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Moore + Dr. Paige Davis · AccessCo Leaders Career Conversations

• speaker-0: Hello and welcome back to AccessCo Leaders. I'm Ilyne. I get to this conversation with our students from Moore High School in Oklahoma. ⁓ incredible guest is Dr. Paige Davis. She's a pediatric neurologist with Integris Health. Welcome Paige, Dr. Davis. speaker-1: Hello guys, good morning. Thank you so much for having me. speaker-0: Awesome. Can you let us know in just a couple sentences, what are you doing there at Integris Health as a pediatric neurologist? speaker-1: Yes, so in pediatric neurology, we are working with kids who have any differences going on from a brain and spinal cord standpoint. So anything affecting their nervous system. So a big group of what we do is epilepsy. So seizure disorders is one of the most common things that affects the brain in children. also see a lot of developmental delay, a lot of genetic syndromes, ⁓ all sorts of things. So I'm mostly in the clinic meeting with families their visits and then we also cover service in the hospital working in our NICU ⁓ in our pediatric ICU and on the floor. speaker-0: Awesome. Awesome. So let us know a little bit. Like, how did you decide that you wanted to be a doctor, but specifically for, for children? And then not only that, but even more special. Yeah. During, during neurology. speaker-1: Yeah, I think for me, I always loved science and was kind of gravitated towards math and science. father's an engineer and so he always instilled those could be really fun subjects even though sometimes they take a little bit of extra practice, right? Even from kind of a younger age. And so then thinking about careers within those fields, thinking about something where you could have a lot of personal interaction with people where you could have that touch of communication and that really human element of interaction, but also something where you can be challenged every day from a science standpoint and learning throughout your career was something that was always really interesting and exciting to me. And then really once I was within medical school, that's where I started to notice that I loved the interaction with kids because you might be in one room interacting with new parents with a baby, and then you go to your next room and you're with a 16 year old and you're talking to them directly about what they're experiencing. So it's a completely different interaction and kind of skill set of how you talk about what's going on, depending on the age. neurology just really interesting. The brain is endlessly fascinating. And so I knew that would be a really great ⁓ union of some topic I was interested in and also a group of people that would always be really rewarding. speaker-0: Well, as a parent, I thank you and appreciate hearing the back, know, the behind the scenes of doctor who specifically cares for that age group. It is super helpful to know that there providers who care about children. So thank you for that. All right. so ⁓ middle school and school, can you give us a list of some of the things that kept you busy? What were you doing in those in that time frame? speaker-1: ⁓ so I into choir and theater. And so I was doing our plays and musicals, jazz choir, all of those things were really the most fun for me. addition to traditional classes and all of that, right? And then working on working up through some AP classes, that kind of thing. But ⁓ people, was certainly in the choir and the theater department for sure. So with you guys doing. speaker-2: It was a real speaker-1: Right? With you guys doing mock trial, I feel like that's so similar in terms of the public speaking skills and the memorization and all of the prep work that goes in beforehand. So very cool. speaker-0: One last question for me before we turn it over to the students, is there a skill or discipline that you picked up during your time in theater and ⁓ choir and all that you yourself applying to now ⁓ in job as a doctor? speaker-1: Great question. I think you learn a lot about when you're in theater and acting, you learn a lot about how to read people or kind of what body language or tone of voice can mean. And so that is really helpful for me in interactions with families, being aware of how I am coming across and also being a little bit more in tune with maybe what they might be thinking or the subtext really of what's not being said in the conversation. I think you learn a lot. and just the ability to things, right? Also comes up a lot in these jobs too. So those skills help too. speaker-0: I never even thought about that, but that is true. You're gonna have to memorize a lot of information, both on stage and in the clinic. Let's hand this over now to our students. I wanna start off with Mallory. Mallory, what's your first question for Dr. Davis? speaker-4: I would like to ask how do you determine whether a delay is something a child will grow out of or something that requires ⁓ ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, with all of our milestones, that's kind of the language we use, there are certain skills that we expect kids to pick up at certain ages. But really, even within that, it's really an age range rather than one specific month. There's not one week of their life that we say, ⁓ now you have to be able to sit up, right? And so there's a range for all of those things. And so we... When people are a little bit later on some of those skills, sometimes we will intervene early with things like physical therapy or other ways to help them keep on track. What we worry more is when they're past that kind of late end of the range, when we say, okay, we gave you some wiggle room and now you're past the age we would expect for you to be doing these things. It also matters a lot for me if they're seeing delays in different areas. So some kids may just have speech delay, for example, but if they're having trouble with their movements, their hand function and their speech. That's a different picture than if they're just having trouble with speech alone. So we kind of have to zoom out and look at the whole picture. speaker-0: That is fascinating. you for that information. Let's go over to Cooper, your first question. speaker-3: was wondering how do you determine ⁓ neurological some people have when so many have similar ⁓ symptoms? