Resident Feature: Dr. Dijo Joseph

Resident Feature: Dijo Joseph, MD

What is your current involvement with DOCS? What initially made you interested in becoming involved?

I had the opportunity to be a resident physician volunteer at the DOCS health fairs. I was heavily involved in a similar health fair in my medical school and always appreciated the residents coming out to assist so I jumped at the opportunity when I had a chance.

Is there a similar program where you went to medical school?

I went to medical school at FSU and we had a similar program that had just started when I was a fi rst year medical student. It was in its infancy and we had a lot of challenges on how to best serve the community but it was an incredibly fulfi lling experience with a lot of learning, community outreach, and grass roots drive.

What impact do you see that DOCS has on the communities we serve?

It promotes overall health awareness and literacy. It provides people with resources that they may have not known existed prior to exposure to these health fairs. As physicians, >50% of our job is to be good teachers to our patients. Any opportunity to reinforce that education for our patients is time well spent and I think DOCS health fairs accomplish that well.

What does DOCS off er to interns and residents?

It’s a fantastic opportunity to teach and a reminder of how far I’ve come in my medical education. Sometimes we forget what it was like to be a medical student and how challenging it can be. To be on the other side as a resident now, being able teach and watch the dots connect in a low pressure environment is really enjoyable.

How has your involvement in DOCS impacted your current practice of medicine?

It’s reinforced the importance of health education with my patients. Finding ways to educate patients in simple and sometimes creative ways can sometimes be more impactful than prescribing a new medication.

What role does DOCS have on medical education? Why is it important for medical students to participate?

Any opportunity for clinical exposure is always time well spent. Medicine is never clear cut and sometimes you have to work with what you have. These health fairs are a great opportunity to practice those skills of meeting patients where they are at and working with them from there.

How has your experience at health fairs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?

I don’t know that it has impacted it much from my perspective, at the end of the day I’m there to assist in the education of patients and medical students any way I can.

“We had a patient who was experiencing classic anginal symptoms that were becoming progressive. Because of the DOCS health fair we were able to identify this patient and get him plugged into Jackson where he was found to have a myocardial infarction and was treated appropriately. The DOCS health fair changed the trajectory of this man’s life. This became a fantastic opportunity to teach medical students of how to identify alarm symptoms in chest pain as well.”

- Dr. Dijo Joseph