Interviews

Current and previous interviews with practicing doctors across the health professions.  SDN publishes new articles, interviews, podcasts, and features every weekday.

The Student Doctor Network was founded by students in 1999 to help students become doctors.  All articles are provided free as part of our nonprofit educational mission.

Articles are listed below in reverse date order:

Q&A with Duffy Jones, DVM, Author of The Business Side of Veterinary Medicine

by
Duffy Jones

Dr. M. Duffy Jones, DVM completed his Bachelor of Science degree in biology at the University of Notre Dame and obtained his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine at Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine. He then completed an internship at Georgia Veterinary Specialist in 2000. In 2005, he founded Peachtree Hills Animal Hospital located in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the co-author of The Business Side of Veterinary Medicine: What Veterinary Schools Do Not Teach You, published in 2017.

Read more

Q&A with Dr. Ike Anya, Writer and Public Health Consultant

by
ike anya

Dr. Ike Anya is a consultant in public health medicine, writer, honorary lecturer in Public Health at Imperial College London, cofounder of Nigeria Health Watch and cofounder and principal consultant of EpiAfric, a public health consultancy in Nigeria.

Dr. Anya obtained his medical degree at the University of Nigeria (1995), before eventually moving to the UK in 2001. Here, he obtained a Master’s from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, before completing the Southwest England public health training program in 2008.

Read more

Q&A with Ms. Carolann Curry, Reference and Outreach Librarian

by
Chris Diem

Ms. Carolann Curry is a Library Assistant Professor and the Reference & Outreach Librarian at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia.

Carolann CurryPlease summarize your role at the medical school.
I assist medical school faculty, staff, and students with research, including providing customized literature searches and one-on-one reference consultations. I am the library liaison to multiple faculty departments, including Family Medicine, Community Medicine, Geriatrics & Palliative Medicine, and Medical Education. I am also the library liaison to the Medical Doctor, Master of Science in Biomedical Science, and Master of Science in Preclinical Science programs. In addition to reference responsibilities, I teach classes to medical students, faculty, and residents. Librarians at Mercer University School of Medicine have a faculty designation, so we are able to serve on committees, which allows us to provide additional institutional support to the school. For example this year I am serving on the Research Committee and am co-chairing the annual joint research conference.

Read more

Q&A with Dr. Katherine Semrau, Women’s and Maternal Epidemiology

by

Dr. Katherine Semrau, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Epidemiologist at the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, and the Director of the BetterBirth Program at Ariadne Labs, a joint health innovation center between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The BetterBirth Program is focused on improving quality of care in facility-based childbirth using the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist. This quality improvement program recently completed a large-scale study of the peer-mentoring implementation of the WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist in facility-based deliveries conducted in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Read more

Q&A with Adaira Landry, MD, MEd, Harvard Emergency Medicine Assistant Residency Director

by
adaira Landry

Adaira Landry, MD, MEd, is the Assistant Residency Director for the Harvard Emergency Medicine Residency.  She went to UC Berkley where she earned degrees in Molecular Cell Biology and African American Studies. After a gap year for work and research, she attended UCLA for medical school. Dr. Landry completed her emergency medicine residency at NYU where she served as chief resident her final year. She completed an Ultrasound Fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and earned her MEd with a focus on Technology, Innovation and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is interested in digital innovation, resident wellness, and increasing diversity and inclusion in medicine.

Read more

Q&A With Dr. Samir Guglani, Consultant, Clinical Oncologist, and Writer

by
Samir guglani

Dr. Samir Guglani (MBBS, MRCP, FRCR) is a consultant clinical oncologist and a writer. He is also the founder, director, and curator of Medicine Unboxed, an annual event which uses the arts to engage health professionals and the public in conversation around medicine.

Dr. Guglani obtained his medical degree from the University College Hospital London Medical School (1995), having also completed an intercalated degree in neuroscience there.

