The VA

To all of us in training, the Veterans' Administration has a special place in our hearts. The patient population is mostly older Caucasian men, a demographic that makes up a lot of "bread and butter medicine." At the VA, we learn not only to take care of common adult internal medicine conditions such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, COPD, and smoking, but also all of these diseases in conjunction. This is a good contrast to tertiary care centers like Stanford and UCSF which get referred patients with rare or complex diseases. The veterans themselves are a wonderful group of patients to work with. They understand how training works and actively contribute to our education as residents. I really appreciate their service to our country and find their stories fascinating. The VAs in San Francisco and Palo Alto in particular are beautiful and that also makes me happy.

Image of Palo Alto Veterans' Administration (where I work this month) shown under GNU Free Documentation License, from Wikipedia.