Updated: May 5, 2021
A group of healthcare professionals have come together to improve our medical Vietnamese, and we are taking turns leading sessions about various topics.
For the benefit of the Vietnamese community, I'll upload completed documents to this site after they have been edited.
Men's health: vocabulary for anatomy and conditions related for males.
Physicians treat patients, not numbers.
Investigations are illuminating when there is clinical uncertainty, and they can track health measures over time. Yet in all cases, investigations require the context from which they arise.
So for my patients, I will try to relate whether ordering a test is helpful to their specific health situation. I'm advising against chasing a number that might not have applied to them in the first place.
And as for my learners, we will often interpret results alongside the patient's history. We must guard against casting quick judgement when numbers are out of range.
Physicians are responsible for knowing the current evidence and seeing whether that applies to the patient sitting across of them. And as each person is different, the variety keeps my job interesting!
Through teaching medical students, I realized that I've developed (pithy?) sayings to distill my philosophy of practicing medicine. I've been encouraged to put thoughts into words, so I offer them for your consideration.
Relationship is a key currency in medicine. Learners are (appropriately!) focused on being content experts, yet knowledge is not the only part of being a physician. The connection between a physician and patient moves our work beyond simply transferring information and into addressing the issues that each patient bring.
So while my learners may feel conscious of taking a long time with a patient, I remind them that those extra deposits of time build trust, which ultimately enriches patient care.