Yedulla
Nikhil Yedulla
MedStart Seminar
10 December 2015
First Semester Reflections
In the build up to my first semester at Wayne State, uncertainty paradoxically filled my
mind. Although I had been admitted into a direct medical program that greatly streamlined my
path into medical school, I still faced a multitude of questions: “What exactly am I dedicating
myself to?”, “What are the everyday duties that a physician faces?”, “How will the healthcare
landscape change by the time I finally become a doctor?”, “What specialty will I choose?”, and
many more. Indeed, I felt like I was entering on the path towards a profession so dense and
complicated that I was somewhat overwhelmed, even though my passion for assisting people on
a direct person to person basis made me feel confident that I would end up being satisfied with
my commitment.
Curious to build some sort of framework to the specific direction I was headed in, I
decided to invoke the ever didactic help of literature. Atul Gawande’s “Better” immediately
stuck out to me as an interesting read. Gawande was not only one of the highest educated in one
of the most intellectual professions, receiving schooling from the likes of Stanford, Oxford, and
Harvard, but also similar to me in terms of how he is a first generation Indian American who also
was the child of a physician. I felt that reading “Better” would not only shed some critical
insights on medicine but also some essential advice on a doctor’s lifestyle and the path towards
finally becoming a practicing physician. His book was a revelation, highlighting the essence of
healthcare to my previously unaware self. He emphasized the importance of the individual in
improving healthcare, talking about how paying attention to minutiae details, being reflective,
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Yedulla
and staying motivated to grow and take on challenges is necessary to achieving a better overall
system of healthcare delivery. His whole book is essentially twelve individual essays touching
upon highly pressing yet contrarily under analyzed problems in medicine, such as the suggested
assistance of doctors in euthanasia, the dilemma of reintegrating wounded soldiers into society,
and the omnipresence of cesarean section as the main procedure for child delivery. He tackles
problems with a scope that stays true to their complexity but also breaks them down into
coherent terms. His analysis in its own right has led me to believe that medicine is something
that simply cannot be taught via a guidebook and rote instruction but rather through the lens of
an individual and his or her beliefs. The experiences and assumptions that we gain through
practice supplement our knowledge base and help us grow and deliver better patient care.
Atul Gawande’s “Better” definitely was a source of inspiration for me, making me realize
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