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. You know, one thing that's really fun with neurology in particular compared to maybe some other medical specialties is that the story of what the family tells you is really important. So when I'm trying to decide if something was a seizure or something else that might mimic a seizure, for example, we have to go through every detail of what the person experienced, what the people around them saw and put all of those pieces together. So in some cases we have clear testing we can do like a brain MRI or a lumbar puncture right or a spinal tap that can give us fluid, for example. But in many cases in neurology, it is looking at the patterns over time and looking at what the story tells us. speaker-0: Wow, just listening to that, there's more to than just what the patient is saying. You're looking at the whole person, the environment. That's really cool. Let's go to Kim, your first question. speaker-4: curious, what's the most difficult or like emotionally challenging part of your job? speaker-1: about? Yeah, it's a good question. know, in our field, we have a lot of things that we can treat. But unfortunately, with just the way that your brain cells work, there are a lot of things that cannot always be fixed, and things that can be more permanent, or things that we know are going to get worse over time. so I think having those conversations when we really find something that we did not want to find, or we're hoping it would go a different way. think those conversations with families are the hardest part. There's also ⁓ lot of privilege in being part of that interaction. That's something that they, unfortunately, they're gonna remember that moment for the rest of their lives and someone needs to tell them that information, right? And so learning as much as you can about how to best communicate that ⁓ a clear way, but still an empathetic way, it's the hardest part of the job, but I do think there's a lot of reward on the other side with building trust with those families and being able to kind of walk them through those hard moments. speaker-0: Yes, I can imagine that would be super challenging already knowing the diagnosis and all that and then having to translate that into a language into words and a concept that the family can understand. Thank you for explaining that. Let's go to Ari. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-4: What role do parents and family play in the treatment and recovery process? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, they really are a huge part of things. know, some of it depends on the age, right? Whenever I'm working with a teenager, I want them to have as much say in what's going on in their body and their life as possible. And ultimately we need the parents' ⁓ or need to all kind of be on the same page at the end of the day. We also rely on the parents to get them to their appointments, to keep up with the medications for younger kids, right? It's not really... If a child is two or three, it's not up to them if they take their medicine or not. The parents need to remember. so getting everybody on board and understanding is important. And of course with children, this is their most important person in their life a lot of times. And so there can be a lot of additional fear, anxiety, understandably with all of that. And so that's another kind of layer that we navigate. speaker-0: Awesome, awesome. All right, Maddie, you're up. speaker-4: ⁓ Can you possibly describe a case that significantly impacted the way you practice medicine? speaker-1: Great question. I have a good one. So this is actually from younger on in my training years. So when ⁓ was in medical school, actually, I was working on our pediatrics floor, kind of shadowing in some of those experiences. And we had someone who ⁓ was this recurrent vomiting or hiccups that we couldn't explain. and she had done lots and lots of tests and we hadn't found anything. We had wanted to do a brain MRI, but family preferred not to do it. There were some kind of details with that. But ultimately we thought that it was probably more psychogenic or from trauma or stress. The body can respond to stress in a lot of different ways. So ultimately that's what was thought was going on. And so she went home without any treatment. And then I was working in the adult neurology floor. This had been a 17 year old young lady when I'd seen her previously. maybe six or eight months later, I saw her in the adult hospital on the neurology center. And they had been able to figure out that she had a demyelinating disease, so a neurologic disease called NMO or neuromyelitis optica. But essentially she had a rare condition that if we had been able to dig further or to talk with family more about the importance of the MRI, she maybe could have been treated earlier. And so, There was really a lot of learning after that, even though I was just a student with the team, right? I wasn't the one calling the shots at the time. To be able to see the impact of what can happen when something is not diagnosed correctly how that can impact the future of that person just makes me, I think, look at every case a little bit closer and stay humble knowing that sometimes we can miss things. They will eventually show themselves, but... We really want to be as thoughtful as possible with every single case. speaker-0: And the fact that you were able to see that kind of journey and say, ⁓ I remember that patient. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, it was wild. speaker-0: So interesting. All right, we're back to you, Mallory. speaker-4: If you could solve one unanswered question in pediatric neuropathy, what would it be? speaker-5: Hmm. speaker-1: Good one. You know, we have, they've made a lot of huge strides in several areas in neurology. There's a condition called SMA or spinal muscular atrophy, which causes severe weakness that starts even for young babies. And they have been able to figure out these new gene therapies for this, where they are getting these kids walking and doing amazingly well. And so I think my thought would be about using similar technology to keep working on other conditions, like continuing something with gene therapy. like muscular dystrophies, for example, they're starting to get some of those, but we don't have it for everything. And so I think it would be trying to solve some of those care gaps for things that we're considering untreatable now, with the that throughout my career, hopefully these things will become treatable. speaker-0: Awesome. Awesome. Great question. And let's go to Cooper. speaker-3: So I know AI is everywhere in the world now. I was wondering if you use AI in your field and if so, how do you use it and how does it help? