{"id":106795,"date":"2022-08-24T15:08:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T19:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=106795"},"modified":"2022-08-24T15:08:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T19:08:44","slug":"physicians-extol-the-virtues-of-the-physical-exam-at-5th-annual-lorraine-stanfield-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2022\/08\/24\/physicians-extol-the-virtues-of-the-physical-exam-at-5th-annual-lorraine-stanfield-lecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicians Extol the Virtues of the Physical Exam at 5th Annual Lorraine Stanfield Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5ymPnp7BMnE\" title=\"Fifth Annual Lorraine Stanfield Memorial Doctoring Lecture and Medical Equipment Day\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to first-year medical students Monday morning at the 5<sup>th<\/sup> Annual Lorraine Stanfield, MD, Memorial Doctoring Lecture, keynote speaker Robert Lowe, MD, associate professor of gastroenterology, contemplated a future in which technology eclipsed the need for the stethoscope, the utilitarian symbol of doctoring since it\u2019s invention in 1816 by the French physician, Rene Laennec.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can guarantee you that you will walk out with these tools, and someone will say to you, \u2018Ugh, a stethoscope? Those will be obsolete in about five minutes,\u2019\u201d said Lowe. The annual event also includes distribution of the classic medical tools, purchased by alumni donors, to the students.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_106798\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-106798\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2022\/08\/Stanfield-lecture-2022-MED_7337a-Dr-Lowe-scaled-e1661365854412.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Lowe at podium speaking to the students\" class=\"size-full wp-image-106798\" width=\"350\" height=\"265\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-106798\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Lowe, MD, associate professor of medicine, was keynote speaker at Stanfield lecture and talked about the importance of the physical exam.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Despite the proliferation of technological tools that can probe the human body beyond vision and touch, Lowe said the role of the physical exam \u2013 how a patient looks, behaves, what they say, how their body responds to touch, and what the relatively unsophisticated instruments like the stethoscope, a patella hammer for checking reflexes, the ophthalmoscope to peer into eyes, and the otoscope for looking into the ear canal tell the physician \u2013 still plays a vital role in making a diagnosis and deciding what steps to take.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are the main diagnostic tool,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cYour history-taking skills combined with your eyes, your ears, your senses, what you feel, how you examine people &#8212; that\u2019s how you are going to start the process and it will lead you to the technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even a relatively simple tool like the stethoscope is more effective in the hands of someone who is attuned to the patient and what his or her senses detect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll tell you a story about a man who comes into our emergency room,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cHe\u2019s a 52-year-old man with a history of high cholesterol, high blood pressure; he\u2019s got a pain right here and you have to make sure he\u2019s not having a heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A lab test shows no enzymes indicative of heart issues, the EKG is normal, a chest x-ray also reveals no injury, Lowe continued. But the next morning, the man has a rash spread across the right upper torso.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was shingles, which your grandmother could diagnose when she sees the rash,\u201d said Lowe. \u201cThere\u2019s no other way to diagnose this but to look at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lorraine Stanfield was an assistant professor of medicine who taught at BUSM for more than 20 years and worked at Dorchester House, a community health center affiliated with Boston Medical Center, for 25 years. She succumbed to breast cancer at age 56, in 2017. Two years prior, in 2015, she received the Stanley L. Robbins Award for Excellence in Teaching, BUSM\u2019s highest teaching honor.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_106799\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-106799\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2022\/08\/Stanfield-lecture-group-MED_7324a-MED-students-at-lecture-scaled-e1661366226476-1024x328.jpg\" alt=\"Dr. Ferrenz speaking to first year students.\" class=\"size-large wp-image-106799\" width=\"1024\" height=\"328\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-106799\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">First year medical students attending the 5th Annual Lorraine Stanfield, MD Memorial Doctoring Lecture listen to Elizabeth Ferrenz, MD, assistant professor of Family Medicine, talk about Stanfield, a longtime faculty member who passed away in 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cDuring my time at the (Dorchester House) clinic, I constantly heard her name mentioned in conversation,\u201d second-year medical student and Lorraine Stanfield Scholar Kendra Lujan told the students. \u201cSometimes while reviewing a note, I would come across one signed by Dr. Lorraine Stanfield. Even now, she continues to guide us all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe never lost her wonder that we can make a diagnosis and learn so much from a physical exam,\u201d said Kathryn Harris, MD, who worked alongside Stanfield at Dorchester House for 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>Lowe said that even those who didn\u2019t know, or who had never met, Stanfield were the beneficiaries of the knowledge passed down to her from her mentors \u2026 knowledge that she, in turn, imparted to colleagues and students, who in turn taught others.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_106812\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-106812\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2022\/08\/Stanfield-lecture-2022-MED_7366a-Students-getting-stethoscopes-1-scaled-e1661367993607.jpg\" alt=\"students lined up to get stethoscopes from staff\" class=\"size-full wp-image-106812\" width=\"400\" height=\"205\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-106812\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Following the Stanfield Lecture, students line up to receive medical instruments that were paid for by alumni donations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>First-year student Avenelle Onaif paused from unboxing the new stethoscope she\u2019d picked up following the lecture. Lowe had urged students to find a mentor and Onaif felt the alumni gift of medical instruments was emblematic of the supportive structure buoying new entrants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe beautiful thing about medicine is the passing down of tradition and the passing down of information,\u201d said Onaif.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First-year medical students receive the tools of the trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124,91,123,156],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106795"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106816,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106795\/revisions\/106816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}