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Make no bones about it: there are few career paths more challenging or more rewarding than medicine

Last weekend, 51���� played host to the Michael J. Wolk ’60 Conference on Medical Education. Thanks to the efforts of the conference’s namesake and the university’s , more than 100 students met with physicians from around the Northeast — together, they dissected the medical profession, how to join it, and what to expect from life as a clinician.

The conference began with opening remarks from Wolk and quickly segued into a keynote address from Dr. Edward Dickinson ’82, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dickinson chronicled the development of his specialty, holding the audience’s attention with anecdotes from 25 years as a practitioner and with photos taken in his ER.

Friday’s stories of heroic intervention gave way to Saturday’s lessons of disease prevention, delivered by Dr. Theodore Tyberg, P’10, cardiologist with New York Cardiology.

Programs that emphasize healthy diets and active lifestyles, research that identifies at-risk populations, protocols that treat causes rather than symptoms all represent less than 3 percent of America’s staggering $2 trillion annual healthcare expenditure. “The social issues that we’re all going to face in the next 20-25 years are going to be extraordinarily complex,” warned Tyberg.

Between keynotes, a half-dozen panel discussions focused on all areas of medical practice, from the graduate school application process to the impact of long working hours on family life. Hamilton physicians talked about working in a rural setting while others discussed urban experiences in cardiology and psychology.

According to panel members, the realities of the job are far from McDreamy. Forget the “9 to 5” work day, unless you mean 9 a.m. to 5 a.m. If you have a family, you’ll miss your share of basketball games, scout cookouts, and matinee movies. When you decide to move to a new city, you will need to consider the relative price of malpractice insurance in addition to the cost of housing and local tax rates; speaking of insurance, defending yourself against multi-million dollar lawsuits will go with the territory.

Why, given the state of the American healthcare system, the long hours, and litigious patients, would anyone be looking forward to medical school? “That’s a good question,” Brian Walkowski ’08 said during a dinner break in the Hall of Presidents. “I’ve just always wanted to be a doctor. It’s a part of me.”

Wolk himself encouraged students to acknowledge the challenges of the profession but not to be overwhelmed by them. “It’s a wonderful life despite the hours and the hassles: great friendships, great relationships with patients, and there’s honestly nothing better than seeing a patient get better.”