Shadowing Experience: Radiology

I have spent this semester shadowing a really amazing interventional radiologist at Rhode Island Hospital. Watching someone with patients for an entire semester provides unique insight into the realm of doctoring and medicine.

One of the overwhelmingly apparent things about Dr. Dupuy is that he is well liked by everyone, including the nurses, technicians, residents, billing staff, and patients. His good report with people is likely connected to his brilliance (which certainly gives him credibility and helps to inspire ease) but also because he is a genuinely nice and engaging person. When I watch him doing procedures and talking to the nurse techs in the room, he treats them as equals. He has everyone (even me, an undergraduate student, surely the lowest end of the totem pole) call him by his first name. This sense of familiarity and humanity really leads to a great sense of camaraderie. While I've seen residents treat nurses and other hospital workers as subordinates, giving them orders and being terse, I've never seen Dr. Dupuy lose his temper or treat people poorly.

It is this wonderful "workside" manner that allows Dr. Dupuy to be one of the most productive doctors and researchers around. People are always willing to help me with my research project, simply based on my association, as a student doing research with him. Everyone has a great anecdotal story of a patient that Dr. Dupuy helped live longer or better.

Another thing that I've noticed while working with Dr. Dupuy is his sense of perfection. He is exact, calculating the placement of each probe prior to an ablation and talking to patients throughout the procedure, gauging their pain and comfort. He keeps the patient aware of where they are in the procedure, knowing that most people are extremely nervous while having their cancer treated. He is professional and thorough, but unlike the stigma surrounding most radiologists he is very personable.

One of the most striking things I've noticed while shadowing Dr. Dupuy is that he remembers everything. He'll recall a patient he ablated years ago. While I think this is far from the norm, simply because most humans don't have his recall abilities, I think it is amazing that he's humanized every single one of his patients, that they are not simple anonymous cases or an array of diseases, rather they are people.

I do find the ablation procedures to be interesting and high-tech and certainly an effective treatment for certain small, solid tumors. However, I've been far more captivated by the personality of the doctor I shadow. He is a fantastic doctor not only because of his incredible skill but because he managed to be humble and caring. He is truly the kind of doctor all of us should aspire to be like.