I’ve been in Rochester, NY for a medical conference on IMPS. IMPS? Ideal MicroPractices. Honestly, I never thought I’d be visiting Rochester again since the last time I was here. That was about eleven years when I was looking for a medical residency spot. Rochester was too cold and reminded me too much of Long Island, so I definitely did not want to end up living here for three-four years. The past couple of days has given me a different perspective on Rochester.

I never grew up in a medical family. I was the only one in my small and immediate family to go into medicine. My father never handed me down his old stethescope before I started medical school. I never inherited the stories of what it was like to be in residency during the “good old days” . My grandfather was an engineer, my father is an engineer, I got stories about bridges, tunnels and highways growing up. Traveling through New York CIty was a trivial pursuit of the history of suspension bridges.

Interacting and working with physicians for the past fourteen years has been another trivial pursuit for me. I think it has been difficult for me to encounter like-minded physicians until I finally realized how I wanted to practice medicine. A friend introduced me to the IMP listserv. I have to admit, I was a little reluctant to belong to yet another group of doctors. But the IMP docs are different.

Getting back to not coming from a medical family. I didn’t come from one. But I sure had exposure to doctors as a kid. Severe eczema with an episode of bacterial sepsis (I scratched a little too much seeding bacteria into my blood), asthma, bad bad allergies was my history as a child. This meant weekly allergy shots at my pediatrician’s office. I know this sounds sick…I loved it. I loved the Sesame Street characters on the wall. I loved the coloring books and lollypops I got from the nurses. I loved the attention I got from the nurses, “Look, she doesn’t even cry when we give her an injection”. I looked forward to the weekly trips. I didn’t mind the soreness from the injections and blood draws. What I couldn’t understand was why there was so much crying going on from all the other kids when they would go see the same doctors. In my child’s mind I had figured out that something heinous was going on. One time, I happened to pass by and peeked into a patient’s room. The kid was about the same age as me and was hollering as his parents tried to console him. The doctor, MY DOCTOR, was giving him an injection. The kid’s mouth was opened so wide that I could see both tonsils and uvula. Except that I didn’t know it was called an uvula at that time. It was about this time I had figured out that I would be a physician. I was five years old.

But I digress. The reason why I mention this story is because knowing fellow physicians who wish to practice medicine in the best way possible is reassuring for me. It reminds me why I went into medicine in the first place. As with any profession and anything in life, there is good and bad in all. After residency I struggled to find a niche for myself. In the first two jobs as a physician, things would go well for six months, but slowly I would get that nagging feeling that this was not where I was supposed to be. Something else had my name written on it. I just hadn’t found it yet.

I had started my medical practice in Manhattan in the summer of 2006. They say if you can make it there you can make it anywhere…Oh boy is that true. I started my business before I even knew the existence of the IMP group. I didn’t realize that the same concepts and the similar reasons why I wanted to go into business for myself was why several other physicians all over the country did the same. Most of the topics at the conference are things that I have already been developing in my own business. The spirit of the people is what gives me inspiration to continue what I am doing. Some have been in business longer than I have, some work in areas that are considered to be dead-zones for effective health care. But they continue. They get over the hurdles, take every day one day at a time and remain true to their souls. The magic of this is this is something that you cannot learn in medical school. It already has to be there. And most of the people here have it.

I have to remember this spirit and the courage of others when I am bombarded with phone calls from patients or pharmacies. I have to remember it when the insurance company deems that my services are not reimbursable. I have to remember it when I am twiddling my thumbs and worrying about why I’m not busy. I have to remember it when I’m overbooked and haven’t even had a chance to eat. I really have to remember it at three in the morning when a patient calls to ask me  what cold medication he should take. What, it couldn’t have waited a few more hours dude?

The beautiful thing about the present is that it doesn’t take too much effort to connect with like-minded people. The internet can connect you to people all over the world. Admittedly, I haven’t followed extensively the healthcare plans of McCain and Obama, but the IMP group could potentially be a gold mine for them. Listen to us. We are physicians who care about taking the best care of our patients. We have great ideas that could be implemented at a national level. We are growing and inspiring others to take charge of their careers.  Patients receive better healthcare because of what we are doing. We are the hopeful future of medicine.