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. It's interesting because in medicine, it's really kind of just starting to play a role. And so there's still lot of hesitancy because we are all perfectionists and want to do things our specific way, right? And so the way that it has recently been more adopted is that we have a listening software that you can use during your appointments where you just, make sure the families know about it. it can be essentially kind of recording and processing during the whole visit and then can have a summary for you ⁓ the fact so that when you write your note, you have all of the little details already there for you instead of traditionally we would be sitting there, jotting down notes the whole time we visit, right, or at the keyboard typing while they talk because you're seeing lots of families per day and so you can't just have it all in your mind. And so I do think that technology is going to continue to get better and better. And ideally, we'll be able to spend less time, because we write a note for every patient, right? We write up the whole thing for every person. And so if we can spend less time on the computer, rehashing what was already discussed and spend more time face to face with the families, I think it could be a very beneficial thing. Of course, the downside is being that we need to check all of it, right? And make sure that it's really getting it right. and that it's not ever something that's introducing any harm or privacy violations to the families. speaker-0: Such a great perspective. say it every time, every episode we have, every discussion, conversation we have. ⁓ There's an AI question. So I love hearing it from a perspective of a ⁓ medical ⁓ Let's to you, Kim, your next question. speaker-4: So what skills or what kind of qualities do you think are most important for someone who would want to enter in your field? speaker-1: Yeah, I think you need to be okay knowing that it's gonna be a bit of a longer process, right? So you want to have kind of the passion behind the job to help propel you forward through those extra years of school and through residency training. I think being able to ⁓ be curious ⁓ really helpful. even when we think we know a case really well or we know a certain condition really well, there are always new things being discovered or learned. And so we have to be up to date with the current research and you have to really be curious with each family you work with too and not immediately say, oh, this sounds like this diagnosis. I'm not gonna ask any further questions. You have to really be able to dig into the details each time. And over time you build this, but I think the confidence is something that is important too, as you kind of grow and feel more comfortable in the material, being able to really lead those discussions and those conversations with family. speaker-0: So good. Thank you for that, Paige. Dr. Davis and Ari, your next question. speaker-4: What type of tools or tests do you rely on when making a diagnosis? speaker-1: Yeah. So the neurologic exam that we do in the room with the families is, or with the patients is really a big part of it. So feeling for things like muscle spasticity or tightness, checking their reflexes, their cranial nerves, all those things are, that's really our first objective tool. then testing wise, the brain MRI is one of the most important things that we can check. That's just a really good detailed scan of the brain. We also get a lot of what's called EEGs or electroencephalograms, which is if you've ever had like an EKG of your chest where they put some stickers on your chest and measure that electrical tracing, it's similar, but we put a whole bunch of stickers on your head and we're watching your background brain waves. So that's really important for people when we're worried about seizures. We know we might, we're probably not gonna catch a seizure during those shorter tests looking at the brain waves, but we can see abnormal electricity. And those are tests that I read too. That's another thing that might be interesting from an AI standpoint eventually, is if all those little squiggles, ⁓ EEG brain waves will eventually be able to be read by AI and kind of the pros and cons of that. But would say MRI, EEG, and then the lumbar puncture or spinal tap. That's where we get fluid from the low back around the spine, but that's the very same fluid that's going all around your brain and your spinal cord. And so it tells us different information than like what your blood test could tell us. speaker-0: I like we should have ⁓ more high school biology teacher on this call as well to listen to you explain this the students. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Maddie, you're up. speaker-4: How do you approach certain treatment plans with kids who have complex or multiple neurological disorders or issues? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, you really want to think about the person as a whole, right? So we can't just say, okay, we have this, for one problem, we'll have this medicine and for one problem, we'll have this medicine and think about them totally separately. You have to zoom out and really think about the person as a whole and what things are going to be most helpful. So sometimes that's looking at their current treatment plan or their current medications and saying, there anything here we could optimize to help what's going on now or? If we have two or three problems thinking, okay, is there a medicine that can help with multiple things so that we can only be starting maybe one medicine? Sometimes that involves talking with their other doctors as well to make sure that you're really making a safe choice for the child too. You one of the most important things for us is to do no harm. We don't ever want our interventions to be causing worsening of things or to be introducing things that are causing more problems than actually helping. So sometimes that's talking with their kidney doctor or their psychiatrist to say, hey, let's come together and really think about what's the smartest thing overall for the child. speaker-4: So how do you communicate? I know it's like hard to