Top Doctors 2009: The Doctors Are In (Progress) : Boston Medical Students

Photograph by Dana Smith

JOANNA NG
Vitals: Fourth-year at BU, 25, from Honolulu

Going into: General surgery
Ten years from now: “Being at a big-city teaching hospital, applying for attending jobs while I build up my roster of patients”

“I remember as a kid making a list of things I did not want to be, and ‘doctor’ was on the list. I wanted to be a paleontologist; I was going to study dinosaurs. But growing up, I realized that a lot of people I knew weren’t in the greatest of health—including my mother, who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes—and that medicine was a way I could give back to my community.

At first I thought I would go into family medicine, but when I did my surgery rotation I absolutely loved it. It’s so amazing to see the patients’ bodies inside and out, to actually see how your work takes effect. So I still feel I can help the underserved, as long as I work in the right setting. It doesn’t have to be through primary care.”

Photograph by Dana Smith

MANASA PATNA
Vitals: Fourth-year at Harvard, 27, from Los Angeles
Going into: Obstetrics and gynecology
Ten years from now: “Practicing women’s healthcare, here and abroad; being hands-on and close to the people I’m working with”

“I’m interested in working in India—I speak the language, and it’s where my family is from. As part of doing my master’s in public health, I went to work in southern India, looking at how you can reduce maternal deaths in rural areas. There’s a huge gap in women’s healthcare there, given the culture and gender biases in the system. Emergency obstetric services are scarce, facilities are poor. But at least now people are starting to look at maternal mortality as a human rights issue. No one was even thinking about the mothers’ health until recently, and today it’s beginning to be a priority.”

Photograph by Dana Smith

JEFF WILLIAM

Vitals: Fourth-year at Tufts, 25, from Jericho, NY
Going into: Internal medicine
Ten years from now: “Working in an urban area with a wide variety of patients, from those who need free care to those who have no trouble getting a doctor”

“The day after I moved to Boston, before I even started medical school, I went to the Sharewood Project in Malden and got a chance to see real patients. I was hooked. The clinic is free, so anyone who walks in the door can get care. Usually they’re new to town, or between jobs, or have recently immigrated here. They’re not always poor, though. They’re just people at a point in their lives when they don’t have insurance. It’s very tricky to get everyone covered, even in Massachusetts, and it’s going to be difficult for a federal plan—especially if nobody can agree on what to do.”

Photograph by Dana Smith

ZIRUI SONG
Vitals: Fourth-year at Harvard, 25, from Lacey, WA
Going into: Internal medicine
Ten years from now: “Working as a health economist and practicing medicine at least a few days a week”

“At its core, economics is the study of human behavior, similar to psychology. So I’m using economics to study the doctor-patient relationship and physician behavior, things like how different types of doctors might respond to different types of payment systems.

I’m closely following the national healthcare reform debate, trying to understand all the intricacies. I think something will get done this year. But I also think that, just like what happened in Massachusetts, the first issue that will be addressed is access to care, and meanwhile the problem of cost control is going to be kicked down the road. We didn’t deal with that here, and now we’re in a situation where costs are skyrocketing.”