Hi, I am Sandra Adams, MD, MS, a Professor of Medicine in the Pulmonary/Critical Care Division of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas. But you can call me Sandra. I’m not hung up on the whole Doctor Adams thing.

I believe that I earn respect by how I treat people on a daily basis, rather than on how long I went to school and how many degrees I’ve received. I’d rather focus on the healing aspect of my practice and not my title. I’ve found some people — patients, students, and others — feel intimidated by the doctor title.

Below, I will share our WipeDiseases Foundation story in this blog. Get ready to be inspired.

I am a Dreamer

If I am anything other than a physician, I am a dreamer – one whose dreams begin at a respectable size and often grow into something much bigger than I could imagine.
Have you seen those capsules that kids buy out of a vending machine at a grocery store? Inside is a tiny, dense ball, but when they place it in warm water, it expands into some incredible animal shape.

Well, this is how my dreams begin — as a condensed ball of ideas that expand and keep expanding into bigger and better things. This is how the WipeDiseases Foundation was born. I use the word born because it is a living organism that is continuously growing and evolving into something bigger and better each day.

I am a Teacher

People tell me that I am a born teacher and eventually, I’ve believed that. I love to translate complex medical concepts into practical, easy-to-understand and easy-to-apply strategies to help patients, students and the range of healthcare professionals.

I administer concentrated doses of education to my students, but deliver it in a form that is both easy to understand and recall. As a professor, it’s my duty to help make the best physicians and other healthcare professionals possible. With my other colleagues, I do this daily by teaching students, residents, and fellows.

As an educator, I try to not only to shape and mold young healthcare professionals’ minds, but also to model compassionate and nonjudgmental behavior.

Suboptimal Care Happens Too Often

In my years of practice, I see many people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and many other conditions being treated with outdated, suboptimal and sometimes even dangerous treatment regimens.

Unfortunately, some of these people that I’ve treated in our intensive care unit (ICU) or clinic potentially could have been spared months or years of distress if their primary care clinicians had only diagnosed them earlier and started appropriate care.

To be clear, I am not trying to be critical. I truly believe that the vast majority of healthcare professionals absolutely want to do a superb job and provide optimal care.

However, there are several factors that make it nearly impossible for all healthcare professionals to keep up to date in order to provide optimal care for every patient.

These factors are 1) an aging population, 2) new and ever-changing guidelines and medications, and 3) the explosion of new information.

Please read next week’s blog to discover how WipeDiseases Foundation steps into this gap…