Read more

Q&A with Dr. Suzi Schweikert, Ob-Gyn and Medical School Admissions Expert

by
Suzi schweikert

As a physician, I have worked in private practice, academic medicine, research medicine, and community health. I currently work in a non-profit community clinic, where I treat patients, supervise nurse midwives, and train providers on electronic health records. At Accepted, I advise students applying to medical school, residencies, fellowships, PA, NP, MPH, nursing, midwifery, and other healthcare-affiliated programs. I enjoy working with traditional and nontraditional applicants alike and believe that healthcare is at its best when providers come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Read more

Q&A with Courtleigh Watson, DVM

by
Courtleigh Watson

Today we (Tutor the People) are interviewing Courtleigh Watson, a DVM associate veterinarian. Courtleigh studied veterinary medicine in Alabama, and she is going to tell us more about her background, the steps she took to become a veterinarian, and her current career.

TTP: Hi, Courtleigh. Thank you for speaking with us today. Not many people can say they were able to acquire their dream job. Did you always want to be a veterinarian? Please tell us more about your background and what drew you to this discipline—did you know during undergrad that you would continue to pursue veterinary medicine? This was a big decision to make at that time.

Read more

Q&A with Dr. James Dahle, Emergency Medicine, Founder of White Coat Investor

by

Dr. James Dahle is a practicing emergency physician and founder of White Coat Investor, a website in which he shares what he has learned about personal finance management and wealth building.
Dr. Dahle graduated in 1999 with a BS in molecular biology from Brigham Young University before obtaining his medical degree from the University of Utah School of Medicine in 2003. Following this, he trained at the University of Arizona Emergency Medicine Residency Program and then served four years with the Air Force and the Navy, which took him across military bases on four different continents.

Read more

Q&A with Dr. Harris Eyre, Psychiatry Trainee, Pharmacogeneticist

by
Harris eyre

By Gloria Onwneme, Medical Student, University of Nottingham, UK

Dr. Harris Eyre, MD, PhD, Fulbright Scholar (WG Walker) is a psychiatry trainee, and Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of CNSDose, a company which has developed and deployed a world-leading genetic test to aid the antidepressant selection process for primary care physicians, psychiatrists, and people with depression. He is also an executive-in-residence at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, the world’s largest medical complex.

Read more

Q&A with Javier La Fontaine, DPM, MS, Limb Salvage Specialist

by

Javier La Fontaine, DPM, MS, is a professor in the Plastic Surgery Department at UT Southwestern and an attending physician at Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, TX. He specializes in limb salvage, using his surgical and wound healing expertise to help patients—especially those with diabetes—who have been told that amputation is the only course of action available to them.

Originally hailing from Puerto Rico, Dr. La Fontaine earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. He earned DPM degree from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine in 1995 and completed his residency in Podiatric Medicine and Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1999. He has been widely published, holds leadership roles in multiple professional societies—including the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, where he serves as a regional president, and the American Podiatric Medical Association—and has been named one of the “Most Influential 175 Podiatrists in the US” by Podiatry Magazine.

Read more

Q&A with Dr. James Doty, Neurosurgeon, CCARE Director

by

James R. Doty M.D., is a Professor of Neurosurgery and the founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University.

He is also a philanthropist serving on the board of a number of non-profits; an investor and consultant to a number of medical device and biomedical companies; a venture partner in the medical device industry; and an entrepreneur. He is the former CEO of Accuray, manufacturer of the CyberKnife, that went public in 2007 with a valuation of $1.3 billion.

Read more

Q&A with Dr. Ahmed Hankir, Psychiatrist and Mental Health Campaigner

by
ahmed hankir

Dr. Ahmed Hankir MBChB PGCert (Psychiatry) PGCert (Epidemiology) is a specialty trainee in psychiatry in the National Health Service (UK), an Associate Professor of Psychiatry with the Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies (USA), and a Senior Research Fellow for the Bedfordshire Centre for Mental Health Research in association with Cambridge University (UK).

Read more

Q&A With Dr. Paige O’Mahoney, Physician-Author and Wellness Coach

by

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I started medical school at age 27 after studying international relations in college and then working as a paralegal in an international law firm. I met my husband, who was also changing careers, the first day of a post-baccalaureate premed program called MedPath at the Ohio State University. I mention this because I did not choose to pursue medicine at an early age, but rather felt called to it during the course of my education and training in other areas.

Read more