What makes an orthopedic surgeon put the person before the bones? Join host Deana Golini as she sits down with Krupa Patel, a third-year student at the University of Michigan Medical School and a double Wolverine headed toward a career in orthopedic surgery. Krupa traces her path from an entrepreneurship program she joined purely out of interest, not as a premed checkbox, to founding the Lunar Doula Collective after noticing something on a volunteer shift at the women’s hospital: patients giving birth had doulas beside them, while patients losing pregnancies had no one. She turned that observation into Michigan’s first pregnancy-loss doula program, secured 501(c)(3) status, built 15 hospital partnerships, and trained over 100 people across the state. She explains how her service work with hospice, veterans, Special Olympics, and adaptive athletes is what actually drew her to ortho, reframing the specialty around restoring a person’s independence and identity rather than just their function.
She shares the clinical moment that will stay with her forever, when the very first patient of her OBGYN rotation, whose pregnancy she confirmed on her first-ever ultrasound, walked into her psychiatry clinic months later after a devastating loss, and the training from her doula work let her hold that space. She gets honest about the fear of starting clinicals, the power dynamic nobody talks about, taking Step 1 and Step 2 just two months apart under Michigan’s compressed curriculum, and why imposter syndrome and burnout only lose their grip when you say them out loud. She also makes the case for orthopedics as a field that needs more women, more mentorship, and fewer toxic rooms. If Krupa’s story reframes what a competitive applicant and a future surgeon can look like, hit the like button, share your reflections in the comments, and subscribe for weekly conversations tracing the realities of the medical journey.
Full show notes coming soon!
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