like communicate to families when like very emotional or things so how do you communicate? Like how would you communicate that in a kind and like respectful speaker-1: Yeah, there are actually like research studies and specific training courses on how to deliver bad news and how to have these conversations. So they really looked into this kind of stuff. Certainly there are things that are person by person, but there is a little bit of a science to it as well. One of the most important pieces is to know going into the conversation, what is your headline statement? So often when people are sharing something that they themselves are scared to say out loud or feel sad for the family to have to hear, then sometimes there's a tendency to dance around it, right? Or to downplay it or say, ⁓ but maybe it's not that, or maybe things will be just fine, right? And we all want to be comforting and that there are still ways to do that. But knowing your headline statement before you come in helps you not beat around the bush too much. ⁓ traditionally we, you want to give what's called a warning shot where you prep their brain that you're about to say something that's going to be concerning, right? So it may be, I'm so sorry to tell you this, or I wish I, this is what, or it's different for every person as far as what you say, but sometimes it's, well, I want to talk with you about the scan. There's something I'm concerned about, right? And then that preps their brain to say, okay, I'm about to hear something that I'm don't want to hear, right? Or that it's going to be more harmful, more scary. And then you just say whatever the statement is. You say, we found a mass that I'm concerned is cancer, right? Or whatever it may be. And you just have to say it, right? And then you kind of give them a beat to process that. You don't immediately go into a whole bunch of other details. You allow a little bit of silence because people need time to think and process. And odds are they're not going to hear what you say after that. So for some families, that first conversation, that's really all you're gonna be able to get out of that, right? Is that headline statement. And then maybe if this is someone in the hospital, for example, maybe you go back later that day or the next day, and then you can get into a little bit more of the next steps or the nitty gritty things. So it's following some of that formula and then really just responding to how the family is processing things and giving them the room to respond. speaker-0: Dr. Davis, thank you so much again for sharing how you guys as providers through that. ⁓ we hear bedside manners or they were really professional, but hearing you actually process that ⁓ formula of communication is not only ⁓ in your line of work, I would say is necessary in all kinds of different industries. ⁓ ⁓ Mallory. Great question. All right, we're back to you, Cooper. speaker-3: What are the most common conditions that are usually misdiagnosed and why? speaker-1: That's a good one. I think one that comes up very often in our field is what's called functional neurologic disorder, where this is essentially, basically what we thought that other child might've had, right? That high schooler that I talked about that then we later saw on the adult side, that case that we misdiagnosed. Sometimes that can also be the opposite way, where someone can be diagnosed as having epilepsy or having seizures. But ultimately, once we do more testing, we learn that these are movements that are mimicking seizure, but they are actually coming from a different place. They're not coming from the electricity in the brain. And we're learning more and more about functional neurologic symptoms. Every five, 10 years, there's more and more research coming out. But essentially, there are big changes to the stress centers in your brain. that can then lead to your body essentially shutting down. For some people, this can look like sudden weakness, maybe in their legs, suddenly they don't feel that they can walk, or they can have episodes that look like seizures. But the last thing we wanna do is put them on medicines with bad side effects or potential even for side effects, right? If that's not actually treating the right thing. So I think that one comes up a lot. speaker-0: What I'm hearing with you, Dr. Davis, is that every patient is different and there's no cookie cutter response. So that is also encouraging to hear. Kim, your next question. speaker-4: So to you, what is the most rewarding part about your job? speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, it's gotta be seeing people get better. It feels really great when people come for follow up ⁓ the first time you met them, maybe they were really in a tough spot with symptoms, frequent seizures, even things like horrible migraines where they're missing school or out of school for the semester because things have been so miserable for them. When families come back and say, everything's going great, they're back doing their sports or their... theater or whatever they like to do, they're back in school, this is not in their way anymore. You know, when they're just getting to be their normal selves again is really encouraging. speaker-0: is I can imagine that's rewarding and also really great for the families of work they're doing. Ari, you're next. speaker-4: So I have had an MRI before and sometimes I can be intimidating for like younger children who have to get like tests run like how do you deal with like comforting them and like telling them what they have to do? speaker-1: Yeah, good question because you're right, depending on the age, that's a very different experience. And there are a lot of adults or older teenagers that have a hard time with MRIs. I haven't had one myself, but I know from watching people get them, right, that it's a pretty stressful and long experience. takes a while to get the scan. There are some settings for younger children where we do have to do those things under sedation. for MRIs typically under age six, so five and below, we're not going to You have to be perfectly still for like 30 to 45 minutes. So we know that a sweet three-year-old is not going to be able to do that, right? And we don't want to put that kind of stress or trauma of trying to do that on them either. other cases, as we're kind of getting into more school-aged kids or kids that you can really talk through things beforehand, we often will have