I got my hair cut today. I finally found a hairdresser in this town that I like, and, she's less expensive than the other one I went to and regretted later! I always think that I look like Haley Mills from the parent trap after I get my hair cut, even though I don't really.

This week has been a good easing back into school week. I haven't had any clinical stuff this week but I have two next week so this weekend I'll be boning up on my physical exam skills with Ben as patient. I'm starting to get back into my family medicine leadership role and today went to a very interesting meeting on the role of family medicine in undergraduate curriculum, how to teach it, and what it should look like. My medical school is a specialist-taught model - all subjects no matter how much they really relate to primary care are taught by specialists. If you didn't know better, you could walk out thinking that all chest pain and hypertension was dealt with by cardiologists, all headaches by neurologists and all acne by dermatologists. Very untrue. This year it seems that there's a team dedicated to making family medicine teaching work, which is very encouraging. As was pointed out in the meeting, it's hard to teach a subject that is case-based and patient/continuity of care centered in a system that was set up for diagnosis/disease based teaching. Family medicine topics are often seen as "fluff" lectures and are poorly attended, which isn't helped by the fact that they're often in the afternoon after a full morning of lectures. So, the key is to find something that draws people in and to make the lectures so good that people will come back and bring friends. How to do that is still up in the air!

I'm really looking forward to my first two family medicine clinics next week. I meet my preceptor on Tuesday and I hope he's as great as he sounds in all of the emails!

This weekend Ben and I are going up to the cottage just the two of us. I think we're going to do a bit of biking/hiking/paddling. It should be great!