A Story from the Human Dimension: A Potluck of Learning at Gail's Table

The knock raps at the door, and it immediately swings inward. Smiles, hugs, and laughs abound right on the porch, despite the sweltering late-afternoon sun in a July heat wave.

The two younger people are greeted and ushered upward to the second-floor apartment by the homeowner, a retired woman. They sit at the big kitchen table, in the breeze of a box fan, and carefully scrutinize papers with teeming numbers and levels from the retiree’s blood tests.

After the paperwork, there is another aspect of the business at hand: catching up on the latest in their lives, featuring the news in the neighborhood, the developments among the younger persons’ families, the heat, the state of the world that day, everything. They laugh, they have a cool glass of water. This is another core purpose of this monthly visit: to make this connection fostered over a number of years.

The visit of Christina O’Leary and Paavan Patel, third-year students at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, and Gail Rotter, of Garfield, is what “The Human Dimension” is all about. It’s a “house call” for these exceptional doctors-in-training at New Jersey’s newest medical school. The pair of students have visited Gail, a participant in the HD program, right in her home for two years and counting - and have learned about the value of human communication, beyond the clinical setting and those readouts of blood tests. They have kept up with Gail’s needs and helped to keep her on track with her exercise and nutrition regimen - and their “patient” is spry and healthy enough to take those stairs to her apartment at a quicker clip than someone half her age.

So while Paavan noted that Gail’s iron levels might have remained a little low in June, and Christina reminds her about scheduled vaccines and screenings, it’s equally important that they hear about Gail’s ongoing care for her dear friend and former neighbor who had moved to an assisted-living facility months earlier, and they hear about Gail’s day as a local crossing guard for school children.

“They make sure I’m eating properly and exercising, on top of the doctors’ visits, but it’s much more than that,” said Gail recently. “We have a very close bond - they’re absolutely wonderful.”

The Human Dimension is the heart of the HMSOM curriculum. By bringing “class” out into the real world, among real people in the real community and into real homes, students come to understand the many “Determinants of Health” – this includes the much-talked-about “Social Determinants of Health” as well as the personal, economic, and environmental determinants. Determinants fall under several broad categories: policy, social factors, health services, behavior, biology and genetics, and access.

In the Human Dimension, pairs of SOM students are matched to families in the New Jersey communities the school serves. Students like Christina and Paavan follow these individuals, families, and communities (including Gail in Garfield) from day one in their education. The students develop a relationship with the families and become involved in the family members’ health, including the individual’s life, family, and community.

Gail is one of 650 families of VPs reached in New Jersey through the state’s newest, and boldest, medical school. (The Human Dimension also reaches out via more than 300 community partners, and hundreds of events and counting over its seven-year history).

For the trio in that Garfield apartment, they bonded early on with a potluck dinner. Christina made her trademark eggplant parmigiana with homemade tomato sauce; Paavan brought a traditional creamy paneer dish he grew up with; and Gail made salad and dessert. The food opened up dialogue about their lives - and a window into the person behind each “course.”

Paavan grew up in Edison, and was a longtime EMS squad member before and through the COVID-19 pandemic, and he plans on becoming an emergency-room doctor because he is driven by situations where he can rise to the occasion to help. Christina grew up on Long Island, the daughter of a nurse and a doctor, whose discussions over the dinner table inspired her to pursue a career as a physician from earliest memory. Gail was once married, had a long successful career in the BASF corporation before retiring and becoming a crossing guard, and has some modest, age-related health challenges.

They have become close ever since - and Gail keeps on top of her health with the guidance and burgeoning expertise of the two doctors-in-training.

“The potluck was something we all wanted to do,” recalled Paavan. “The more we got to talk, the more we got know each other… the more we just liked each others’ company. She’s like a fun aunt for us.”

“We’ve always wanted to go beyond the ‘assignment’ - the extra step to really learn about her and share our lives with each other,” said Christina. “We know so much about her now. The ‘assignments’ are a fraction of the time we spend.”

What is scheduled to be an hour-long visit regularly goes past two hours. They’ve Facetimed with Gail’s sister from Florida, and offered considered advice on navigating a guardianship situation with a friend. They’ve shared recipes from afar when they haven’t visited, keeping everyone on track with nutritious home-cooked meals - and the potluck continues on, as they regularly share a meal at that big kitchen table. Key to it all: the wellness of Gail, and the lessons that go “both ways.”

Christina and Paavan have learned just as much from talking with Gail, and knowing about her life, as they have from poring over medical textbooks and taking exams back at the Nutley campus of HMSOM. The two students are heading toward the home stretch of their time at the medical school, and their official time with Gail is nearing its end in the “curriculum.” But the visits will continue, they all said.

“This connection won’t just end - we want to keep in touch with her,” said Christina.