a motivation to help others achieve their dreams here in America. He would constantly have a full exam room with him, the patient, one to two IMG students, a translator, a scribe and lil’ ole me in the corner. He would even start off every interaction with an immigrant patient telling them what he knew about their country to help ease their interactions. He loved learning about other cultures and eagerly would learn simple phrases from me in Arabic or Urdu. Second, Dr. Lippmann was very set in his methods, strictly documenting the note on a paper chart and bringing in giant binders full of papers to keep track of his patients. He kept a routine for his daily life, even running and walking everywhere and everyday well into his 70s, refusing to ever concede in using an elevator. Third, once you asked for Dr. Lippmann’ s help, he would make sure you would succeed at every step. He took my inexperience and molded it into a curious mind, allowing me to ask him about the terminology he used during the visit and each step of his medical treatment reasoning. He built the confidence in me to move from shadowing into a scribing position at the Family Community Clinic.
Moving into a more active role, I learned how to scribe and document proper digital medical charts at the FCC whenever I worked with any of the other providers. But whenever I was assigned to work with Dr. Lippmann, he would jump for joy, greet me in broken Urdu and hand me his paper chart to help him document. I don’ t think many current medical students can say they learned how to document charts like those old medical shows, but I appreciated getting to act like I was in Scrubs. He always respected the effort I put in and would repay that by treating me as an equal with his IMGs. When we were in the Hope Clinic run by second year medical students, he would teach me alongside them on how to present patients properly. When he decided to write a paper about Kratom, he brought me along to write with his IMGs and as part of the team. I was always impressed at his ability to keep up with the medical literature and the world around him, becoming impassioned about Kratom, and getting the word out about the addictive substance when he heard it was being sold at local gas stations. By the time we had published that paper, it would be another four years before legislators would restrict the age to purchase Kratom in the state of Kentucky. To be able to be on the frontlines of medical knowledge deep into retirement age was a huge motivator for me to be a constant learner for the rest of my life.
Throughout these experiences with Dr. Lippmann across the years, I could see how all of his qualities and traits influenced me. I wanted to learn more about the world around me, all the differing cultures and viewpoints to connect more with patients. I started giving myself more and more routines to make the most out of each day. I became enthusiastic about helping others succeed and teaching them with any questions they had for me. You would not be able to tell the story of me without the influence of Dr. Lippmann and the many doors of opportunity he has opened for me.
When the time came for my pre-med career to end, there was no hesitation in asking him to write my recommendation letter for medical school. He was of the same mind, unquestionably enthusiastic. We had reached a point in our mentor relationship that he could see me as more of an equal, and from time to time, even ask me for help! For example, once a technological issue came up at his home and he personally requested me to help. I drove over to his house to see him enthusiastically opening the door for me, leading me to his computer and showing me the issue. For me, it was intuitive how to fix the issue as I’ d grown up in a digital world. Once the issue was resolved, I remember looking around the room, seeing the stacks of binders, the single piece of paper that had every password from his career and even seeing the rotary phone. In true Lippmann fashion, I took this time as an opportunity to learn and asked him how to work the phone. To all older readers, it may dishearten you to hear I simply could not figure out how to work that rotary phone. I was used to touchscreen buttons doing all the work. For him, it was intuitive.
That entertaining moment between the two of us really represented a generational gap, but it made me appreciate the throughline of medical history that he and I are a part of. I think of how the world will change throughout my career, how his traits will certainly help me succeed in any situation and eventually, how I will transfer both our traits to the next generation. As I left his house, I saw an old familiar friend. I took the chance to lie down on that exact same couch, in the exact same spot, more than two decades later. How many doctors did it take to change my life? Just one, and his name is Dr. Steven Lippmann.
Junaid Shahzad is a second-year medical student at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
This essay was a submission to the 2025 Richard Spear, MD, Memorial Essay Contest.
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