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The headlines tell the story of violence, anger, a variety of “isms,” threats to school children, war, fires, floods and famine. It is tempting to escape with YouTube videos of cute kittens playing, laughing babies, music or to retreat to the world of sports, though sports may provoke anger or elation.

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is upon us. The days are short, and our to-do lists get even longer. It is easy to get lost in it all. I find, however, that this is a wonderful time to reflect on the year gone by and the changes it has brought. 

Last fall, Duke Family Medicine Center transitioned prenatal care delivered at the clinic to CenteringPregnancy®. This model of care replaces routine individual prenatal visits with group visits of pregnant women who are due about the same time. Since its implementation last fall, the CenteringPregnancy program has flourished.

I thought I would take the opportunity during this holiday season to follow up on my blog post from September about resiliency and share with you the feedback we received to my invitation for comment.

I did not grow up with Thanksgiving. I “acquired” Thanksgiving as I moved to the United States and decided to live a life mixing my South American and European roots with quintessential North American traditions.

When I was a medical student, a speaker came to talk to my class about the Affordable Care Act. He conducted an informal poll, asking how many of us planned to work in a hospital or large health care system when we were done with our training.

Fall is here and that means residency programs across the country are preparing for recruiting season, and Duke Family Medicine is ready! This year we received qualified applications from 34 states, one territory and 103 medical and osteopathic schools.

This year I found a new family at Duke Family Medicine and I am so thankful. It was one of the most difficult years of my life, both personally and professionally, and everyone here has been incredibly supportive.

Last week, I had the occasion to be interviewed by a reporter from Springfield, Illinois, to provide some commentary in honor of the pending career transition of a mentor of mine, Kevin Dorsey, M.D., Ph.D. Kevin is the dean of Southern Illinois University School of Medicine (SIUSOM), my alma mater, and he is stepping down from that role in December, and will resume teaching at SIUSOM after that time.

When I was attending the 2015 Duke Family Medicine Residency graduation in June, I came to the realization that if we kept counting after graduation, I would be PGY 40 (in my 40th post-graduate year). I continued to ponder that thought as we greeted a fresh troop of first-year residents the next month.