what's called child life specialists who can meet with families before the scan. They'll show you pictures. They might even play some sound clips of what it might be like. really try to prep the child as much as possible for what that experience will be like. Same with other tests as well. Sometimes we can use things like calming medicines a little bit if we need to, but we try to have them be as knowledgeable about what's happening and feel as safe as possible. speaker-0: That's good. Calming medicines. I haven't heard that one. But I will say what I'm hearing too is that you work with a team. So it's not just Dr. Davis making all of these calls and saying, is how we're going to do it. There's other experts taking care of that patient. So I see that teamwork and all that communication coming back around in every industry. Maddie, your next question. speaker-4: do you distinguish between normal developmental delays ⁓ neurological disorders? speaker-1: Yeah, well, when children have, if we're seeing significant delays and they're in kind of multiple categories, that's when we say, okay, ideally let's try to find, is there a missing puzzle piece underneath for why this is happening? You we know whether we find that missing puzzle piece or not, the therapies are typically the very most important things. working with our physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists, speaker-6: delays. speaker-1: is what's really gonna help continue to make that child their very best version of themselves over time. But typically we will think about performing genetic testing ⁓ well as getting a brain MRI to look for ⁓ reason why they might have delays and any clues we can have to let family know, do we expect them to keep doing well and in some ways almost kind of outgrowing or catching up with these things or do we expect that they might have some, challenges kind of throughout their life. And so being able to give a range of what that might look like is helpful for families. speaker-0: right, well, ⁓ Davis, ⁓ This is my favorite part. This is when we get to meet and learn more about our students. Our first student Mallory, and Mallory has expressed an interest in being a prenatal nurse. She's actually got to shadow her aunt ⁓ at a hospital, which kind of helped her come up with that idea. She's in the 11th grade. So Mallory, why you share with Dr. Davis a little bit about What keeps you busy? I can see that there's some similarities in the interest that you guys have. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-4: ⁓ yeah, I don't really know. mean, school really often keeps me busy. There's a lot I do. I do a lot of schooling. I'm also, you mock trial, youth and government, all that stuff. know, it. Church, do stuff at my church. Um, there's all those different things. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Awesome. speaker-0: And then so, Dr. Davis, can you share with Mallory how you work with ⁓ nurses or just nurses in general and what you're aware of in the schooling and they're part of the team of what you're doing? speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. And so when you worked with your aunt, so that's in, is that in the labor and delivery units, that kind of role? speaker-4: Well, my aunt is a prenatal ultrasound tech. So she is a sonographer. ⁓ She works with ⁓ patients that are high risk, like have high risk pregnancies with kids that have autism, that they've seen that they have a sort of down syndrome or they have some sort of imbalance, guess. So I feel like when I got to watch her do that, I think it kind of mixes in with like, with your dad. speaker-1: And I'll speaker-4: just like seeing like guess, and I just I don't I just take it like you do it because I think it's very like, it's a very beautiful thing. It's very beautiful process. And I feel like the people ⁓ get job because you know, I think it is also very hard because you know, with the young parents life, like, ⁓ it be hard hearing that like your child has, you know, something like if you know, you have too much fluid or you know, all that stuff, it be hard. And I feel like you would need somebody that, know, it's kind of like, you know, kind like how you were saying, like you need somebody that is also can give that news, but give it in a good way, you know, so. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes those are their first interactions with understanding that there's an abnormality there can be while they're getting those ultrasounds, right? And so being able to know how to handle those moments is huge and another piece that the family will remember. Absolutely. We also do, sometimes we will do what are called like prenatal care conferences for parents. we... detect that there are abnormalities maybe on like their anatomy scan or a little bit later in pregnancy. Sometimes we'll even do fetal MRIs mom gets an MRI and we can really look at the baby inside. But we will talk through with families expectations even before the baby has even arrived. ⁓ And all of that prenatal imaging is hugely important for kind of setting expectations of how can they be delivered the most safely? What are those first few weeks gonna look like? and allowing family to be a little bit more prepared for all of those kinds of things. And so there are a few kind of different routes training wise, right? Like ultrasound technician will be a different route than if you did nursing. And that's one thing before I got into medicine that I really didn't even realize how many different roles there are within medicine, right? I think a lot of us hear about being doctors or some of the main kind of highlight roles or nursing, but there are so, so many team members and their jobs are all a little bit different, right? Like the physical therapist and the ultrasound technician, all of those are gonna be different levels of how long the training is and different parts of what they're doing. So thinking about, do I wanna do something where I'm... learning specific skill, do I want to be something where I'm using my hands a lot and using those kind of technical skills, or do I want to be in more of kind of a talking role and thinking through all that can help if you're interested in anything in medicine look down all those facets I think is really smart. And a lot of great reward with all sorts of different ones, yeah. speaker-0: Dr. Davis, thanks for doing the work. This is why we exist as AccessCo, is to allow our students to hear that there's so many different parts of different industries and different jobs and you may not be aware of it. So appreciate you sharing that there are opportunities even within your interests. So Mallory, thank you for asking those questions and thank you for being available to see somebody that's in your area with very similar interests. So ⁓ thank guys. ⁓ Let's back down to Cooper. Cooper is in the 11th or 10th grade. I promoted you there. 