03/07/2022

Friends of Franz Podcast S1 E12: Osteopathic Hospital Medicine with Dr. Stella Clavecilla

The "Western" world of medicine is said to be infamously known for its churning of prescriptions of pharmacologic modalities to target almost all of the conditions and pathologies that exist. When something is painful, just prop an ibuprofen. When you're having green phlegmatic coughs, you'll probably take an antibiotic. When something goes haywire with an organ, you will most likely require surgery. However, in many countries outside of the United States, this approach is not always the case. Manual manipulations of certain parts of the body and utilization of nature's products are their standards of bodily defense in times of ailment. From the word "osteon," a structural unit of bone, the field of osteopathic medicine was created in 1874 to bring forth physicians who harness the healing capabilities enveloped within the human musculoskeletal system as one of the many additional evidence-based modalities of treatment in conjunction with the world of our usual medications and surgeries to provide the most holistic care as possible.

Dr. Stella C. has been a board-certified Internist and Hospitalist in the San Francisco area for almost two decades, and a member of the American College of Physicians, American Osteopathic Association and the American Medical Association. She also stands as a medical officer who teaches and trains the next wave of future physicians. With her expertise rooted in the sphere of the hospital, Dr. Stella has seen first-hand the gruesome effects that COVID-19 has done on patients, families, and healthcare workers. From countless deaths to worker burnout, we tackled the emotional and psychological tolls that the pandemic has imbued within the four walls of the hospital and beyond. Is medicine still worth it? Is this challenge worth fighting for? With full transparency and vulnerability, Dr. Stella shows what the "internal" in internal medicine meant: the heart to care.