I have a confession. In considering how I finally got to this point --that is, buying a domain, writing entries, designing the layout, publishing-- I feel a sort of shame. There have been stops and starts in getting a blog going over the years. These include, but are not limited to, a travel blog during my master's degree, and a health blog a few years later that never truly launched. These had all the best intentions; the former was a raucous mess of inside jokes that I knew only my two readers would comprehend; the latter was a vision for the health and fitness community to unlock behaviour change in my readers.
So, why the shame?
Admittedly, I'm not a natural writer. I can't just sit down, at least not yet, and type away anything that comes into my head. My desire to write has always been attached to an end goal existing apart from my enjoyment. That is not to say it has been a negative experience, but I always thought I could use writing to achieve something. With a travel blog, I wanted to make people smile. With a health blog, I wanted to change peoples' lives. The goals seem disconnected (and frankly, a little eye-roll'y) when you write them consecutively like that, but in a way, the motivation each engenders in me feels the same: you can do good for others using your words.
The reason I feel this sheepish sort of shame is because these attempts never went very far.... one of them didn't even get off the ground. It's kind of embarrassing to set out with altruistic goals and not achieve anything. It seems natural to ask, then, what's different this time? I think the answer is clarity.
Understanding
I graduated my master's degree in "Clinical Exercise Physiology" and specialized in cardiac rehabilitation. I worked primarily with people suffering near-catastrophic heart disease, but also with lung patients and those suffering from diabetes. My scope of practice included mainly using exercise to treat medical conditions. It's a fascinating crossroads at which to stand. I was able to witness the strength of both the fitness and medical fields because I used a little bit of each to do my work. The fitness industry is filled with people who believe in exercise as medicine. It sounds silly to marvel at this, but there isn't another group of people on the planet who subscribe to the notion so enthusiastically. It's refreshing to know there's treatment out there that can not only treat your ailment, but make you better off than when you started. It truly is a magic pill. And the medical field? I am in awe at its breadth, depth, and legion of devotees who save lives every day. Nurses who walk patients through chemotherapy; doctors who fix blood vessels that explode in your brain; volunteers who hold your hand in the last moments of your life; this community often helps people at their most vulnerable.
And yet, these two incredible groups of professionals are often incapable of coexisting, let alone working together. Exercise professionals often mistrust the medical field, filled with what they see as insensitive pill pushers. And sometimes they're right! Opioid medications are useful in only a fraction of the current patient population that use them, and yet, they are prescribed in a wanton fashion by doctors. On the other hand, physicians are often dismissive of exercise professionals as capable of making a real impact on patients. And sometimes they're right! Too often, the claims of exercise rehabilitation specialists are exaggerated or based on low quality data. With both groups of professionals, there is very little effort made to connect with the other side, and even less effort made to properly contextualize their capabilities to the people they're treating.
In the end, patients suffer.
What is Medical Legible?
Patients suffer precisely because they are often left out of the decision-making process. As a result, they lack comprehension about what is happening to them. That is not to say their opinions should be considered equal to that of their healthcare professionals, but simply that communication with the patient/client is often lacking. As a cardiac rehabilitation specialist, patients would lament in equal amounts about their doctors and their personal trainers not providing satisfactory care. In trying to improve their health, I spent half my time explaining a pill, or reviewing the benefits of an exercise. I was essentially a decoder. Now years later, ten days into my first year of an Internal Medicine residency, this lack of communication is more evident to me than ever, and this is what motivated me to start Medical Legible.
Health in general can be an opaque subject, and whether you are reading a fitness article, or a report about medical research, it is hard to know what to trust. This is where I want Medical Legible to fill a need. The goal of this site is to distill, clarify, and simplify. I hope to use my experience as a doctor navigating residency to communicate both to healthcare workers, and patients alike, things that aren't always easy, or pleasant, to understand. I am hoping that equal parts objectivity and storytelling will make for palatable reads that might lead to learning, or maybe just some introspection.
If I had to point to one source of inspiration, This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay is it. It is a book that gets passed around a lot between medical students as a "hospital confidential" type of read. It is a shot of truth for students who are over-zested by the pomp and self-aggrandizement of medical schools. It is also devastatingly honest, gut-wrenching, and hilarious. Its greatest quality, however, is that anyone can read it. In other words, it is an excellent communicator.
It is something I would be thrilled for Medical Legible to become.