StayCurrent Forums - Public Health Education

Thank you, Brittany. Um, and if you don't mind me asking, uh, because I noticed the bunk, the bunk bed back there, are you in a call room? Yes, I am. Classic. I knew it. I was like she's either in a, uh, like a cruise ship or a call room because that's what they look like. That would have been better. I wish, um. Welcome to the State Current Forums, everyone. It's Rod Gerardo, and with me today we have one of our new research residents that has been doing a lot of stuff behind the scenes, but now I'm trying to pull everyone more into the camera, into the podcast and everything. This is Brittany Levy. Brittany, how are you doing? Where are you from? Where are you coming from? Doing awesome, coming from Lexington, Kentucky at University of Kentucky, yeah, where you are a PGY 3. 2.5, I think is probably more accurate. I finished 2 clinical years in first year of research, so 2.5-ish, somewhere in there like that and 3 quarters. Um, Brittany has a very interesting skill set as far as, uh, different interests and talents. She's very organized, like the opposite of me in that regard, um, and then she also is doing some stuff that I Uh, really admire, but I know that I personally could never, could never do is, uh, a lot of the public health work that, um, you're interested in, and then it's probably gonna be a part of your career, I imagine. Um, can you talk to me about what got you interested in public health and then how you got to the point where You know, you got an MPH during your surgery residency, which is kind of crazy if you ask me. Yeah, so, I really wasn't interested in public health a lot as like a med student and I was actually a Latin major in college, and so just kind of been pilfering through all of the different kinds of education, I guess. And then, um, I actually got really interested in it as a A 2 year resident, I was pregnant and I found out that my child was going to have a cleft and I was like, oh, this is terrible news and like all parents that get terrible news at those things, they feel terrible. Um, and I was like, oh, you know, it's OK. I'm medical, I like understand the system and I'm, I got a surgeon here in Kentucky and life is great and so Um, made all the appointments and then I joined a mommy Facebook group, which I think is how all of these stories kind of go off the rails. And then everyone's like, oh, there's this surgeon in Boston and a surgeon in Cincinnati, and a surgeon in Seattle, and there's all these people that are so much better than what you could possibly have, um, easy access to wherever you are in the world. And so I started traveling and I was like, oh, I'm gonna go interview surgeons all over the world. And I was thinking, you know, I'm so lucky that I can go and do all of this and to see all these people. I'm going out on research, I don't have time to travel, and after I'd interviewed all of these people and traveled all over the country, I was like, wow, not only am I lucky, I have a distinct privilege that um the patients that I see every day don't have, and that is that I can create this world that I can go and travel around the country. Country to get what I perceive to be the best care for my child. And it's unfair that people don't have that same opportunity and um that's really when I got interested in public health because I was like, there is a huge inequity that I just experienced and I didn't even realize it until after the fact that I was playing into this system of inequitable care. And so I, at that point started Um, pursuing an MPH here at the University of Kentucky and have been working on, um, equitable access to care for patients in the Kentucky system, um, especially Appalachian patients, um, in cancer care. Wow, OK. I didn't know that. Um, we've been working together for several months and all I know is that you have some cute kiddos, and I didn't realize that there's a whole story here. Um, so, that is, uh, it strikes a chord with me because I feel like If you were to say. Oh, I'm interested in public health because I want to increase access of care, you know, to my patients so that there's no inequities and da da da da da. That is, I would argue, like fairly common for most physicians who pursue an MPH, right? But the fact that you also have a personal angle to it that you experienced it with your own child, and I think there's something. I don't know, there's something a little bit different about dealing it with, dealing with it when, when your own child has an issue or your child is sick that um kind of makes it a little bit heavier to, you know, to yourself. So, uh, I commend you for not only realizing the inequity, but then taking action on it in kind of an interesting way. So, um, can you talk to me about, uh, I guess, When it comes to public health, I mean, how do you see this working into your career down the road as a, as a pediatric surgeon? Yeah, so I juggle with this question because at least at this institution, I think at a lot of institutions, pediatric surgeons are busy. And so having kind of the time and the space and the manpower to do some of these big public health policy projects and initiatives seems limited. Um, and so how I'm gonna do this in my future practice, I'm not quite sure, but I think frequently, um, if I'm in, if I'm lucky enough to be invited one day to be like the keynote speaker at some big meeting, like, what do I wanna talk about? I don't want to be invited to be, you know, the most amazing person at taking out appendix appendixes, appendices, appendices, is it appendices? Appendixes is appendix. I'm gonna go with appendixes is a, is that at the end of a book. Yeah, I guess, or is it also appendices? Hard to say. I don't know. I don't want to be the best person taking out lipomas or doing pyloyotomies, I know, easier words, but I do think I want to be the person that's invited to talk about, you know, how did you get access to basic surgical care to children in, in your community or in adjacent communities, and so. I think that if I know that that's where I wanna be, you know, in 10 or 15 years, I'll find a way to get there. Um, I just have to, someone told me that if you can imagine the job that exists out there. And so, in my perfect job role, I would have, um, dedicated time to do some public health initiatives. I really want to be involved in public policy. Um, But I don't know, I haven't seen anyone with that job yet, but that doesn't mean that I can't create it, hopefully. We'll see. Right now, I just want to get through residency, I guess. Same. I feel like that's really the, the struggle is to get to that point where you're an attending and you have the flexibility. Saying that now, quote, you know, quote me now and then ask me again in 5 years how much flexibility I have as an attending. Um, so this is amazing. I wanna just end it with one question is what would, what advice would you give to either the medical students or the junior residents who maybe has similar feelings to you and maybe wants to also get involved, um, either through, you know, getting a master's in Public Health or getting involved in the community at, at a different level. I mean, what advice would you give to that person? I would say just look around because you probably experience public health implications every day and you just don't link that up as being a public health initiative or gap. And the great thing about residency programs is that most of them exist on major medical centers or even community programs are in communities that have public health problems and public health workers. And so, Um, reaching out to people in the public health space, whether that be a community partner or the College of Public Health at your university and just seeing what are they doing and what interacts with your daily patients, um, and pathologies that you deal with that you can get involved at all different levels. That's awesome. So, Uh, and then if anyone has follow-up questions or anything, you could find both Brittany and myself on social media so you can ask a question if you have it. Um, maybe ask Brittany the, the harder questions. I don't think I can handle the harder questions, but, but that was awesome. I can't wait to talk to you more about, unpack some of, some more of, uh, Brittany's past here. Um, but that's it for this week. So join us next week for another episode of Sayre informed. Thanks for being here, Brittany. Thanks for having me.