10th grade, super smart, very strategic. Cooper, why don't you share with Dr. Davis about some of the things that you plan on doing. You're halfway through high school, but what you're interested in doing after high school. speaker-3: So I'm interested in going into law, particularly in the field of personal injury cases, but I'm also interested in engineering. So I plan on also going to college for that. speaker-1: ⁓ really, okay. Yeah. Very cool. speaker-3: Always have a backup plan. If a doesn't go well, then engineering. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. I love it. And the nice thing is like when you get to school and you're doing all of that hands on, like engineering is such a quick, right? Like that's your bachelor's degree. You're right into the thick of it immediately. And so you'll know ideally within that first couple of years, if you really fall in love with that, then that can be helpful versus if you're still, if law is still what's on your mind, I think you'll get a lot of clarity as you're doing your engineering courses early on of kind of. Or if there are cool ways that you can incorporate both of those things. have no idea. Yeah. Love it. speaker-0: That's right. Dr. Davis incorporating both of those interests if you're able to do it. while we are on the subject of undergrad, what's one pro tip you could share with our high school students that ⁓ you could go back into your undergrad years that ⁓ you would do? You would apply. would make a little bit different. speaker-1: Yeah, I think continuing to have some balance in what you're learning and what you're taking in in undergrad is really helpful, right? So in the case of medicine, there is not one, for most colleges, there's not one specific major that you have to do to be considered pre-med or on the pre-med track. There are certain classes you have to take that are prerequisites for med school. I actually had medical school colleagues who had majored in literature, right? And they had just taken all of their pre-med classes as well. And there are huge ways that that continued to help them be a good physician and be knowledgeable in different ways and really bring a unique skill set to the job later. I think continuing with other things that you're passionate about, even if it's not your end career goal. is really helpful and is just gonna continue to round you out as the best person you can be, which is gonna help no matter what field you go into. was still able to be in like our jazz choir at OU and that was really fun and so rewarding to explore kind of different facets of yourself. And I think there's a lot to be said for doing things just because you enjoy it and it brings you happiness, not only kind of laser focused on your end goal of your career and that is gonna continue. speaker-5: Continue. speaker-1: to help you feel balanced kind of throughout your job too. speaker-0: Super wise. Thanks, Dr. Davis. I wish that I would have heard that before I started my undergrad many moons ago. Speaking that, ⁓ we're to spend a little time here with Kim. And Kim is basically somebody you described, like when she goes to school, having an interest in law and business and marketing. ⁓ So Kim, don't you share with Dr. Davis what you're specifically interested what's getting you there, and any questions you might have for Dr. Davis. speaker-4: So I would say I'm very open-minded. I've never been really drawn to like one specific thing I want to do. I've taken interest in multiple things and I'm really good at school. That's all I've really focused on is school. I've never played sports or anything, never done anything really outside of school. I'm just focused on school because I want to have a good future. ⁓ And have a lot of interests that I plan to carry out ⁓ in future life. I'm just going to see where that takes me. And I've gotten a lot of motivation from people. I have very supportive people who will support me. And I just hope it all will turn out well. speaker-1: Yeah. And honestly, I have no doubt that it will for you. You know, it sounds like your priorities are straight about learning as much as you can, right? In the stage of life that you're in and taking in all of this information. ⁓ you grow and as you continue learning about things, it's going to become clear what you want to do. Right. And even you have multiple options in front of you, there's probably no wrong choice. It's just about which choice feels right. and brings you kind of the most satisfaction, I would imagine for all of you, you probably could be very successful in a lot of different careers, right? And if we all had many lifetimes, we could explore all those different things, right? But eventually you pick one thing that feels the most right for you and can see happiness through that. Yeah, and I think a lot of people as we're in those college years, you're gonna have times where people change course, even when you feel really sure about what you're thinking too. So I think having that open-mindedness is only gonna be helpful in helping you kind of steer your compass for what you actually want. speaker-0: That's good. Now, Dr. Page, since you are a provider with a bigger network, are you aware of any of the business practices? do you have to be savvy in that area of being a doctor, being in medicine, that there are business that have to be made? speaker-1: For the most part, since I am not part of a private practice, that is not something where I have to have too much business savvy, thankfully. But I do think that we ideally should have more training and things like that, because I do have friends from school who have gone into starting their own private practice and they're having to lean on other experts or really learn on the fly. And so any of those kind of core skills, I think, communication, business, all those things that you can pick up along the way. you'll be surprised where those things come up again. Economics, right? All