Lavanya Viswanathan is a gastroenterologist and can be reached on Twitter @Lavanyamd.
Medical practice in England in the 1500s was poorly regulated, and there was no way to distinguish between various medical practitioners. A small group of distinguished physicians petitioned King Henry VIII to form a College to grant licenses to those qualified to practice medicine and to penalize charlatans. King Henry VIII thus granted a royal charter to establish the Royal College of Physicians, London, in 1518, which was extended to …
Author. President. Teacher. Doctor. These are all gender-neutral words which happen to relate to a person’s profession. However, I find it particularly interesting that while “doctor” is a gender-neutral word, the field of medicine is riddled with institutional sexism.
Let me begin by explaining that I am a military physician currently training to become a gastroenterologist. If being the only woman in any room bothered me, my journey would imply that …
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