Comments for Emergence

Comment on What is Child Neurology? by Miya

Miya — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:29:24 +0000

Hi Dr. Lee, I don’t know the answer to your specific question about LPs, but all US hospitals have extensive policies in place regarding needlestick injuries including guidelines around HIV testing and prophylactic treatment to prevent seroconversion if necessary. You might want to contact the specific programs you are interested in to ask about their policies. I hope this concern does not prevent you from practicing your chosen field of pediatric neurology!

Comment on What is Child Neurology? by Qian Lee

Qian Lee — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:44:46 +0000

I’m an IMG who would like to further my study in pediatric neurology in the US. However, during my MD training in my country, I once got an needle stick injury from performing lumbar puncture. Though the patient was HIV-negative, it made me quite afraid of getting HIV from doing LP. Do you have any suggestions about this?, What are the policies and ways of practice about this in US?
Thank you so much.

Comment on What is Child Neurology? by Miya

Miya — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:27:16 +0000

For Jimmy and others with the same question, the only thing I can find as far as match statistics like the ones the NRMP gives out is this pdf from the SF Match website: http://sfmatch.org/residency/child_neurology/about_match/match_report.pdf. I don’t know how helpful that is. At least it gives an average USMLE score for matched applicants (221) but since almost all US senior applicants matched that doesn’t tell you much. I get the sense overall that the field is not very competitive in the sense that not all slots get filled every year, so you are almost guaranteed to match somewhere. However, it is competitive in the sense that there are not a ton of programs and each only has a few slots, so particularly if you have a preference for a particular program or region it can be a little tricky. Again, this is just based on my sense of the field from my explorations, so a practicing pediatric neurologist would probably be able to give a better sense of the competitiveness of any individual applicant.

Comment on What is Child Neurology? by Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:26:47 +0000

Hello, thank you for the very informative post. I’m an M3 considering peds neuro. My brother has CP and peds neuro is a field I’ve considered for quite some time. I haven’t really been able to find stats on those who matched into peds neuro–do you know where I can find this information? (i.e. NRMP type data for predicting outcomes). I just want to get a gauge of how competitive one needs to be. Thank you!

Comment on I Don’t Know by Looking Back « Emergence

Looking Back « Emergence — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:15:00 +0000

[...] years later. I reflected on this in a writing exercise a while back in which I wrote again about Ms. A., and realized that though writing about her had preserved many of the details of the experience for [...]

Comment on Bach and biochemistry by An Entry About Many Things « Emergence

An Entry About Many Things « Emergence — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:47:20 +0000

[...] of often disparate experiences that I have found intellectual or emotional joy, as evidenced in one of my previous entries. I enjoy the kind of knowledge and wisdom that do not come in a flash of revelation, but by [...]

Comment on Bach and biochemistry by Breath « Emergence

Breath « Emergence — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:46:01 +0000

[...] of Life, or God, or existence and the inherent creative forces of the universe. While I often find God in complexity, to me the God of simplicity is equally mysterious, and equally [...]

Comment on Tools of the Trade by Maple Leaves « Emergence

Maple Leaves « Emergence — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:43:40 +0000

[...] This scripted quality of the medical interview, in which theoretically the doctor knows exactly what information they need and what to ask to get it and the patient knows the role he or she plays in response to the doctor, can be off-putting for some people and yet simultaneously comforting… like, for me, responsive prayer. I bristle at it because I have trouble setting aside my own ego, identity, and agenda, spiritual or otherwise – I think “My concerns aren’t being addressed” or “I would have phrased this differently.” I’m sure patients often feel the same way, and it’s a huge issue for otherwise caring physicians who sometimes need to get just the facts, ma’am, in a very constrained period of time. But if I were able to let go of clinging to my ego (this is where Buddhism interjects briefly into the conversation) and accept that responsive prayer is not about me as an individual but about voicing the nature and needs of the religious community and my participation in it, I might find responsive prayer – as many people do – to be comforting precisely because it is so scripted and ritualistic, while simultaneously potentially very powerful. Similarly, if patients otherwise are happy with their care and feel that their concerns are being addressed (which is definitely possible within the interview script, something I proudly feel I achieved in today’s Patient-Doctor II interview), then the script can become a reassuring part of the “therapeutic environment” I wrote about in a previous post. [...]

Comment on It’s time. by HIV/AIDS « Emergence

HIV/AIDS « Emergence — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:34:38 +0000

[...] other illness, HIV/AIDS acts as a point of intersection for all of the things I wrote about in my introductory entry in this journal, and more. Scientifically, it is a devastatingly complex entity encompassing [...]

Comment on Major and Minor Miracles by Clinic « Emergence

Clinic « Emergence — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:53:02 +0000

[...] fully understand, he was basically having either a migraine “aura” or seizures – not the kind that everyone pictures with flailing limbs (those are generalized seizures), but sensory seizures in which the wiring in [...]