- Hey guys, my name is Bruce Chang.
I recently graduated from Harvard Medical School
in May of 2020.
So now, it's been about two years
since we last saw each other
through A day In The Life video from Crimson Education.
I just wanted to catch you guys up a little bit
on what I've been up to since then.
So obviously, I've had the honor of taking care
of so many different patients on the wards,
finishing up my last two years of medical school.
However, I think I've had the chance to really do a lot
of other things as well.
You do have time to explore interests beyond medicine,
or tangentially related to medicine.
One of the things
that I have really, really fallen in love with
over the last few years is medical education.
And I think it's something
that you guys will all go through,
as you guys go throughout your medical careers
at some point, whether it's as a student,
or as a resident, a fellow, or an attending,
you guys will figure out what it is about medicine
that really drives you,
more so than your interest
in medicine initially when shadowing.
And you guys will figure out what aspects
that are related to medicine really fulfill you every day
and for me, that's medical education.
And so needless to say,
I have put a lot of time into that over the last two years.
For me, the particular aspect of medical education
that inspires me and drives me every day,
is utilizing the student perspective
to make education so much better
for all of you guys coming up in the future.
I think while med ed is obviously fantastic
in the United States right now,
it has a long way to go.
A lot of it is quite outdated, frankly
and it really isn't geared towards the learning styles
that we younger students have.
And so, it's really been a mission of mine
to kind of bring that perspective to medical education.
Specifically, I've had the chance to finish two books,
one with Elsevier and the other with Springer Nature.
The one with Springer Nature should be coming out
in early January of 2021
and it's something that I think will really be exciting
for all of you guys.
Specifically, it is a guide to the rotations on the wards.
And surprisingly enough, this really doesn't exist.
There are a number of resources like First Aid,
Step-up to Medicine that people use all the time,
but they're so board-exam focused
that they don't really help clinically.
And so, I was able to gather about 20 of my classmates
and really kind of developed this resource
that hopefully, will teach medical students,
not only a lot of medicine,
but also a lot about just clinical rotations
and how to excel on them.
(inspiring music)
Now, I know a lot of you guys are wondering
what has become of medical school in 2020,
with everything that's going on
and so I just wanted to briefly touch base on that.
So, as you might imagine,
a lot of the in-person interactions,
particularly preclinical courses,
but also rotations in the hospital,
have really become virtual over the last few months
over platforms like WebEx and Zoom.
Now, this is probably not what
a lot of medical students like to hear.
Oftentimes, the clinical years are the best portions
of medical school, the most fun,
the most challenging
and the most nurturing periods.
That being said, all the professors,
the coordinators, the administrators,
all the students have really come together
so much over the last few months to make it possible
to have as good of a curriculum as possible
on a virtual platform.
People have really done their part,
patient actors, for example,
have volunteered to act over these virtual platforms,
similar to the OSCEs that students have had in the past.
And so, I think it's a really close representation
of the learning that one would encounter on the wards.
So, I'm really hopeful, going forwards,
what medical education will look like
after all this is over,
because there's so many new ideas
and so many aspects that we didn't really think about
that were exposed with all these new changes.
For example, telemedicine and how important it is
for medical students to have some sense
of how to conduct good telemedicine visits.
And so, all of these things,
I think are only a positive for the future
and I just want to say thank you everyone,
thank you to all of you guys,
all the faculty, all the administrators,
all the leaders of the world for really coming together
and really doing the best that you guys can to make sure
that not only medical education,
but the world returns to a better place
than it was once before.
(inspiring music)
I'm now a first year internal medicine resident at Columbia
and New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Over the next year or two,
my primary job and goal is to learn
as much clinical medicine as I can,
while taking the best care of patients that I possibly can.
It's a little bit different for medical school
when you hit residency
and that our job is primarily clinical.
We do not have the same kind of time,
believe it or not,
that you guys do in medical school to explore interests,
such as research and even medical education.
That being said, med ed is such a big passion of mine,
that I do intend on trying to change the intern
and resident education system for you guys.
So, I hope to bring you guys some good news
in about a year or two.
Some advice that I would give you guys
when I was about two years younger,
is really to use medical school,
not only as an opportunity to learn medicine,
but really all the things
that are tangentially associated with medicine.
There's so many different aspects of medicine,
whether it's research or medical education,
or policy and law,
there's so many different aspects
beyond just the clinical medicine.
And unfortunately, it's really hard to find time
to explore these things and become good at those things.
Once you leave medical school, residency training
and beyond becomes so filled with clinical duties
and performing those extracurricular medical activities,
that you rarely have a chance
to really learn the foundations well.
And so, I would really encourage you guys
to not be afraid, just explore all the things
that you might possibly be interested in
and even the things that you are not interested in
and see if you like it.
You might not like most of them,
but you can find that one thing that you like.
For example, medical education was the thing
that I really found
and fell in love with.
If you can find that one thing,
it will be so helpful to you
because you have so much time, relatively in medical school,
to really learn how to do whatever it is
that you love to do well.
(inspiring music)
Now, for those of you guys that are headed
to the medical school in the fall,
I have three pieces of advice for you.
Number one, enjoy the process.
There is nothing more important to anything in life,
whether it's medical school,
or beyond, than making sure that you are happy
and that you are making time for the things
that you like to do,
whether it's going on a run,
hanging out with friends and family,
whatever that is,
make sure you leave time for that, prioritize that.
Medicine will not run away,
it's always there to exist,
so focus on the things that really matter.
And try to find whatever it is about medical school,
whether it's that one thing in the preclinical curriculum
that really inspires you,
or whether it's the patients that you look forward
to meeting in a few years,
whatever it is, find the positives and focus on those.
Number two, try to figure out what exactly it is
that you enjoy about medicine.
There's so much to medicine,
it's really difficult for any one person
to enjoy everything about it.
But, it's just so vast that it's equally as hard
to figure out what it is
that you truly enjoy about medicine.
So, as a first year or a second year in medical school,
really try to use that time,
to not only learn, but explore.
And then number three,
really use medical school as a time
to learn clinical medicine as well as you can.
It is so importantly important
that you learn the foundations of medicine well.
When I think about the people in residency
that are the superstars of clinical medicine,
I have absolutely no doubt that they put in the time
and effort to become clinically excellent.
It's not something that anyone is born with,
it is something that you have to work for
and it frankly, takes a lot of effort.
So, really everything that you come across
in medical school is important.
So think about that
and really spend the time and effort
that it takes to learn medicine well.
(inspiring music)
So, the last time that you guys saw me,
I was deciding between orthopedic surgery and neurology.
As it turns out, after a lot of debate,
I actually ended up going into internal medicine
with the hopes of pursuing a fellowship in cardiology.
My primary reason for doing so,
was really to give myself and my passion, medical education,
the time that it deserves to really flourish.
And I think it's just really so hard
to do a lot of those things on top of being a surgeon
because first and foremost,
your job is to be an excellent surgeon.
Not that it's impossible,
but who am I to think that I would be the one person
who could make an exception to that rule?
And so, I think as you decide on what exactly it is
that you like to do,
or what you want to do in the future,
it's really important to think about whether it's feasible
and whether it's compatible with the future path
that you decide to take.
(upbeat music)