Taking the long view

I'm at this fantastic AMSA Medical Humanities conference with a hodgepodge of workshops on integrating the humanities into medicine, with demonstrable benefits to patients and providers. For instance: Nancy Morgan at Georgetown's Lombardi Cancer Center leads journaling sessions with patients and families in the waiting room. Results of her study--showing improved self-reported quality of life for patients--were published in Oncology. (See a brief BBC synopsis of her work here.) Yesterday, Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, also at Georgetown, led us through a lively presentation on medicines derived from herbs, explaining her rationale for integrating natural products into patient care (which I've never understood before): the herbs she uses have fewer adverse effects and are cheaper than traditional pharm. Almost as importantly, she was funny and engaging as a teacher -- something we could all use more of!

The problem is that I get totally jazzed at conferences like this, but then I return to normal life and feel completely overwhelmed by new ideas and projects I've committed to. I wrote before how it helps to work on projects with a community of peers. This time, rather than holding myself to too much, I'm going to try not to over-commit, and remind myself that as long as I write down my ideas, I can always return to them during fourth year, residency, or as an attending. These are ideas that will be relevant for a life time.

Allston Court, where we lived until I was seven

Nancy Morgan led through the following activity (which also worked with a group of caregivers in Japan): quietly draw your childhood neighborhood. Then, share one story from this neighborhood with the person sitting next to you. Observe as you begin to laugh and lighten up! It works! "In order to know who you are and where you're going, it helps to know where you're from."