Physician Observation Essay

My on-site experience with Dr. Ramono was surprisingly brief, less than an hour and a half long, but in this short time, I was able to observe and absorb a great deal of information. This experience took place on the B1 level of the University Hospital in the Cancer Center. Even though I was unable to shadow Dr. Ramono, an oncology surgeon, during his rounds, I was able to sit in on a multidisciplinary clinic that consisted of a diverse gathering of doctors, nurses, and social workers. After this meeting, which lasted approximately 50 minutes, he took my colleague and I into a free room in the Cancer Center to inform us of what was actually happening in the clinic and answer any of our questions.

I briefly met Dr. Ramono before he led us into a small conference room crowded with people all of which were intently listening to the central speaker sitting at a table in the middle of everything. I later found out that this was a meeting referred to as a multidisciplinary clinic that consists of specialists from a variety of areas. Because this clinic was discussing oncology patients, the people there were all somehow related to this field of study. There were radiologists, radiology oncologists, oncologists, oncology surgeons, general surgeons, psychologists, nurses and social workers to name a few. The whole reason for this variation in the people was because it is an attempt by the health care system to make diagnosis more efficient for everyone involved, especially the patient. Without these multidisciplinary clinics, a person newly diagnosed moves through a step-work system in the health fields. For example, a person normally visits his or her primary-care doctor first. If a disease is possibly developing, the primary-care doctor refers him or her to a more specialized physician in the field of the suspected disease. Then, this doctor may refer the person to another doctor. Each of these steps takes time, and often this period can be a hindrance to patients and doctors. What the multidisciplinary clinic does is eliminate this waiting period and bring all of the people involved in the care to a single platform. Here, they can collectively decide the most efficient and proper treatment for the individual being reviewed.

Besides conversing about the status of each patient during the multidisciplinary clinic, the doctors were able to actually view their biopsy through a projection on a screen from a microscope.