that can come up again for you later, no matter what field you end up in. I think in my role, because my job working with the hospital is a little more structured, you have to have knowledge about being smart about costs, right? You don't want to be wasteful and ever make families be paying for a test that ultimately you didn't necessarily need. So there's thought about cost in that way, but less from the business as a whole for me currently. speaker-0: That's good. Thank you for sharing that. And over to Ari. Ari is also a 10th grader. I feel like when I see Ari, she's the responsible creative, right? So know that Ari is interested ⁓ ⁓ architecture, interior design. don't medical listed on here, but let's see how Dr. Davis may be able to share some wisdom and encouragement for you. ⁓ So don't you go ahead and share with Dr. Davis some of your interests. speaker-4: I've always showed interest to architecture and interior designing, but overall, like, let's say that doesn't work. ⁓ I've also just had a backup plan of being just a pediatric because like, I love care of my siblings and I love watching for them. And I would also love like helping another kid like deal with or like handle anything. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And you may find kind of other facets of your life or your career where you're able to use those skills if you end up in something like architecture. is something had several good friends in college that ended up in architecture and they similar to engineering you're working really hard in those undergrad years, right. But then in a lot of cases, then you're pretty much complete with your training, right. And so it's rigorous in your college years, but then you can be right out in the field working and designing. And I've seen a lot of great job satisfaction with them really loving that. So very cool. speaker-0: David, you shared that while you were in school, you were able to continue to participate in music, in choir. Now that you are in your profession, deep into the work that you trained for, you studied for, are you still able to tap into your passions, incorporate some of the things that you liked doing when you were younger? speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, so I sing in my church choir. And so that's really fun to still have that part of things and to have those rehearsals to go to and still have music be a big part of that. And then from a theater standpoint, just engaging in seeing shows locally or when we're traveling are really the times where right now where I'm engaged in that part of things. But like to think later on in life maybe. when I'm retired, maybe going back to the community theater or something cool like that would be really fun too. But it's, you know, those passions do not go away. The church choir edition was really just within this last year. ⁓ And amazing how much joy something like that brings you when you've stepped away from it for a little while. And just all of the memories and way that you just step right back into those skills is really meaningful and nice, yeah. speaker-0: That's cool. That's cool. I wanted Ari to make sure that she gets to hear that there are opportunities to be able to be in an industry, also be a creative and be able to mix it and and do be able to incorporate it in different ways. speaker-1: ⁓ for sure. some job fields are going to allow you even more time and flexibility to have your wear multiple hats, right? So some roles are going to give you even more of that. speaker-0: Right. That's right. And Maddie, also in the 10th grade. I thought about you, Maddie. Why don't you share with Dr. Page what you desire to be after high school? And I thought about you during that AI response on how Dr. Davis incorporates AI into her day. speaker-4: ⁓ So when I graduate, I want to be a court reporter. I've always loved typing and I feel like it's something that I would love to go into because it's also kind of like learning a whole new language. I don't know why she thought about me when ⁓ talking about AI. But it's just something that I really wanted to go into for like two years now because I've always loved how the keyboard looks. But it could be a challenge to learn. It'd be nice to have a challenge like that. speaker-1: Yeah, that sounds super cool. speaker-0: Yeah, Maddie, I thought about you because you are out, know, what your desire to is to take all these notes like word for word. And like, that's the, that's what you want to do. But Dr. Page is like, I'm going to start using, you know, we use AI for that, but there's still a very classic in the vintage way of sure that there's accurate notes there. So Dr. Page, do you see that, you know, as you mentioned with AI taking notes during your, during your appointments and all of the conversations and you have with the patients. how you mentioned that you still have to of oversee it. Is there a team or are there other people that are gonna help look over those notes and protect the HIPAA laws and all of that? speaker-1: So right now it just, it only goes into my chart and then as I'm writing my personal note, it's my duty to not ever just pop information from that transcript right into the note, right? I have to read through all of that and just use that as a tool to help me generate my own original note. so. It's all through that part of things. then, but there is a team, I'm sure, who works with the software in terms of making sure that everything remains HIPAA compliant and all of the kind of back computer side of things that are important to make sure that that transcript is destroyed appropriately or is only saved within that patient's private chart. But I think we are a long way from it only things that are such high stakes like medicine or like what's being said in a courtroom from that ⁓ only being a computer, I think. ⁓ the insight of a person who is there hearing the actual interaction. We're a long way from that not being important. speaker-0: well, that's helpful to know. And that he also brought up some, the point about languages, right? Like being a court reporter is a whole, it's a whole nother language. Can you share a little bit, Dr. Davis, about how, are there any language barriers with patients? How you guys get through that? is, know, how is that helpful to know different languages? speaker-1: Yes, yeah, I minored in Spanish in college. And so I wish I was in a place where I could