Why Histology Is A Course To Remember

In the proverbial Olympic marathon that is your first year of podiatric medical school, one obstacle took the gold for most challenging course of the year. It was the first week of our first year as student doctors at Temple University’s School of Podiatric Medicine (TUSPM), and the upperclassmen were offering our class a plethora of valuable tips and a weighty warning: “Take histology very seriously.” 

We knew histology to be a challenging course at our school. Very quickly, the class tangibly appreciated the anxiety around this imminent challenge. Our course was directed by Judith Litvin-Daniels, PhD, who can rouse discipline in the classroom and inspire studiousness, having completed three post-doctoral fellowships herself, the last of which was at Cornell University Medical School.

Philosophically, I align heavily with those who view even the smallest aspects of life as intertwining, but frankly, I will be the first to admit my skepticism. “Does the course really have to be this intense?” I asked myself in the early days of lecture. After all, we were studying to become physicians, not PhDs.

These thoughts crossed my mind at around the first time I experienced a burnout. It was around this time that Dr. Litvin-Daniels had invited someone to give us a pep talk, right before her morning lecture. It was none other than Jeffrey Lehrman, DPM, a man who would very soon become a dear mentor to me. As visceral as some medical school experiences will prove to be, you will find that somehow, many of those memories are hard to recall without a friend having to remind you of them, even just a year or two out. Dr. Lehrman’s talk was not one of those forgettable moments as his words resonate with me to this day.

“The future is bright,” Dr. Lehrman passionately proclaimed as he highlighted all that there is to look forward to in our profession. Then he made it clear that we are the ones who will make the future bright. Sporting a dapper suit and equipped with his contagious enthusiasm, he made us a promise that had been echoed by Dr. Litvin-Daniels since day one: that everything we will learn in histology will show up at some point in our career.

Weeks later, I would travel with one of my closest friends and classmates, Anthony, to a global medical relief conference in Washington D.C., where we attended a lecture given by a trauma surgeon who had experience treating wounded civilians in war zones. For the purposes of the lecture, the surgeon decided it was vitally important to remind the doctors attending in the crowd of the stages of wound healing. As that slide went up on the screen, Anthony and I looked at each other. The irony was not lost on us. As first-year students only a semester deep into our studies, we barely understood much of the advanced medical presentations we were seeing but we knew exactly what this trauma surgeon was talking about. He was talking histology.

Fast forward to this day. As a fourth-year medical student on externships, I find myself utilizing much of what Dr. Litvin-Daniels taught me on a daily basis. The difference between a partial- and full-thickness ulceration, the stages of wound and bone healing, and nail and peripheral nerve histology among other facets of the subject are concepts that podiatric physicians and surgeons regularly utilize.

In reflection, I am very thankful to Dr. Litvin-Daniels for teaching me the foundation of what I hope to do for the rest of my life. Hopefully, one day I can pay Dr. Lehrman’s pep talk forward to a classroom of podiatric medical students. But in the meantime, if you happen to come across this piece and are about to start medical school, just keep in mind: histology is a course to remember.

Follow the author on Twitter at @RamiBasatneh and on Instagram at @_podiatry.