#24 Dermatology Resident Interview - Lifestyle, Competition, and Lifestyle (again)
10/23/23 • 80 min
Alex Valiga is the current chief resident physician in the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology here at Thomas Jefferson University. He grew up outside of Philadelphia in North Wales, Pennsylvania and attended nearby Drexel University where he earned a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering. It was during this time that Dr. Valiga developed his passion for cutaneous oncology by spending several years conducting basic science research at the world-renowned Wistar Institute. Given his achievements in academics and research, Dr. Valiga was elected to national honors societies for engineering (Tau Beta Pi) and biomedical engineering (Alpha Eta Mu Beta). After completing his undergraduate studies, Dr. Valiga then continued on to Drexel University College of Medicine. During this time he was honored to be elected co-president of his medical school class for four consecutive years and received the Joel Roslyn Award, an honor reserved for a single member of the graduating class in recognition of outstanding leadership while demonstrating a notable level of commitment and service to his fellow classmates. After graduation, Dr. Valiga then completed an internship in internal medicine at Lankenau Medical Center and is now halfway through his final year of dermatology residency at Thomas Jefferson where he is also serving as Chief Resident. With his academic interests in cutaneous oncology, Dr. Valiga will continue his training with a fellowship in micrographic surgery and dermatologic oncology after which he hopes to continue his career in academic medicine.
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0:00 - Intro
1:18 - Statistics About Dermatology
4:14 - What Is Dermatology?
6:36 - Journey Into Dermatology
12:56 - 1st and 2nd Years of Dermatology Residency
17:55 - Monkeypox Case
22:49 - 3rd Year and Overall Residency Experience
32:11 - An Average Week of a Dermatology Resident
36:28 - Types of Fellowships
37:36 - What Fellowship Did You Pick and Why?
42:18 - Future of Your Career
43:56 - Dealing With Burnout and Keeping a Good Lifestyle
50:52 - Maximizing Competitiveness Going Into Derm Residency
59:25 - Best Thing About Being a Dermatologist
1:00:20 - Worst Thing About Being a Dermatologist
1:03:24 - If I Give You $100 Million, What Would You Do?
1:08:22 - Future of Dermatology
1:10:09 - Advice to People Entering Medicine
1:12:10 - Book Recommendations
1:15:32 - What Advice Would You Give Your 18-Year-Old Self?
1:18:53 - Closing Message for People Looking Into Dermatology
1:20:03 - What Makes the Best Dermatology Resident?
1:21:17 - Closing Message
1:24:41 - Outro
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Resources
I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi: https://a.co/d/1jQA8D8
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: https://a.co/d/hOnFtG8
Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl: https://a.co/d/dHP8ebQ
___
View the Show Notes Page for This Episode for a transcript and more information: zhighley.com/podcast
___
Connect With Zach
Main YouTube: @ZachHighley
Newsletter: https://zhighley.com/newsletter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachhighley/?hl=en
Website: https://zhighley.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zachhighley
Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-highley-gergel-44763766/
Business Inquiries: [email protected]
___
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___
Welcome to the Zach Highley Show, where we discuss personal growth and medicine to figure out how to improve our lives. My name is Zach a Resident Physician in Boston. Throughout these episodes, I’ll interview top performers from around the world in business, life, and medicine in hopes of extracting the resources and techniques they use to get to the top.
The best way to help the show is to share episodes on any platform. If you think a friend or family member will like a certain episode, send it to them!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Alex Valiga is the current chief resident physician in the Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology here at Thomas Jefferson University. He grew up outside of Philadelphia in North Wales, Pennsylvania and attended nearby Drexel University where he earned a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering. It was during this time that Dr. Valiga developed his passion for cutaneous oncology by spending several years conducting basic science research at the world-renowned Wistar Institute. Given his achievements in academics and research, Dr. Valiga was elected to national honors societies for engineering (Tau Beta Pi) and biomedical engineering (Alpha Eta Mu Beta). After completing his undergraduate studies, Dr. Valiga then continued on to Drexel University College of Medicine. During this time he was honored to be elected co-president of his medical school class for four consecutive years and received the Joel Roslyn Award, an honor reserved for a single member of the graduating class in recognition of outstanding leadership while demonstrating a notable level of commitment and service to his fellow classmates. After graduation, Dr. Valiga then completed an internship in internal medicine at Lankenau Medical Center and is now halfway through his final year of dermatology residency at Thomas Jefferson where he is also serving as Chief Resident. With his academic interests in cutaneous oncology, Dr. Valiga will continue his training with a fellowship in micrographic surgery and dermatologic oncology after which he hopes to continue his career in academic medicine.
