Internal Medicine Interest Group
Physician STATs
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Name: Amy Shaheen
2. Ageless
College: Wash U in St. Louis
4. Medical School: University of Chicago
Residency: Intern University of Chicago, Resident UNC
a. Reasons for selecting your residency/fellowship: I chose internal medicine because it seemed
that when everyone else in the hospital got stuck or confused and didn’t know how to help a
patient, they called an Internal medicine consult. They were the smartest doctors and could
always figure it out. I also liked how the “art of medicine” for internal medicine meant the
relationship you had with your patient, not making up what you thought might work because
you were too lazy to look it up or your field had a paucity of evidence based medicine. I loved
how internal medicine residents and attendings always taught you to look for the data to
support what you were going to do. They were the ultimate lifelong learners and I knew I
could never, ever get bored in this job.
Current title(s): Clinical Associate Professor in General Internal Medicine
a. Reasons for current title (may include brief trajectory of your career, interests or even how your
interests have changed over time): I started med school thinking I wanted to be a surgeon
because as a kid I had cut out the article of Barney Clark, the first guy to get an artificial heart.
Then I worked with a cardiologist and realized they were the real physiologists that helped
make the heart and not just the guy who put in the heart. Then I began to love pulmonary
and critical care because I loved dealing with the families and the physiology of the ICU.
Where I went to med school, there were no general internists. And at that point, if I had met
one, I wouldn’t have liked them. So when my darling husband told me in the middle of my
residency that we were moving to North Carolina, I was a little lost. (I wouldn’t recommend
changing residencies). I realized more and more that I liked the relationships built over long
periods of time with patients and decided finally on Heme Onc. Then I had my “atta boy” talk
with the chair as I was leaving to start my fellowship at UNC. He told me using an expletive,
that he wasn’t planning on hiring any gastroenterologists anytime soon (which he later did
anyway!) So I didn’t want to change in the middle of my training again when Nick had to
leave for a job. So I dropped out of my fellowship before even starting and got a job as a
general internist until Nick finished. Then I loved it. SO here I am 13 years later and I still love
it.
Have you had any seminal moments during your medical career – particularly ones that ignited an
interest in your chosen field? Since it was accidental, probably not. I have never, even one day,
regretted my decision to pick Internal Medicine.
What other career options were you considering? I have occasionally thought that I might have liked to
have done a subspecialty like Heme Onc or pulmonary. My closest friend, in practice with me for
years, finally chose to do that. She is now a cardiology fellow at UNC. So I love that your options are
always open—even to old ladies like me. She went from about 3 procedures a week to doing them all
day long!
What – in all honesty – do you do? I manage chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart
disease and my favorites, asthma and COPD. I also do a lot of health prevention such as pap smears,
discussions about cancer screening, vaccines, etc. I work in an acute care clinic part of the time where
we see patients who have everything from a sore throat to a heart attack, sepsis to asthma attacks. I
only take care of adults 16 and up.
What is your favorite part of the job? Making cool zebra diagnoses that no one else thought of. I also
love seeing patients back that I have been taking care of for 13 years. They date their time with me by
my pregnancies and I see them through marriages, babies, illness, divorces, depression, etc. I also
love my co-workers. There are very few that I hang out with on the weekends but I learn so much
from them.
12. What is your ‘least favorite’ part of your job? Signing note, dictating, and writing letters to tell people
that their labs are normal.
13. What is the dirtiest part of your job? When I tried to dig through the biowaste can the other day
because I accidentally dropped someone’s pee in the trashcan. Unfortunately, I also forgot to put the
lid on and he couldn’t give me anymore. This is the first and I hope the last time that happens. TIP:
Don’t dig through biowaste containers .
14. What is the part of your job that you least expected to be doing? Teaching students (I am not
extraordinarily patient and most teachers seem much more patient.)
15. How do you see your specialty changing in the future? I think for the better. I am an eternal optimist
and supply and demand would say that people need us and there are not enough of us, (generalists)
so that can only mean good things will happen.
16. Do you work in public or private medicine? Academic or non-academic? Public, academic. I think I
would be happy in lots of situations though.
17. What are your hobbies? I coach my kid’s middle school basketball team and my daughter’s softball
team. Our family drives everything and we play every single sport. Just don’t try and get me to swim.
18. How much personal freedom do you have? I feel like I have a lot. Job situations vary and it really
depends on where you are and who you are working with. I have always worked part time since my
kids were born and so I think that I really value that I can do that. Many of the procedural specialties
(like OB or surgery or anesthesia) have such high malpractice premiums that it is not always an option
to work part time.
19. How flexible is your job in terms of scheduling and tasks? I can’t imagine a job with more flexibility.
That is the thing I love. Three maternity leaves, part time, and I get to do what I love. Can’t beat it.