditional leadership training falls short

Countless physicians enter practice only …

Learning medicine in the age of AI: Why future doctors need digital fluency

Kelly Dórea França

Education

August 30, 2025

When I started medical school, I imagined long nights memorizing anatomy, shadowing physicians, and, eventually, walking hospital hallways in a white coat while trying to solve the intricate puzzles that patients carry in their bodies.

What I didn’t expect was that some of the most important lessons wouldn’t come from a professor or a textbook but from conversations about algorithms, data, and machines that learn.

Artificial intelligence felt distant at first, something …

Why health care must adopt a harm reduction model

Dylan Angle

Education

August 24, 2025

Many health care providers are still coming to terms with the opioid epidemic. The development of drugs such as Oxy opened a door for widespread opioid use, and the aftermath of this failure has led to rampant addiction in our country’s most vulnerable. As the system gradually regulated legal opioids, dangerous alternatives like heroin and fentanyl increased in prevalence. Other nonopiate medications like amphetamines have also become common in communities. …

Gen Z’s DIY approach to health care

Amanda Heidemann, MD

Education

August 19, 2025

There is a generation change happening in how health information and care is accessed, understood, and delivered, driven by Gen Z. They are the first generation of digital natives and the first to fully benefit from the Affordable Care Act, which has cut uninsured rates in half for 19- to 25-year-olds, improving access to preventive care services. But now, as they enter adulthood and are becoming responsible for their …

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Gen Z’s DIY approach to health care

What street medicine taught me about healing

Alina Kang

Education

August 19, 2025

In a little area outside our free clinic in Miami, ten of us sit together in a group. The air is thick and unmoving. Some wear torn shirts while others arrive in stylish outfits. A few have not had the chance to shower in weeks, but all show up, bringing their full selves to the group. These are the people who call the streets home, men and women who sleep …

How listening makes you a better doctor before your first prescription

Kelly Dórea França

Education

August 2, 2025

Before I ever introduced myself as a future doctor, I was a listener.

Not because someone told me that listening was important in medicine, but because, as a first-year student, I quickly realized I had no answers—but I did have ears. And heart. And a quiet seat at the edge of patient stories and preceptor reflections.

In the early days of medical school, everything felt unfamiliar. The terms, the pace, the sense …

What it means to be a woman in medicine today

Annie M. Trumbull

Education

July 27, 2025

At first glance, medical school can be simplified to “drinking from a fire hose.” Endless Anki cards, color-coded notes, iPads filled with diagrams.

Cramming and regurgitation, funny acronyms and mnemonics. Obscure conditions. Buzzwords.

It feels like memorizing a ton of conditions and running through the routine steps of diagnosis, treatment, management, clinical investigations, and so on — until you can recite them in your sleep.

You’re buried in biochemical pathways, pathophysiology, and pharmacology, …

How Japan and the U.S. can collaborate for better health care

Masashi Hamada, MD, PhD and Hibiki Yamazaki & Vikram Madireddy, MD

Education

July 26, 2025

The United States and Japan, while separated by geography, language, and culture, share more in common than first meets the eye—particularly when it comes to health care. As post-war democracies that developed robust medical infrastructures in the latter half of the 20th century, both countries have grappled with similar challenges: Aging populations, rising costs, workforce burnout, and persistent health disparities. Yet their respective approaches—the U.S.’s pluralistic, market-driven model and Japan’s …

The case for a standard pre-med major in U.S. universities

Devin Behjatnia

Education

July 25, 2025

Throughout my academic career I learned that medicine can be pursued through any major. Although the traditional path is through biology, as long as the correct prerequisites are taken, you are eligible to apply. As time went on, I began to think to myself, “Why isn’t there a common pre-med major?” This major would set students up to conquer the rigorous curriculum of medical school. Additionally, if students decide not …

From rejection to resilience: a doctor’s rise through the Caribbean route

Ryan Nadelson, MD

Education

July 23, 2025

The memories are still raw: Stepping off the plane alone, unsure of what came next. Where was the campus? The car? A place to live? I didn’t know a soul. I was in a different country, surrounded by uncertainty.

