This was one of the most valuable patient presentations I have experienced during my first year of medical school. This not only deepened my understanding of amyloidosis but also gave me an important understanding of the impact of the disease on the patient.
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Alexandra Diaz
As a first year medical student, we are conditioned to remember “congo red stain” and “apple green birefringence” when thinking of amyloidosis. This presentation was a great reminder that amyloidosis is the patients who experience it. It’s the progressive loss of function, it’s the non-specific symptoms that take time and multiple doctor’s visits to figure out. This was a great experience and will help me keep this diagnosis in mind when I encounter patients in the future.
Melody Snow
Very informational and touching speech by the amyloidosis speaker. I was able to learn a lot from her testimony. From this presentation, I reached out to orthopedic hand surgeons I used to work for and spread the word about amyloidosis. Their initial response was hesitant as they thought it was just related to the heart and GI tract. I was able to provide updated information about amyloidosis to them all because of this presentation!
Ju Oh
It’s one thing to know about the clinical presentation of a disease but to know what the patient experiences while having the disease can be a totally different thing, and can only be truly expressed by the patients themselves. These patient experiences can be harder to understand for us medical students but supportive group talks like this can really help us in understanding how a disease really affects a person from its onset to the present moment.
Vani Ganesh
I believe that this experience can assist other schools and other health professional students to understand the patient’s perspective on a disease or diagnosis as well as really put into perspective the knowledge or limited knowledge that we all have as future healthcare professionals. It is incredibly important to humanize the medicine and through panels like these we are able to humanize what we do and really see the impacts, both positive and negative, that a patient may experience which will make us better caregivers.
Alejandro Ramirez
This was an incredible experience that gave me the opportunity to learn about amyloidosis from the patient’s perspective. This will no longer just be another disease I have to memorize; it’s become more personable and I believe I am more likely to recognize it in clinical practice going forward.
Raymond Stemrich
As a medical student, I have spoken to several patients and have participated in many patient presentations, but they always seem to miss the mark. We need to hear about the emotional aspects and challenges at home that accompany the journey to diagnosis and treatment. This presentation covered all of that with the clinical information included.
Nancy Park
Before, I had only barely remembered amyloidosis by a brief mention in lectures, but this session really illustrated how the disease could severely impact someone’s life. Furthermore, I appreciated the patient’s narrative details, as she highlighted important considerations when delivering patient care that are often overlooked by healthcare professionals, such as basic empathy and compassion. I think the brief video at the beginning was a good illustration of the disease, as I had forgotten many of the details, and our lectures did not cover many of the specifics.
Jeffrey F. Wang
There’s no more memorable way to learn the signs of a disease than hearing directly from a patient about their story living with it. This was a great opportunity to learn about an under-recognized disease that gets relatively little exposure in medical school curriculum. Elizabeth’s story was powerful and honest, revealing ways that the medical community can do a much better job recognizing Amyloidosis and caring for patients living with it.
William Bradford
The speaker’s ability to put a face and experience behind a disease is so much stronger than a textbook will ever be. I will now be much more likely to appropriately add amyloidosis to a differential diagnosis moving forward in my clinical rotations and career.
