Lessons from a Different Bench

“Please, let me take another admission. I’ll do better with the next case.”

“Forget it, Pisetsky. You’ve had your chance. Now, go home.”

I doubt such an exchange ever took place or ever will.

While the methods of sports coaches are sometimes primitive, manipulative, and even barbaric, they can be effective. In my next columns, I will discuss how we coach today’s trainees in medicine and whether we are teaching them to play like winners and—may I dare say—to act like beasts.

Dr. Pisetsky is physician editor of The Rheumatologist and professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.

Committees lack the one-on-one relationship that is the backbone of early career training

Sports fans find enormous pleasure in arguing about topics such as the greatest player in baseball, the best heavyweight boxer, or the worst draft pick in the NFL. Most of these arguments cannot be resolved and ultimately do not matter. Nevertheless, the diehards joust with vehemence and passion, especially if fueled by some alcoholic brew….

In the late 1990s, Thomas Baranowski, PhD, professor of pediatrics specializing in nutrition at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, applied for a grant. For years, he had been interested in finding ways to get children to change their diet and physical activity. He decided to try a video game, and he got the money…

Bill St.Clair, MD, MACR, says one of the most exciting and proudest moments in his life wasn’t earning his medial degree or seeing his first published article on arthritis and rheumatology. Not even close. It was the 1991 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball semifinal. Specifically, the basketball game between Duke University and the University…

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