304: The First Patient

Episode 304 featuring Dr. Christine Montross: Available on iTunes

This episode, which aired on January 24, 2010, is available on iTunes!

In this episode, we featured Dr. Christine Montross, a psychiatrist at Brown University and author of the 2007 book entitled Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab. In her book, she describes her experience as a first year medical student learning anatomy from her human cadaver — her first patient, so to speak. In our interview, she told us about her inspiration behind writing the book and shares a terrific story about how she and her classmates came to name their cadaver “Eve.”

Dr. Montross eloquently humanizes the traditional medical student experience of human dissection. As she writes in Body of Work about her “bone box” that she was given to study, “This used to be a person. I am carrying parts of a person in this box, and no one knows it. When I reach the trunk [of my car], I hesitate for a minute and wonder if I should put the box on the seat beside me instead. ” Dr. Montross is one of the few physicians who also has a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, and her poetic nature is exemplified in our interview in this episode.

Finally, in our weekly Residency segment, we spoke to Dr. Gary Frishman, Director of the OB/GYN Residency Program at Brown University. We also spent a moment to update the post-earthquake situation in Haiti, reading a message from Partners in Health physician Dr. Evan Lyon. Dr. Lyon is in Port-au-Prince, aiding with the massive relief efforts and has appeared twice in the past on Radio Rounds (episodes 202 and 303).