The Key is in the Details with Dr. Thomas Russo

Thomas Russo MD is the Professor and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Russo completed his Medical school at McGill University and Residency in Internal Medicine from Harvard-New England Deaconess Hospital. He then pursued a Fellowship in Infectious Disease from Tufts-New England Medical Center. He has an active, nationally funded translational research program and research focuses on Gram-negative bacilli (GNB). Dr. Russo has been the recipient of many awards and honors including the Veterans Administration Biomedical Laboratory R&D Senior Clinical Scientist Award. Modern medicine is complex. We have tons of data available on our patients now. Residents spend so much of their time in just gathering the data and dealing with logistics that the time to pay attention to details becomes a rare commodity. Today, Dr. Thomas Russo explains how the details can make the difference: Observing the patients from the moment they walk in, asking the patients about their kids, pets, travel, and occupation. Gathering all those details in the chart, thinking about the patient and then letting the differential diagnosis go through your head. All of those can be the difference between a correct diagnosis and a misdiagnosis. Pay attention to the details. Pearls of Wisdom: 1. Spend more time asking the ‘why’ questions and think about the patient rather than just focus on gathering data. The key to that is in the details – the little things we should not ignore. 2. To maximize our potential, we should see as many patients as we can. Maximize our exposure to clinical experience, and from that, build our knowledge database. Ask for help when you need it and keep working hard. 3. Don’t forget the importance of history and examination. Even with more technology and investigative options, those can be put to better use if we practice rigorous history and examination.