There were moments I truly wondered if I’d make it. I was afraid I’d fail—that this dream might slip through my fingers. How could I study medicine on a tiny island and …

The hidden cost of professionalism in medical training

Hannah Wulk

Education

July 20, 2025

I sat in my pink childhood bed, my name still written in cursive above it from when I redesigned the room at seven years old, staring at the letter that shattered my dream. I had been dismissed from medical school for “professionalism” concerns. I didn’t know what came next. No roadmap. No support. Just the crushing reality that everything I had worked for was suddenly gone.

Medical education demands resilience and …

The cost of ending shadowing in medical education

Matthew Ryan, MD, PhD

Education

July 20, 2025

A faculty-wide email recently announced that shadowing in our emergency department would no longer be recognized as a valid educational activity. I wrote back asking why. The reply was brief, dismissive, and telling:

“It doesn’t pay the rent.”

That line has stuck with me—not just because it was flippant, but because it revealed something deeper about how we now view education.

Shadowing has long served as the first bridge between curiosity and calling …

Why clinical research is a powerful path for unmatched IMGs

Dr. Khutaija Noor

Education

July 14, 2025

For thousands of International Medical Graduates (IMGs) every year, the third week of March is defined by a single, gut-wrenching question: Did I match? The entire future seems to hinge on a single email. We spend years navigating exams, clinical rotations, and visa applications, all for a shot at a residency spot in the United States. But what happens when that email doesn’t bring good news? For many, it feels …

Dear July intern: It’s normal to feel clueless—here’s what matters

Tomi Mitchell, MD

Education

July 13, 2025

It’s July—the official new year for medicine.

You’re either a brand-new intern, wide-eyed and exhausted, equal parts proud and terrified, or maybe you’re stepping into fellowship, wondering how you’re suddenly supposed to be the expert. You’re navigating hallways you haven’t mapped yet, still figuring out whether your badge works on the north wing or the south elevator, trying to remember where you parked, and already questioning if you made a huge …

Why medical schools must ditch lectures and embrace active learning

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA

Education

July 5, 2025

When I was a medical student, some enterprising classmate started a note taking service so we wouldn’t have to take notes on our own. He set up a tape recorder and transcribed the notes for distribution the next day. One day, our professor showed up with a tape recorder, set it up on the table in front of the lecture hall, and turned it on. The result was an electronic …

Why helping people means more than getting an MD

Vaishali Jha

Education

July 5, 2025

“Why do you want to be a doctor?”

Ask any pre-med that question, and you’ll probably hear the same answer: “I just want to help people.”

I’ve said it, too—more times than I can count. But lately, I’ve started to question what that phrase even means. Not because I’ve lost faith in medicine, but because I’ve learned that helping is more complex, layered, and humbling than I ever imagined.

As the host of …

Residency match tips: Building mentorship, research, and community

Simran Kaur, MD and Eva Shelton, MD

Education

July 4, 2025

The residency match process is one of the most defining and often most daunting milestones in a medical student’s journey. It represents the culmination of over eight years of dedication, sacrifice, and hard work in pursuit of a dream many of us have nurtured since childhood.

Building a strong application is challenging for everyone. Whether you’re navigating personal doubts, managing financial strain, lacking mentorship, or simply trying to figure out the …

How I learned to stop worrying and love AI

Rajeev Dutta

Education

July 1, 2025

Is artificial intelligence going to replace physicians? I think the most accurate answer that can be given at this point is “maybe.” Either way, vehemently denying the mere possibility serves no one. If the takeover does happen, being proactive (rather than reactive) and carving a meaningful space for the physician workforce in light of AI leaves us better off than sitting on the sidelines as the next chapter begins. And …

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