STAT June 2, 2023
I’m standing over an operating table, excising a skin cancer from the forehead of an elderly gentleman while soft piano music echoes off the floor tiles. I’ve performed this procedure thousands of times, and I always enjoy the placid focus and deep satisfaction performing cutaneous surgery brings me. All I’ve done in adulthood has brought me here: cadaver prosections in anatomy labs, mentorship from dermatologic surgeons, and mastering various knot-tying techniques. Suturing this wound also reminds me of my first exposure to the health care system at age 6, when a tall white man, who I presume was a doctor, repaired a laceration on my own forehead.
My patient’s wife, seated in the corner, breaks the silence.
“You know, Peter,...
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