Rachel J Lewin
I wanted to be a doctor very, very young. A neurosurgeon, to be specific. I read voraciously about medicine, volunteered in hospitals, and went to college convinced of my future as an MD.
At University of Chicago, first I struggled. Then I explored as far and wide and deep as possible. I had a couple of truly terrible run-ins with the medical system that left me thinking about what it meant to be a doctor and a patient. I worked with the Cancer Risk Clinic and learned an enormous amount about medicine, communication with patients, empathy and pain.
After graduating in 2009, I completed a six-month internship at the American Medical Association's Institute for Ethics, spent a couple of years working in an animal shelter, and decided to return to the University of Chicago to pursue a Master's Degree. While completing my Master's, I worked as the Practice Manager for a 20-provider psychiatric practice in Chicago, learning about medical billing, staff management, scheduling, and yet more about communication, empathy, and pain.
I wrote my Master's thesis on physicians' personal experiences with illness and the ways these experiences impact their ability to practice medicine. I am now in my third year of a PhD at UCLA in the Social Research Methodology program in the Graduate School of Education and Information Science. I work on Graduate Medical Education, particularly on problems of communication.
In my ample free time (ha!) I try to be outside in the California sunshine; see new and weird art, music, and drama; take care of my wonderful pets; and travel as much as possible.