“I think the more tech-oriented [we become], we also start to lose that human touch and focus that’s there. I think it’s important that we don’t lose sight of that.”
Hello everyone, happy Sunday! I hope you all had an amazing week. Today, I’m excited to introduce you to Dr. Navya Mysore. Dr. Mysore is a wonderful person with lots of knowledge. Her advice is incredible, particularly for students struggling to choose a specialty.
Dr. Mysore was born in Montreal, Canada, and has undergone all of her schooling there. It was fascinating speaking with Dr. Mysore because the medical pipeline in Canada differs from the United States in a couple of unique ways. She thankfully shared this process with us, so we could develop our understanding of how different countries train their future medical professionals.
Unlike the United States, Quebec has its own version of ‘college’ called CEGEP. CEGEP is a two-year program between high school and university, and during those two years students don’t focus on specific majors like ‘Chemistry’, but rather they study a wide range of topics with some general specialization such as sciences or humanities.
Once Dr. Mysore completed her CEGEP program with honors in sciences, she applied to both pre-med and pre-law programs. Dr. Mysore was accepted into both and was uncertain which to pursue. She was seventeen at the time and didn’t really know what she wanted to do with her life. That summer before the big decision, she went to visit her grandmother. When she asked her grandmother which program she should pursue, her grandmother replied, “You’re a healer, so you should go to medical school.” This advice stuck with Dr. Mysore and convinced her to pursue a pre-med program at McGill University
The first year of the program is designed as a pre-med year, where students are encouraged to take prerequisite courses related to medicine and some electives that can be picked across any subject at the university. Dr. Mysore found these elective courses to be quite eye-opening. She feels they influenced how she interacts with her patients now, as well as allowed her to see the world through a different lens.
“You can get so pigeon-holed in what you’re doing when you study medicine, and you think that’s really all that there is. Then you stick your head above water and you’re like, ‘Oh, wait? There’s actually all this other breath of knowledge that I had no idea existed. I’m here thinking that medicine is the entire world, and it’s not.’...I think it allows us to appreciate what others do… So when I went into practice, I was better able to relate to my patients and create deeper connections with them.”
Medical school lasted four years for Dr. Mysore, and she later went on to apply to both Dermatology and Family Medicine residencies. Dermatology was Dr. Mysore’s first choice, as she loved learning about the skin and its conditions.
However, when the results came in, Dr. Mysore found out that she hadn’t matched into the Dermatology program. She was heartbroken. She had, however, matched into the Family Medicine program. So Dr. Mysore redirected, and pursued Family Medicine.
Dr. Mysore went on to complete her residency in Family Medicine at McGill University. During her residency, Dr. Mysore completed a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and became increasingly interested in women’s health. In retrospect, she’s grateful she didn’t match into the Dermatology program because she loves the field she’s in. In Family Medicine, she gets to do a little bit of everything, and she’s able to monitor long-term health outcomes for her patients. Dr. Mysore has been a practicing physician for eleven years now.
Along the way, Dr. Mysore has had a few professional mentors. However, Dr. Mysore’s number one role model is her mom. Now that she has a child, Dr. Mysore can really appreciate and understand everything her mom went through while she was growing up. Dr. Mysore’s mom immigrated to Montreal from India before having Dr. Mysore. She was alone, isolated, and didn’t know the language or culture in Canada. She also had no family in Montreal, except for her three-year-old son and husband. Dr. Mysore admires her mother’s strength and courage.
Dr. Mysore encountered a few other mentors along the way, too. One role model, she noted, is a vascular surgeon she worked with during medical school. He was in his 70s at the time and had a lot of tenacity for his age. The surgeon was the most compassionate physician she has ever known. “He would literally get down on his hands and knees and help elderly patients put their shoes on, which is something you don’t see very often.” He always told Dr. Mysore, “You have to see the whole patient, you have to see the whole person, they are not just a disease, they are not just a surgery, they are a person with a story, they have a life.”
As for that wonderful advice Dr. Mysore had that I spoke about earlier?
“Identify a larger theme to what drives you. Are you someone who likes to get into the nitty-gritty of one field specifically? Are you someone that likes to use your hands? Are you someone who likes to do a lot of research? Are you someone who likes to engage with people, but also wants to see a variety of different disease states... I think getting to know what you really like to do on a day-to-day basis in a broad sense can be really helpful to narrow in on what field is right for you.”
“I often urge students to find someone in their medical career who they look up to, and to observe them closely in order to help develop your own clinical style.”
“Whatever specialty you’re interested in, make sure you like the bread and butter. If you don’t enjoy the day-to-day tasks, it might not be the best match for you… An example is if you like dermatology, make sure you really enjoy acne, eczema, psoriasis… You need to really enjoy the bread and butter… If you can see yourself doing the same thing for the next 20 years, it’s a good fit.”
Dr. Mysore is a wonderful role model for students, and her advice about picking a specialty is unparalleled. If you would like to know more about Dr. Mysore or would like to keep up with her story, I recommend following her on Instagram at @dr.navyamysore and checking out her website at www.drnavyamysore.com.
I’d also like to announce some exciting news. Recently, Michigan State University’s medical school, the College of Human Medicine, has agreed to advertise the articles we publish about their students and faculty. Should you follow MedNews (their blog), or simply check out their website periodically, you will find our blog on their page!
Have a great day, everyone!
Best,
EF