Talking about women’s heart disease to medical students

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

I was invited recently to do my “Heart-Smart Women” virtual presentation to a medical school class in New York.  For a heart patient like me, this was a dream invitation. I’ve spoken to thousands of people – including patients, the general public, doctors, nurses and academics- since graduating in 2008 from the WomenHeart Science & Leadership patient advocacy training at Mayo Clinic – but I’ve always known that what I really wanted to do was to reach our future doctors. Here’s why those trainees are so important to me.      . Continue reading “Talking about women’s heart disease to medical students” →

It’s not what you do. It’s who you are.

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

In 2015, New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about virtues in his column called “The Moral Bucket List”.  But he was actually writing about two different sets of virtues: our résumé virtues and our eulogy virtues.

The résumé virtues are what you do: the workplace skills you’d talk about when job-hunting.  The eulogy virtues are who you are:  what people will say about you at your funeral — whether you were kind, brave, generous, funny, honest, trustworthy, etc. Both types of virtues are important and worth pursuing, but as David reminds us, only eulogy virtues have lasting value and legacy.  But depending on who’s doing the asking, it seems those résumé virtues appear to be far more important to certain people.    . Continue reading “It’s not what you do. It’s who you are.” →

#PatientsIncluded “Lite”: sort of, maybe, but not really

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

It’s fashionable these days for medical conference organizers, journal editors and researchers to boast about how “patient-focused” they are whenever they seek perspectives shared by patients with lived experience. But does boasting make it so?

Some of this patient focus has seemed a bit tepid to me. It’s as if they’re saying they want the patient voice – sort of, maybe, but not really. Here’s what I mean by that:  Continue reading “#PatientsIncluded “Lite”: sort of, maybe, but not really” →