2023 - It's a Wrap

2023 has been tremendous. I cannot believe another year flew by. I am halfway through my PGY-4 Chief Year of Neurology residency at Duke.

I'd like to share a couple of learning points from my patient encounters, and a few trips I'm grateful to have been able to take this year for conferences or personal travel.

*To ensure HIPAA compliance, personally identifying information has been omitted/changed and certain details of these encounters have been modified to protect the patients and their families.

A few major learning points and fulfillments from my clinical encounters:

1. LISTEN to the patient. It's simple. I completed the first part of my Psychiatry rotation this past summer, and this was one of the salient lessons. It sounds simple and generic, right? But it's unfortunately a lesson that many of us in healthcare need. Psychiatrists LISTEN.

They wait, they pause, they STOP talking so much so the patient can talk, and when the patient sees that they’re not being interrupted, they go on to speak more. This adds to our ability to diagnose their condition. I cannot tell you how many cases I was able to confidently diagnose by just the HISTORY and LISTENING (i.e. I diagnosed a patient with a seizure disorder after fighting tooth and nail to reach a family member when the patient came into the ED (Emergency Department) with no history, no documentation in the chart, and no ability to speak directly about their symptoms). Admittedly, my listening isn't always great, but it's an ongoing work in progress!

2. One of the biggest fulfillments of my clinical encounters is with patients who look like me. One day, a *45-year old black woman came into the ED with numbness on the left side of her face that progressed next to her left arm and leg. All of this was in the context of a headache. She came in as a stroke code with the paramedics given the unilateral nature of her symptoms. I was more suspicious for migraine with aura instead of a stroke, but I took a more thorough history from both the patient and her husband. She was understandably anxious so I tried to calm her down. At the end of the encounter, her husband told me, “Representation matters, I appreciate everything you’ve done for us today.” This was such a good feeling.

3. We have to remember that it is a privilege to take care of patients. I received a note from a patient's spouse after I took care of her following a stroke code.

"Dear Dr. Rose,

It was truly a pleasure meeting you this morning when you examined my wife due to the stroke-like symptoms she experienced last night. It was a joy watching you in action. Thank you for your kindness and the thorough examination you performed. I agree with my wife, you are superb. Healthcare in the U.S. would be a lot better if we had more doctors like you."

I was both shocked and incredibly grateful to receive such a thoughtful note like this. It is helpful for us to be reminded of how much of a privilege it is for us to care for patients who need us.

Trips:

July 2023 - REACH Reunion in Atlanta, GA

REACH is an Addiction program that strives to build the capacity of the workforce to better care for racial and ethnic minoritized patients with substance use disorders. REACH stands for Recognizing and Eliminating Disparities in Addiction through Culturally Informed Healthcare. We had a reunion in Atlanta this past summer to gather all of the cohorts from this program over the past several years for a massive learning and networking event. It was incredible.

I didn't get the chance to explore as much as I would've liked, but I was able to grab a nice quick meal from a laid-back, good-quality, reasonably priced, grab-on-the-go food place: Rock's Chicken and Fries - it serves exactly that, plus a little more (salads, other types of sandwiches, and more).

September 2023 - American Neurological Association (ANA) Meeting in Philadelphia

The annual meeting for the ANA was held this year in Philadelphia! It was such a great time. The IDEAS (Inclusion/Diversity/Equity/Anti-Racism/Social Justice) committee held a reception one evening during the conference. As one of the recipients of the IDEAS Junior Member Award, I gave a brief presentation about my research. Admittedly, I was much too excited while preparing the PowerPoint and added more preliminary data than necessary :) We were also given the opportunity to share a little bit about what inspired us to pursue our respective areas of research.

Let's talk food! I ate from a few different places and they were pretty delicious:

• Dan Dan Noodles: I ordered Shrimp Fried Rice and vegetables :) Super delicious.

• Marathon Grill: I grabbed a Grilled Chicken Cobb Salad from this spot, which was pretty tasty and very filling.

• Toms Dim Sum: I ordered Shanghai Wonton Soup with shrimp dumplings. DELICIOUS. This was the perfect cure for a cold I was suffering from at the time. 
  

October 2023 - Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA

I'm honored to have been invited to speak at a couple of churches in Charlotte and Atlanta for HEAL Collaborative’s series on Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia! HEAL Collaborative is a nonprofit organization focused on Health Education Advocacy and Learning. It was wonderful raising awareness about Alzheimer's Disease's disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minoritized communities.

November 2023

• Society for Neuroscience (SfN) - DC
• 
  SfN is the largest professional society dedicated to the study of the nervous system, with nearly 40,000 members, and over 30,000 attendees at this past meeting!
• I have to talk about the delicious food that I ate while here:
• Clyde's of Gallery Place: They had one of the best crab cakes I ever ate. I ordered the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake and the banana bread pudding for dessert. Both were incredible, though the banana bread pudding was quite sweet!
• Founding Farmers DC: I had to have the Glazed Cedar Plank salmon and the butterscotch bread pudding. Are you seeing a theme here? Haha. Bread pudding is one of my favorite desserts. I'd rate this entire meal a 10 out of 10.

