September 2002 • Volume 8 • Number 9 |
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• Resident & Student News •
The influence of pop culture on today's medical students and residents was surely on her mind as Denise Rodgers, M.D., delivered the lecture "From Marcus Welby to Beverly Crusher and Beyond" Aug. 3 at the National Conference of Family Practice Residents and Medical Students here.
The talk began with a slide show depicting warm images of residents and patients visiting family practice residencies, with "We Are Family" playing in the background.
But the lecture was about the future. And the past. Because as any history teacher would attest, studying the past is imperative to understanding the future.
And so, Rodgers, associate dean for community health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, delved into the infancy of family practice to talk about issues of importance to FPs.
Attendees laughed as she cited the treatment for duodenal ulcers suggested by the March 1970 American Family Physician: a dietary regimen of bland foods and liberal use of antacids. No mention of antibiotic therapy for Helicobacter pylori, the mainstay of ulcer treatment today.
But the mood became serious again. "How do we learn from the mistakes of our past?" she asked.
"We can be sure that 30 years from now, another speaker will give a talk like this, outlining the mistakes we make daily in our practices," she said, reminding the audience of the equivocal findings on hormone replacement therapy that currently dominate headlines.
She touched on other issues of importance to family physicians, such as health disparities and lack of a plan for national health care coverage for all.
Regarding racial health disparities, she again employed humor to make her point: Health disparities in the future will look like this, she said, showing a slide of otherworldly creatures from Star Trek.
But poignancy pervaded the discussion. African-Americans are less likely than whites to get heart and kidney transplants, coronary artery bypass grafts and coronary angiography, adequate pain control and curative cancer surgery, she said.
And no discussion on disparities would be complete without looking at the context in which they occur, she said, citing that 40 million Americans are uninsured.
"We must remember that good health is the foundation upon which we build good lives," she said.
FP Report is published by the
AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2002 by
American Academy of Family Physicians.