truly even use it being certified medically, ⁓ there is a big difference. My ⁓ is pretty good with families, but we absolutely still use a formal interpreter because I never wanna miss the nuance of what's being said or any of the little details. And so we still rely on those things for most of us. We use... We have like an iPad that rolls into the room that has all sorts of different languages and then has a person on video live that will talk with the families. And so I think a lot of it is just making sure that we have patience and have the time set aside for their visit to still be just as detailed and just as personal as it would be if there were not any language ⁓ or any language barriers there. ⁓ We also make a big effort for any of our printed materials to have those available in all sorts of different languages so that families aren't ever missing out on those components of their care to like care instructions and all those things there. And medicine itself, right, is almost and sometimes feels like a different language in terms of all of the jargon that we use. so making sure that we are speaking in plain conversational information to families is another way that we make sure that we are not going too deep into our medical jargon. The way we talk about a diagnosis with family is very different than what we would talk about when we're talking like doctor to doctor. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I mentioned that earlier and I think that one of the skills that a good doctor has is being able to explain to a patient what it is that you're trying to tell me a point where I can understand again, that is a skill that is not only required for doctors and in medicine, that is a skill that's required for ⁓ Cooper, if you go into engineering, right? Being able to explain all of these complicated things in a way that the person, yeah, right. And also in law. So that's great. ⁓ Mallory, name one or two things that surprised you or that you learned ⁓ listening to Dr. Davis. speaker-4: Yeah, well, the first thing was obviously the AI. I thought that was really cool about how, you know, it just like takes the notes and just listens. I thought that was really interesting and really cool. And I think it's very, I feel like usually when we come on these meetings and we talk to ⁓ all these people, they ⁓ us about how they enter, like they use AI in their practices or in their, you know, jobs. And I think it's very cool to hear it from, you know, a medical standpoint. So I thought that was really cool. And I also really thought it was just getting to know the behind the scenes, speaker-0: Now Mallory, you feel like your desire to go into into being a nurse, do you feel like that you're more encouraged today by hearing from Dr. Davis or that that's something you want to look more into? speaker-4: Yeah, definitely. I it made my love for it grow stronger. speaker-0: Love hearing that. Love that. All right, Cooper, what resonated with you the most today in our conversation with Dr. Davis? speaker-3: resonated the most was probably how AI is being integrated into medicine and to see how it's actually being taken very cautiously and not just thrown in and used without thought and how it's there you guys are taking precautions whenever using it. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: All right, Kim, what stood out to you most in our conversation with Dr. Davis or what surprised you the most? speaker-4: So I picked up on the fact or the idea that the patients aren't really the only ones affected by these diagnosis. Their families are affected and the doctors treating them are affected as well. no matter what, you guys will still be there to help them speaker-1: Do you? speaker-0: that was really awesome. helped me also as a parent to know, ⁓ yeah, yeah, we are part of this process. you know, the patient is the child, but it's a whole little tribe, a whole community that needs to understand And Ari, What did you pick up today? speaker-4: I picked up how like, no matter what you do, you can still have that creative interest. You can still do the things you've always liked to do. Like as if I do architecture, don't like, ⁓ lose my spark almost. Like I'll just have that ⁓ aspect of myself and I won't lose it no matter what. speaker-0: Look at that, Dr. Davis. And Maddie, what did you pick up today? speaker-4: kind of picked up that sometimes you do need to listen to the doctor when they request like a certain test or like a certain medicine that you have to take in order for you to ⁓ better or for them to figure out what you what's going on with you. speaker-0: Yes, that is important. You made a difference today, Dr. Davis. What final words of encouragement or wisdom can you with our students from Moore High School? speaker-1: Yeah, well, thank you guys for for giving your thoughts and asking such great questions. I really appreciate it. I think you know one thing I want to make sure that you all know is that even when you're choosing these careers that are objectively a little bit more challenging or maybe have a little bit longer course to get you to that goal final role, right? That the whole process is really fun. Like even though I was working hard in. medical school and in residency, like those are very happy years for me. where you're getting married and you're making lots of new friends or you're ⁓ other aspects of yourself. Even in fields where things are gonna be busier, you are still gonna be living your life and being a young adult and growing in all those other ways. And so you're able to kind of figure out what career really ignites passion for you and is something that is going to be interesting every day, even when it is, even when certain weeks of it are a little bit busier and more challenging. There's still a lot of happiness along the way through the training process. It's not like, ⁓ once I get to that final job, then I'll be happy. There's a lot of fun and reward throughout the whole thing, throughout the whole process. speaker-0: That's awesome. Well, you all heard it directly from Dr. Davis. Thank you to our co-hosts from Moore High School, including Mallory Cooper, Kim Ari, and Maddie. of course, the incredible Coach Cliff Hecker. Thank you for your incredible questions for Dr. Davis, Pediatric Neurology with Integris Health, right there in Oklahoma. You've been listening to AccessCo Leaders. Career Conversations, we'll see you next time.