family medicine

Q&A with Dr. Knut Schroeder, General Practitioner

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Dr. Knut Schroeder is a practicing  GP in Bristol, UK; a freelance medical author, and founder and director of Expert Self Care Ltd, a social enterprise which freely provides healthcare information via mobile apps. The company’s mission is to empower people to look after their own health and to know when to seek help. The ‘ESC Student’ app, which went live in June 2016, has been recommended by the Higher Education Policy Institute for use at all higher educational institutions.

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Internal Medicine: The "Classic" Physician

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By Brent Schnipke

If the average reader is asked to imagine a typical medical student, he or she might picture the following scene: a group of frazzled young people in short white coats, scurrying around the wards of a large academic medical center. They travel in hordes, flocking to the nearest attending, who calmly asks them asinine questions and then chides them for their lack of knowledge. This scene is stereotypical of an often-stereotyped field, and might be something one would see in a caricature of the hospital – on a show such as Grey’s Anatomy or Scrubs. Although this is only one example of what medical education can look like, it is helpful for giving a simplified look at the life of a third-year medical student in the throes of clinical rotations.

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20 Questions: Tyler Edwards, MD, Family Medicine

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Dr. Tyler Edwards is an attending physician who specializes in family medicine, practicing for almost 15 years. In addition to his duties as a family physician, Dr. Edwards also works as a hospitalist at Frisbie Memorial Hospital, the same hospital in which his outpatient practice is affiliated. After graduating from Pennsylvania State University in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry, he matriculated at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, subsequently earning his M.D. degree in 1999. He thereupon moved to Ogden, Utah, to complete his McKay-Dee Family Medicine Residency program, which lasted three years. Dr. Edwards has been married for 18 years and has four children. As a keen advocate for exercise, he enjoys physical, outdoor activities, such as cross-country skiing, running, swimming, and hiking.

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All in the Family: A Profile of Family Medicine

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Central to the skillset of every physician is the differential diagnosis; this is the process by which new patients are evaluated to establish the most likely diagnosis. Similarly, the first clinical year of medical school is like a differential for each student, except instead of a medical diagnosis, students are seeking to determine which specialty they will choose. This column explores this differential: experiences from each rotation by a current third-year student.
My first day on Family Medicine might be the best depiction of the specialty: my clinical preceptor and I moved between our three clinic rooms, barely able to keep up with the 20+ patients that had appointments. We saw a patient following up on depression with new-onset low back pain; a middle-aged woman with a classic urinary tract infection; a husband and wife geriatric wellness visit; an adult woman with diabetes; a 9-year-old with strep throat; and a few cases of sinus infection to round out the day. By the end, I was exhausted and wondered how I would ever learn everything that my preceptor knew about such a wide variety of disease processes and patients. By the end of the rotation, I was still nowhere near his level or my other professors’ – years of residency and clinical experience still separate us – but had at least developed a sense of how to manage many of the common illnesses, and feel that I have a good understand of the breadth and variety of family medicine.

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Why Med-Peds? A Current Resident’s Perspective

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med-peds residents

The transition from eager-to-learn-everything MS3 to self-assured MS4 with a clear residency goal comes much easier for some than others. I had planned on going into Family Medicine throughout the better part of medical school, but late in third year discovered the combined specialty Internal Medicine and Pediatrics (Med-Peds). How was I supposed to explain my interest in this four year program to my friends, mentors and, toughest yet, medicine department chair when I was just beginning to understand it myself? And then the inevitable follow-up question, why not just complete the three year Family Medicine (FM) residency program? FM training remains the perfect choice for many students looking to get broad-based, comprehensive training on how to care for people of all ages. The purpose of this article is to point out the subtle differences between these residency paths and give my top five reasons for why Med-Peds (MP) is a unique, exciting and attractive residency option for about 400 budding young doctors every year.

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Increasing Access to Healthcare in America

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The advent of the Affordable Care Act was meant, in part, to help to increase the access that all Americans have to healthcare providers. However, while this has meant that a larger number of families now have health insurance, there is still a long ways to go before equitable access to healthcare is achieved.For medical students who will be coming into practice in the near future, an understanding of this issue and why it is important is a critical beginning to producing new physicians that are aware of the problem and are willing to be both proactive and creative when it comes to finding solutions to it. This article covers health care disparity and why it is important, as well as practical solutions to help close the gap of access to medical care in America.

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20 Questions: Rebecca A. Lubelczyk, MD, Correctional Healthcare

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Rebecca A. Lubelczyk, MD, is a utilization review advisor physician for Massachusetts Partners in Correctional Healthcare in Westborough, MA, and associate clinical professor of family and community health at University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Lubelczyk received a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Vassar College (1992), and her MD from University of Massachusetts (1996). She completed a residency in general internal medicine at Brown University School of Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital (1996-1999), followed by a residency in post graduate year 2 and 3 at the outpatient community site at Rhode Island Department of Corrections (1997-1999). Dr. Lubelczyk also completed a general medicine fellowship at Brown University School of Medicine, Rhode Island Hospital (1999-2001).

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