As an add-on to a scheduled work commute last month, I spent a couple of days back in Ventura, California before heading to Northern California for my work shift. Ventura holds a special place in our hearts as that is where I completed my residency training. It is also where our oldest two daughters were born. My residency class (Class of 2011) is pictured below.
It was great to be back in sunny SoCal (although it was uncharacteristically cloudy and rainy during my visit). I was able to reconnect with friends, colleagues, and mentors whom I had not seen in a while.
The main impetus for the Ventura visit was an invitation to share a bit about our work in Guatemala at Health Equity Grand Rounds at Ventura County Medical Center. It was an honor and a privilege to do so. The opening slide of my presentation is included below along with a couple of Paul Farmer quotes that framed our conversation (I'll try and share more of the presentation in future posts).
While admittedly biased (...and right nonetheless), the Ventura Family Medicine Residency Program remains one of the top-tier programs in the country for providing excellent training in full-spectrum Family Medicine (think "country doctor 2.0"... a provider capable of caring for a patient from cradle to grave, bolstered by the latest evidence based medicine and cutting edge technology). I would argue that such training is the most logical solution for providing excellent healthcare to the vast majority of the global population- particularly the poor and marginalized (i.e. our patient population in rural Guatemala).
May we all continue to "RESIST THE IMPOVERISHMENT OF ASPIRATIONS" and "QUESTION OURSELVES WHEN WE BECOME TOO REASONABLE"... particularly in regards to caring for the all too often invisible populations, the poor and the underserved.
Top Photo by Julian Myles on Unsplash