By Eli Pendleton, MD; Susan Sawning, MSSW, and Stacie Steinbock, MEd
My male-to-female transgender patient is in her mid-50s. She has a well-established relationship with a sex therapist, who has written a thorough letter of explanation and support. Her wife is engaged and supports her decisions. The patient comes to me hoping to begin her hormonal transition.
Renee Crichlow, MD,
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
My parents always asked me this. I learned later that this was about creating a vision and expectation of the future.
Now I am Dr Renee Crichlow, a family physician working and teaching family medicine in underserved North Minneapolis, and I ask every child I see, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Many answer doctor or nurse and yet in the medical school and the residency applications I rarely saw any kids from the neighborhood. My co-worker Shailey Prasad, MD, MPH, and I knew this was a complex problem not to be solved overnight.
We decided with the support of our department chair, Mac Baird, MD, MS, to build The Ladder, a structured health care pipeline mentorship program that incorporates hands-on science fun with values and character development designed to facilitate the development of lifelong learners and leaders interested in health care careers.
Joseph Scherger, MD, MPH
I attended a health care forecast conference recently and learned a sobering new reality. In the near future, Americans will be getting their primary care services in many different locations.
Walmart has announced that it soon will be offering comprehensive primary care in many of its stores. Walgreens, already the largest provider of immunizations outside the government, will expand its Take Care clinics and manage four common chronic diseases: diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and asthma. A longtime colleague and family medicine educator recently went to work for Kroger’s new clinic system, The Little Clinic. Large employers are setting up workplace clinics to provide common health services while keeping their employees on the job.
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