Internal Medicine Interest Group
Physician STATs
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Name: __Alan Cheng_______________________________ 2. Age: ____29_________________
College: ______Emory______________________________ 4. Medical School: ____Emory_____
Residency: __UNC Internal Medicine – the bomb! _______ 6. Fellowship: _Emory - cardiology__
a.
Reasons for selecting your residency/fellowship:
i.
UNC’s residency is fantastic for patient care – lots of autonomy, procedures, and
decision making, but still in a very supportive environment. All the residents are
predominantly at one hospital, so you see your friends and colleagues often. And
life in NC is a lot easier than the big city!
ii.
I love the fact that cardiology relies a lot on the physical exam, physiology, and has
a mix of patient care and procedures.
Current title(s): _______________chief resident________________________________
a.
Reasons for current title (may include brief trajectory of your career, interests or even how
your interests have changed over time): The reward for never being called into the chief’s
office is to become chief resident! And…I love teaching and learning.
Have you had any seminal moments during your medical career – particularly ones that ignited an
interest in your chosen field? What made me most interested in medicine was watching the elder,
wiser, patient centered physician...the diagnostic guru who knew how to connect with
patients…they seemed to know so much about medicine and the human body…I was impressed and
hooked. I still hope to be like them someday.
What other career options were you considering? Primary care medicine, EM, Orthopedics
What – in all honesty – do you do? Medicine residency – learn to diagnose and treat, manage
multiple problems, coordinate care, learn whenever I can, teach, and keep my perspective and
idealism as best as possible. Chief residency – a much bigger emphasis on teaching and running the
nuts and bolts of the residency, and helping residents as best we can.
What is your favorite part of the job? I LOVE getting to know patients, and I feel that one of my
strengths is communication with patients, which I take pride in. I also LOVE teaching…which forces
you to learn. I LOVE being around the academic educational environment – AM report, noon
conferences, collaboration with attending. And also, I have never had a boring day in all of
residency or chief residency. You’re always busy and stimulated, and never bored. And…I am proud
that I have been an asset to family members who had questions, and have even been involved in
their care.
What is your ‘least favorite’ part of your job? Taking care of patients who don’t want to take care of
themselves, or have secondary gain, or entitlement. Paperwork.
What is the dirtiest part of your job? Not sure…
What is the part of your job that you least expected to be doing? Never thought I’d be a chief
resident in a major leadership position. I do like it.
How do you see your specialty changing in the future? I am very worried about the shift away from
primary care, that we’ll all be a bunch of specialists because primary care is difficult and doesn’t pay
well. I’m guilty of it.
Do you work in public or private medicine? Academic or non-academic? Public, academic medicine.
What are your hobbies? I was a pole vaulter, and eventually I want to be able to coach high
school/college vaulting again. Running, tennis, golf, dogs, reading, hanging with wife, kid, dog,
family and friends.
How much personal freedom do you have? Quite a bit – First 2 years of residency was hard and time
off was limited. But last year and this year, I have time to enjoy life and I still enjoy reading
medicine related stuff at home.
How flexible is your job in terms of scheduling and tasks? As a resident, not so flexible. As a chief
resident – 8-5 job with plenty of flexibility.