New doctors, new opportunities
By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.
At the end of every May, attention at Baylor College of Medicine turns to Jones Hall in downtown Houston. There, on May 22, this year, the College confers its degrees on new physicians and new doctoral level researchers.
After years of study, these young men and women are set to commence their new occupations. Thousands like them will graduate across the nation.
Opportunities and challenges
Physicians will embark on residencies, where they will learn at the bedside to practice what has been preached to them for four years previously. This phase of their training can last anywhere from three years to six or seven as they hone their skills and some of them become more skilled in a particular phase of medical or surgical practice.
Residency will bring home to many of them the reality of health care in a nation where more than 15 percent of citizens lack health insurance. They will learn not only how to cure the ills of their patients but also how to navigate the idiosyncrasies of the health care systems, using a bit here and a promise there to obtain care for their patients.
They will learn that their patients' environments affect their health as much if not more than their genetics. They will use technology to assess the health of their patients, but they will also learn that empathy and listening are equally important tools.
Meeting the doctor gap
And as more of these young men and women graduate, medical schools like Baylor College of Medicine and others across Texas and the nation will seek to fulfill a community commitment to bridge the gap in physician services that currently exists here and abroad.
For those who receive doctorates in biomedical sciences, the challenges are equal. They are embarking on careers in a world where the research dollar is increasingly tight as both Congress and private funders tighten their requirements for awarding money to even deserving projects.
Yet, there is so much promise in laboratories here and abroad. The lure of stem cells is great, and it will take dedicated young people like these to tease out their true worth. Understanding the implications of new genetics research and the promise of fields such as proteomics will take agile minds – the kind that will graduate in May.
The hard road of science
Theirs is an equally hard road. Most of them will leave graduate school to assume postdoctoral studies in laboratories around the world. There they will design and carry out projects that will have implications in human disease and in the understanding of the basic nature of life. It is both a responsibility and a challenge. Yet these new doctors have decided to meet it.
For people who are sick today and all of us who will be sick in the future, they are a buttress against the unknown future. Their minds will serve us all well. From their laboratories and their efforts in the hospital and clinic will issue the cures and treatments that will keep us alive and well.
So as they march across the stage and accept their important diplomas, I will be there – wishing them and all of us well in a future well provisioned with bright minds and willing hands.
