save the date

Iowa—in the 1999 Miss America Pageant.
Although I didn’t win Miss America, I got to
spend the next year traveling through Iowa,
talking to kids at schools, performing and
advocating for issues that I cared about.
That love for public speaking and
engagement stayed with me when
I enrolled in medical school.
Finding time
You’ve probably heard that medical school,
is exhausting and requires an extraordinary
commitment of time and energy. That’s true.
But medical school also teaches you a lesson:
you can always find time for the things
you love.
And I knew that if I was ever going to
achieve my dreams, I had to leave behind
any thoughts of “not being able to do it.”
So, I began traveling to schools in the
region, talking about a topic I was
passionate about—bullying. By the time
I had graduated from medical school,
I had spoken to thousands of kids
throughout the country.
During my third year of medical school
I also decided to do something that was way
out of my comfort zone. Summoning my
most confident voice, I called WPVI-TV,
the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, and asked
if I could do a one-month medical
broadcasting internship. I didn’t have a
contact name, but somehow I ended up
getting through to the station’s medical
producer. After that, every day for a month,
instead of going to the hospital, I went to
the TV station.
The work wasn’t glamorous. I’d go
along with reporters on stories during the
day and head into the station late at night
when the nighttime editors had time to
help me with my demo video and teach
me things about being an on-air reporter.
After medical school, I started an
online health newsletter called The Health
Update and did an internship at ABC
News, working with Dr. Tim Johnson.
Afterward, I continued to write about
health and medicine and took advantage
of every media opportunity that I could.
Blending your passions
Today, I see patients in a busy Rowan Family
Medicine office, mentor medical students
and residents and continue to write about
health and medicine in media outlets and on
my blog, ThePhysiciansBlog.net. I also host
an online radio program and I appear
regularly on CBS3-News (Philadelphia), The
Dr. Oz Show, CNN, Fox News, HuffPostLive
and others.
Blending my medical career with my
passion for journalism hasn’t happened
overnight. The path out of my comfort zone
to where I am today took place over a period
of about 10 years.
And every time I get set to do a live
television segment, I still have that fear of
stepping outside my comfort zone. A part of
me is still that young teenage cellist calming
her fears on stage as she looks out into a
darkened auditorium or the medical student
hesitantly making a cold call to the top
Philadelphia news station.
If fear is holding you back, remember
that the world is waiting for you to share
your passions. Like Mae West said, “You
only live once, but if you do it right, once
is enough.” n
Dr. Jennifer
Caudle is a
board-certified
family medicine
physician
and assistant
professor at
the Rowan
University School
of Osteopathic Medicine. She appears
regularly as an on-air health expert
for CNN, The Dr. Oz Show, FOX
News, CBS3 News (Philadelphia), The
Tom Joyner Morning Show, PBS and
others. Her health articles have been
published in The Daily Beast, CNN.
com, DoctorOz.com, abcNEWS.com
and she has been widely quoted in
stories appearing in The Huffington
Post, Univision, Good Housekeeping,
Health.com and other local and
national outlets. Dr. Caudle is the
creator of The Physicians Blog, a
spokesperson for the American
Osteopathic Association and a radio/
video host for ReachMD.
Follow Dr. Caudle on Facebook
at facebook.com/drjennifercaudle;
on Twitter or Instagram
@drjennifercaudle, or at
jennifercaudle.com.
Winter 2016 | 17