___
0:00 - Intro
1:18 - Statistics About Dermatology
4:14 - What Is Dermatology?
6:36 - Journey Into Dermatology
12:56 - 1st and 2nd Years of Dermatology Residency
17:55 - Monkeypox Case
22:49 - 3rd Year and Overall Residency Experience
32:11 - An Average Week of a Dermatology Resident
36:28 - Types of Fellowships
37:36 - What Fellowship Did You Pick and Why?
42:18 - Future of Your Career
43:56 - Dealing With Burnout and Keeping a Good Lifestyle
50:52 - Maximizing Competitiveness Going Into Derm Residency
59:25 - Best Thing About Being a Dermatologist
1:00:20 - Worst Thing About Being a Dermatologist
1:03:24 - If I Give You $100 Million, What Would You Do?
1:08:22 - Future of Dermatology
1:10:09 - Advice to People Entering Medicine
1:12:10 - Book Recommendations
1:15:32 - What Advice Would You Give Your 18-Year-Old Self?
1:18:53 - Closing Message for People Looking Into Dermatology
1:20:03 - What Makes the Best Dermatology Resident?
1:21:17 - Closing Message
1:24:41 - Outro
__
Resources
I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi: https://a.co/d/1jQA8D8
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell: https://a.co/d/hOnFtG8
Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl: https://a.co/d/dHP8ebQ
___
View the Show Notes Page for This Episode for a transcript and more information: zhighley.com/podcast
___
Connect With Zach
Main YouTube: @ZachHighley
Newsletter: https://zhighley.com/newsletter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachhighley/?hl=en
Website: https://zhighley.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zachhighley
Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-highley-gergel-44763766/
Business Inquiries: [email protected]
___
Listen for Free
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23TvJdEBAJuW5WY1QHEc6A?si=cf65ae0abbaf46a4
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-zach-highley-show/id1666374777
___
Welcome to the Zach Highley Show, where we discuss personal growth and medicine to figure out how to improve our lives. My name is Zach a Resident Physician in Boston. Throughout these episodes, I’ll interview top performers from around the world in business, life, and medicine in hopes of extracting the resources and techniques they use to get to the top.
The best way to help the show is to share episodes on any platform. If you think a friend or family member will like a certain episode, send it to them!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Previous Episode
#23 Critical Care Doctor Interview - Medical Ethics, COVID-19, and Lifestyle
Dr. David Oxman is a Critical Care Doctor and associate professor of medicine here at Jefferson and the program director for the critical care medicine fellowship. He went to medical school at Temple, where he also completed his residency in IM. HE completed four fellowships in Infectious Diseases at Tufts, Surgical Critical Care at Harvard, Medical critical care at Hahnemann, and Medical ethics at Harvard. He is currently the medical school's ethics and professionalism thread director and runs the hospital ethics consultation service here at Jefferson. I also had the personal luxury of being in a student group led by Dr. Oxman, where we had discussions about being medical students and our hospital experiences.
Oct 9th
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0:00 - Intro
0:51 - Statistics About Critical Care
4:36 - What Is Critical Care?
5:48 - Journey Into Medicine and Critical Care
10:30 - Why Critical Care?
19:07 - An Average Week/Day Balancing Academia, ICU, and Ethics Consultation
25:32 - Ethics Consultation and Ethical Dilemmas in the Hospital
42:47 - Best Thing About Being a Critical Care Doctor
43:44 - Worst Thing About Being a Critical Care Doctor
45:19 - If I Give You $100 Million, What Would You Do?
48:25 - Interest in Academia
51:07 - Thoughts About Med Students on Social Media
55:44 - Common Myth About Critical Care Doctors
56:27 - Changes Over the Years and the Future of Critical Care
1:07:02 - Advice for People Looking Into Critical Care
1:07:59 - Maximizing Competitiveness
1:09:35 - Advice to People Entering a Career in Medicine
1:11:49 - Book Recommendations
1:14:25 - Lessons From COVID, Changes in Practice and Burnout
1:23:29 - What Advice Would You Give Your 18-Year-Old Self?
