example, the antibiotic resistance that's come about. A big part of that was the way that we used to prescribe antibiotics. We need to be stewards of medical practice. We need to be stewards of it and identify when there might be over uses, or even under uses. How we can modify our practices so that we're best caring for our patients? Thirdly, is that Maine is a tight community. It's a relatively small community, but such a vast state in terms of land. A huge problem that we have here is the Rural Health, lack of rural communities having access to health and healthcare. Those are the areas that we don't tend to hear about on the news. We tend to hear about Portland, Lewiston, Biddeford, Augusta, Bangor, because those are just the bigger cities. So identifying ways that we can help wherever we work in the future. How we can help those rural communities that might be around us, however it may be. I know the AHEC program emphasizes that, and UNE COM as a whole. Our students have an interest in rural health. So identifying the communities and identifying the kind of limitations they have and the disadvantages they have which might predispose them to having larger amounts of their members suffering from addiction disorders or use disorders in ways that we can better prevent or to help them prevent that, too.
Is there any concern with under prescribing?
I don't think in terms of pain medications. If anything it is in lifestyle and nutrition advice. A big emphasis on your treatment is with medications and that's where I think osteopathic based programs have greater emphasis on not always saying you need a pill for this or a tablet for that, but understanding that a lot of it can be changing diet, exercise, lifestyle, and non-interventional treatments that don't require actual prescriptions of medications but rather prescriptions of healthier foods. That's a whole other issue to have access in a community to healthier lifestyles. Mr. Smith didn't necessarily talk about that much, but I think there was an underlying thinking about the reasons people are predisposed.
How do you anticipate using your knowledge as a physician?
That's a really good question, because it feels like, especially at this point in our education, there's so much knowledge, it's so tough to try to streamline different thought processes. I have a public health background. So I definitely key into the public health perspective that [Dr. Smith] talked about. I think being aware of the communities in the populations that I'll be serving, and understanding what their disadvantages are, what their strengths are. There's sometimes an emphasis on disadvantages versus trying to understand what this community has as a strength and what people have as their strengths and trying to play to that. I think a lot of it is understanding your community, what the needs are, the strengths are, and really tailoring your medical advice and practices to what's best for those people. <>
L-R: Second year students, Crystal Clendennen-Peirce, Brett Armstrong, and Ethan Collins, attending the Opioid talk with Mr. Smith