{"id":132983,"date":"2025-04-14T11:44:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T15:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/?post_type=bu-article&p=132983"},"modified":"2025-05-19T13:11:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T17:11:54","slug":"importance-of-the-physical-exam-highlighted-at-7th-annual-stanfield-lecture","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/medicine\/articles\/2025\/importance-of-the-physical-exam-highlighted-at-7th-annual-stanfield-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Importance of the Physical Exam Highlighted at 7th Annual Stanfield Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Medical students posing with their new stethoscopes: (l-r), Tess Perkins, Nick Hernandez,
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tImportance of the Physical Exam Highlighted at 7th Annual Stanfield Lecture

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First-year medical student Anshika Gupta was planning on following the advice of Anna Hohler<\/a>, MD\u201998, FAAN, who delivered the 7th<\/sup> Annual Lorraine Stanfield, MD, Memorial Doctoring Lecture on Aug. 26. Hohler, who serves as the first female chair of neurology at St. Elizabeth\u2019s Medical Center in Brighton, told the 141 first-year medical students in attendance to take the stethoscope, ophthalmoscope, otoscope, tuning fork and reflex hammer they received as gifts from alumni donors, and practice on anyone and anything, even the family cat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I had a cat, I definitely would do that, but all of my friends are would-be targets and I am going home soon and can\u2019t wait to test it on family members,\u201d said Gupta, who is from a Philadelphia suburb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although physicians are now far more likely to carry these tools in the oversized pockets of their white coats than in a medical bag, they remain iconic tools of the medical trade and represent a gift from alumni welcoming them to the medical community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very excited to be receiving my stethoscope and all the other medical equipment,\u201d said Gupta. \u201cIt truly feels like we are on the journey to being a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lecture was named for Lorraine Stanfield, a much-beloved member of the BU and Boston medical community, who died from breast cancer in 2017 at age 56. She spent two decades taking care of medically underserved patients at Dorchester House Health Center, now known as DotHouse Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way that she was so connected to her community is something I hope to do when I am a practicing physician,\u201d said first-year medical student Kiel McGowan, who began medical school with a master\u2019s in public health and hopes to work in community health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speakers recalled Stanfield\u2019s affinity for medical education and the physical examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe loved teaching the physical exam and the fact it could show us these clues,\u201d said friend and co-worker Kathryn Harris, MD, an internist and primary care provider at DotHouse. She recalled that Stanfield, during an emergency room visit for her illness, talked the medical student assigned to her through her own physical examination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a pleasure to see how she took to the students and how she really cared for every individual student\u2019s education,\u201d said Hohler, who worked with Stanfield at BU. \u201cShe wanted to make sure that every (student)\u2026had the opportunity to learn, not just about the theory and practice of medicine, but also to get some tangible practical experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Stanfield, Hohler has received many BU and national teaching awards, including the medical school\u2019s highest teaching honor, the Stanley L. Robbins Award for Excellence in Teaching. It logically followed that Hohler turned her lecture into a teaching moment by demonstrating how to conduct a physical examination, explaining the science behind one of the most familiar of patient experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI use every one of these tools every day,\u201d Hohler said. Although artificial intelligence and increasingly sophisticated technologies are rapidly changing modern medicine, these relatively unsophisticated tools and the physical exam are still crucial to patient care. They provide information that helps physicians pick the right test and technology; and they foster the patient\/physician connection, said Hohler who compared the relationship to using a calculator while understanding the math underpinning its calculations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, AI isn\u2019t able to wield a reflex hammer,\u201d said Hohler. \u201cBeing able to do these practical things in terms of the evaluation of a patient is going to serve you throughout your entire career.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For first-year medical student Annika Kamet, there still was room for both technology and the healing touch represented by the physical exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel they give you different pieces of the puzzle, and of course it is more comforting to the patient to be able to do an examination physically, with your hands and with a stethoscope, instead of relying on (a machine),\u201d said Kamet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the close of the lecture, students wrote thank-you notes to donors who financed the medical tools they received.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m super grateful,\u201d said McGowan. \u201cMedical school is expensive, so it really does make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First-year medical student Anshika Gupta was planning on following the advice of Anna Hohler, MD\u201998, FAAN, who delivered the 7th Annual Lorraine Stanfield, MD, Memorial Doctoring Lecture on Aug. 26. Hohler, who serves as the first female chair of neurology at St. Elizabeth\u2019s Medical Center in Brighton, told the 141 first-year medical students in attendance to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19603,"featured_media":132984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":"Alumni"},"tags":[443],"bu-publication":[366],"medicine-article-category":[],"medicine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[368],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/132983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132983"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/132983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134138,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/132983\/revisions\/134138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132983"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=132983"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-article-category?post=132983"},{"taxonomy":"medicine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/medicine-topic?post=132983"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=132983"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=132983"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=132983"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=132983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}