1:25:30 - Closing Message for People Looking Into Critical Care
1:29:18 - Closing Message
1:31:13 - Outro
__
Resources
Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham: https://a.co/d/eT0pUty
My Own Country by Abraham Verghese: https://a.co/d/ffD8lh7
___
View the Show Notes Page for This Episode for transcript and more information: zhighley.com/podcast
___
Connect With Zach
Main YouTube: @ZachHighley
Newsletter: https://zhighley.com/newsletter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachhighley/?hl=en
Website: https://zhighley.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zachhighley
Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-highley-gergel-44763766/
Business Inquiries: [email protected]
___
Listen for Free
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23TvJdEBAJuW5WY1QHEc6A?si=cf65ae0abbaf46a4
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-zach-highley-show/id1666374777
___
Welcome to the Zach Highley Show, where we discuss personal growth and medicine to figure out how to improve our lives. My name is Zach a Resident Physician in Boston. Throughout these episodes I’ll interview top performers from around the world in business, life, and medicine in hopes of extracting the resources and techniques they use to get to the top.
The best way to help the show is share episodes on any platform. If you think a friend or family member will like a certain episode, send it to them!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Next Episode
#25 Colorectal Surgeon Interview - Lifestyle, Difficult Cases, and Career Progression
Dr. Isenberg is a professor of surgery at SKMC and the vice chair of surgical education here at Jefferson as well. He is specialized in colorectal surgery. He went to medical school at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, trained in surgery at Lenox hill hospital, and completed is colorectal surgery fellowship at Thomas Jefferson University. He is the editor-in-chief for ACS case reviews in surgery, the immediate past president of the TJUH medical staff, the immediate past chair of Colorectal RC of ACGME and the past VP of ASCRS. He is a widely loved teacher and leader here at Jefferson. I personally had an amazing experience working as a medical student in his team here at Jefferson and because of how amazing an experience I had, I came very close to picking surgery as opposed to internal medicine. He has won multiple teaching awards, including Dean’s career educator award in 2020.
___
0:00 - Intro
1:07 - Statistics About Colorectal Surgery
1:39 - What Is Colorectal Surgery?
2:32 - Why Colorectal Surgery?
5:53 - Choosing Surgery During Med School
7:29 - What Was General Surgery Residency Like?
8:26 - Going Into Colorectal Surgery
9:49 - What Is It Like Being an Attending?
12:08 - An Average Week of a Colorectal Surgeon
13:42 - Being In Academia
15:20 - If I Give You $100 Million, What Would You Do?
18:25 - Making Curricular Changes in Skmc
21:47 - Best Thing About Colorectal Surgery
23:47 - Worst Thing About Colorectal Surgery
24:45 - What Makes the Best-Med Students/Residents/Fellows?
27:12 - Advice to Students Doubting About Surgery
28:39 - Maximizing Competitiveness Going Into Surgery
30:00 - Changes in Colorectal Surgery Over the Years
32:17 - Future of Colorectal Surgery
33:19 - Dealing With Burnout and Keeping a Good Lifestyle
38:25 - Clinic vs Operating Room
39:26 - Advice to New Attendings
39:47 - Advice to People Entering a Career in Medicine
42:02 - Any Mistakes That You Made Throughout Your Career/Life?
44:27 - Book Recommendations
48:55 - What Advice Would You Give Your 18-Year-Old Self?
49:34 - Closing Message
54:39 - Very Important Question!
55:00 - Outro
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Resources
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield: https://a.co/d/biHgWmw
The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams: https://a.co/d/eSZdL0i
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner: https://a.co/d/em0VH6I
___
View the Show Notes Page for This Episode for a transcript and more information: zhighley.com/podcast
___
Connect With Zach
Main YouTube: @ZachHighley
Newsletter: https://zhighley.com/newsletter/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachhighley/?hl=en
Website: https://zhighley.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/zachhighley
Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-highley-gergel-44763766/
Business Inquiries: [email protected]
___
Listen for Free
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23TvJdEBAJuW5WY1QHEc6A?si=cf65ae0abbaf46a4
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-zach-highley-show/id1666374777
___
Welcome to the Zach Highley Show, where we discuss personal growth and medicine to figure out how to improve our lives. My name is Zach a Resident Physician in Boston. Throughout these episodes, I’ll interview top performers from around the world in business, life, and medicine in hopes of extracting the resources and techniques they use to get to the top.
The best way to help the show is to share episodes on any platform. If you think a friend or family member will like a certain episode, send it to them!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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