Meeting with Dr. Chen and Dr. Yung at Manet Community Health Center

On April 17, 2007, we went to meet two physicians, Dr. Richard Chen and Dr. Lily Yung from Manet Community Health Center (www.manetchc.org). Dr. Chen and Dr. Yung took time out of their busy schedules to tell us about their careers in medicine.

Manet Community Health Center is a multi-site health center in the south shore serving communities from Hull to Quincy. Manet is dedicated to providing quality health care to all, especially those that are medically underserved. Manet ensures that everyone, even those with little or no health insurance have access to medical care.

Richard Chen, MD, FP is a family practice doctor. A family doctor sees patients from all age groups. Dr. Chen came from a family of doctors and this strongly influenced his decision to become one. Because he knew at an early age that he wanted to become a doctor, he studied in a special medical program in college that accelerated his education to become a doctor.

Lily Yung, MD, IM practices internal medicine. This means that she specializes in treating adult patients, ages 18 and over. Unlike Dr. Chen, Dr. Yung is the first in her family to become a physician. Dr. Yung realized she wanted to be a physician because she enjoys working with people. Dr. Yung also completed a special program in college where she went straight into the medical studies program from high school.

As Asian-Americans, we are often pressured by our parents and family to pursue careers such as medicine, and pharmacy. Dr. Chen and Dr. Yung encouraged us to challenge these pressures and to pursue careers we can truly enjoy and feel passionate about. Dr. Yung added, “Someone who loves her job is more likely to put that extra effort into doing a great job. Someone who doesn’t enjoy her job is less likely to do so.”

Dr. Chen and Dr. Yung joked about how their daily work day is not as dramatic as the doctors portrayed on television shows such as House, or ER. However, this doesn’t mean that real-life doctors don’t have challenges. For example, one common challenge that doctors often face is when a patient refuses to follow the medical advice given to them.

The meeting with Dr. Chen and Dr. Yung actually renewed some of our interest in medicine as a career. Before our visit, we thought that doctors were over-worked and stressed out. (This is often the stereotypes of doctors.) However, Dr. Chen and Dr. Yung seemed to really enjoy their work and they have fulfilling lives outside of work, and this really inspired us!