• Thanksgiving in GA - It was so nice getting to spend the holidays in South Georgia with my fiance's family, and to take a few engagement photos!

Jamaica - Summer 2023

My family had a reunion in our ancestral home of Jamaica. My mother's side of the family gathered together at the end of June to celebrate our history, culture, and to enjoy each other's company.

Our trips/adventures throughout the week consisted of some of the following:

Visiting my great-grandmother's birthplace in Nottingham,                          YS Falls, Jamaica

                              Spur Tree with the family

                            Treasure Beach                                                                        YS Falls

Incredible food: shrimp, festival (fried dough),                                              Oswald's

               and breadfruit at Oswald's

This was also the first time my boyfriend Derrick traveled to Jamaica, so it was wonderful going through this new experience with him.

More to come!

End of 2022 through early 2023: Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast US

Big News

I am so grateful to share that after residency, starting in July 2024, I will pursue a Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry fellowship at Johns Hopkins and research training as a clinical fellow at the NINDS/NIA. This opportunity truly wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for my mentors who fiercely advocated for me.

Chicago in October 2022

The end of 2022 has brought great joy and new personal beginnings. As for career development, I'm grateful for the opportunity to have traveled to Chicago in October for the American Neurological Association (ANA) meeting. Several talks given at this conference transformed the approach I plan to take with my research, and I made connections that changed the trajectory of my fellowship training plans.

Of course, I had to meet up with a couple of colleauges from my time in Chicago during medical school. One of my mentors and I stopped by Roots Handmade Pizza for dinner, which was quite filling. The following night, one of my old med school classmates and I grabbed dinner at Wilde Bar and Restaurant (an Irish pub named after Oscar Wilde, the author), which was absolutely delicious. 

Naples, FL in December 2022

I also attended the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) conference in December 2022 as part of the REACH program (Recognizing and Eliminating Disparities in Addiction through Culturally informed Healthcare). I have pursued participation in this program given my early life interest in and personal exposure to addiction in my own family. I started the Addiction Medicine Interest Group in medical school (at Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine) and really desired to bring greater awareness to students about the opioid crisis and the disease of addiction. I have a particular interest in examining how addiction, psychosocial stressors (including early life adversity), and other neuropsychiatric illnesses may play a role in the development of Alzheimer's Disease and other cognitive disorders. 

This trip was transformative. Outside of the conference, I unfortunately didn't have much time to explore (especially the food; I think I just grabbed P.F. Chang's for dinner one night, which was mediocre). 

New York, Jan 2023

I spent a week in NYC at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the R25 Multidisciplinary Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. I gained a better understanding of how to maximize my learning as a future physician-scientist as I plan to actively address the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in my clinical practice. I also broadened my understanding of the pressing public health problem of child maltreatment and NIH grant funding mechanisms and guidance for researchers in this area.  One of the biggest learning points for me during the week was the utility and strength of longitudinal studies in child abuse and neglect research. In the near future, I plan to work with multiple longitudinal retrospective cohorts of older adults and examine the associations between ACEs and cognitive impairment.

During the training institute, we had catered meals from really good places, including: 

• Hummus Kitchen (9th ave)
• Sophie's Cuban Cuisine 
• Two Boots Pizzeria 
• OBAO Noodles & BBQ
• Mint Masala 
• Pink's Cantina 
• Gracefully 

Asheville, NC

During a weekend in February, my boyfriend and I took a trip to Asheville. Some highlights: 

• Checking out a bookstore and purchasing a few good books, including "So You Want to Talk about Race?", which I'm hooked on right now.

• Grabbing brunch at The Med, which is quite possibly one of, if not the, best breakfast/brunch place I've been to. We both ordered French Toast, sausage, scrambled eggs (with cheese), and some fruit. Sounds like a basic breakfast, right? The sausage patties were seasoned to perfection, the scrambled eggs had the texture of soft clouds melting in our mouths, and the melted cheese was done perfectly. HIGHLY recommend this place if you're dropping by Asheville one day.

• On one of the days we grabbed dinner at 131 Main, a steak and seafood restaurant. I enjoyed the crab cakes and dessert (ice cream and brownie below), but my boyfriend felt that the slow roasted chicken left much to be desired.

Baltimore, MD

I was most recently at Hopkins for a workshop about disparities in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). It was such a tremendously informative experience. 

The catered breakfasts and lunches were on point and through Rouge Fine Catering. The sandwiches and salads were delectable (i.e. potato egg salad, tuna, lime chicken, stuffed bell peppers).

For dinner on our own, I branched out and checked out a Mediterranean place called The Kabul Fresh Grill. Their fried ground beef samosas, shrimp salad, and mango lassi were out of this world. The following day I was craving a Cobb salad with chicken, so I ordered one from Huck's American Craft as well as a blueberry cobbler. It was a heavenly experience.