really, except for age, we probably look pretty much the same (and we are less than a decade apart). down to the multi-racial-but-looks-white.

well, age and i have never had kids. which seems to be the reason no one wants to tie my tubes. porphyria or not, i haven’t popped out a couple of parasites, so i can’t get my tubes tied.

no, not bitter. sigh

Many medical school classes are now more than 50% female, so the “typical doctor” of the future, if not quite yet of the present, is female. However, universities and medical schools are still slow to hire women as professors. So you get mostly male professors like PP lecturing mostly female medical students about how arrogant they are. Very feminist, I’m sure.

Do you have any evidence to back this statement or should one take it in the same was as one would take the statement “Women are generally not good at math”?

I concur. You could also point out that they are being taught racism and homophobia while you’re at it.

While this sounds like a generally good idea, I would actually beg PhysioProf not to do this. To have your exposure to such important but often ignored (at best) issues come from a professor who radiates this much contempt and hostility toward his students, and this much arrogance and taste for hot-tempered hyperbole, runs too much risk of being counterproductive. I would honestly rather hope the students get this message elsewhere than have the lot of them get in the form of a semi-coherent rant by an instructor who doesn’t seem any too inclined to hide the fact that he despises them from day one.

The real chance to influence medical students comes in the clinical years, where the students model themselves after skilled and respected faculty and residents. A senior faculty member addressing a “non-standard”* patient with respect, and correcting house staff for rudeness, is a powerful example.

The culture change in medicine is as slow as the culture change in the outside world – and this should be no surprise, since there are a lot of older physicians out there. Attitudes of the recently graduated cohort are more liberal on average than those of the class of 1970. On the other hand, age sometimes imparts some wisdom and understanding of people as they are rather than as we wish they would be.

To those who consider PP to be condescending towards students – if you have taught for a while, you will identify certain cohorts of students as “getting on your last nerve” for apathy, whinyness, and so on. Much has to do with the pre-med-school curriculum changes and other experiences – everything has a single correct answer, problems should be easy to solve, everything should be on the intranet with no need to come to class. I like the students, but drat it takes a long time for them to lose the test orientation and gain the patient orientation.

* (black, hispanic, poor, female, gay, transgender, uneducated, or any other type of characteristic that isn’t similar to the typical doctor)

I concur. You could also point out that they are being taught racism and homophobia while you’re at it. If you’re interested and don’t already have this data, I could point you to several articles demonstrating that outcomes are worse in women and minorities, even after accounting for differences in socio-economic group, etc. That’s straight racism/sexism. Since you’re an NIH researcher, you might also go into some of the history from Tuskeegee to the historical lack of trials that include women (especially women of childbearing age.) It’d probably be more convincing than random foaming a the mouth about teh evil doctors.

While we’re on the subject, has anyone ever systematically examined this question of who can and can’t get a tubal ligation easily? My last conversation with my gyn on the subject went like this: “What are you using for birth control?” “Condoms, but I think I’m done with having children so I’m considering tubal ligation.” “If you want to go with it, call me and we can discuss timing.” No fuss, no muss, no demand that my partner agree. What’s different about me versus denelian (for example)? Age (I’m 40)? Race (I’m mixed race though appear white)? Socio-economic status/insurance (I have a really very good insurance and would go elsewhere if my doctor pissed me off)? Is there a given group that is systematically being denied control of their bodies or is it individual assholes taking advantage of people in vulnerable situations? (It’s not acceptable either way, of course, but the remedies are different.)