Tag: Alan Blum
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Morning rounds
Alan Blum Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States During my internship, residency, and fellowship in the late 1970s, I kept a visual journal, filling several notebooks with patients’ stories, clinical vignettes, snippets of overheard conversations, and sketches. The two collages in this gallery, drawn in my usual medium of black ballpoint pen on small index cards,…
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Out of the mouths of moms
Alan Blum Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States For family physicians, even a routine well-baby check-up can be a heart-warming experience. Not only do we hear about the infant’s progress and catch up on things at home, but we also savor the unguarded moments such as those I tried to capture in these sketches. Click on…
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Ladies in hats
Alan Blum Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States I was encouraging an overweight patient in patent leather shoes with two-inch heels to start wearing sneakers instead, when she calmly reached into her totebag and pulled out a pair of Nikes. The pumps, she explained, were her “comin’-to-the-doctor shoes.” Her finest footwear was a sign of respect.…
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Gentle men
Alan Blum, MD Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA As a medical student at Emory, I began adding sketches and snippets of dialogue to my charts as a way to spend more time with each patient, to focus more closely on the patient’s expression, and to try to capture the essence of our encounter. I do not use…