Contributors to This Issue

Vanessa Walker, DO
You work hard and are often under a lot of stress. Dr. Walker says a vacation is vital to your mental and physical health, and to avoid burnout. Her happy place happens to be the happiest place on Earth.
Aileen E. Wetzel
Proposition 35, the Protect Access to Health Care Act, has qualified for the November ballot. With your support, we can make care more accessible and raise reimbursement rates without new taxes.
Caroline Giroux, MD
We all have stories that we tell about ourselves, and even an innocuous statement such as “I am a doctor” can be a problem. Dr. Giroux says it's time to shake the labels and think in a new way.
Kevin Walsh, MD
Dr. Walsh says there are two simple steps to saving the life of someone with substance abuse disorder. But it takes the often difficult step of overcoming our own biases.
Sara Aghamohammadi, MD
Medicine can be an all-consuming career, Dr. Aghamohammadi writes in our next What I Wish I Knew, but it's a profession and not an identity. Remember who you are — and maybe take an improv class.
David Hsu, MD
Every doctor will encounter a suicidal patient at some point. Dr. Hsu, a psychiatrist, helps identify some of the often subtle red flags as World Suicide Prevention Day approaches.
Natalie Pearlman, MS IV
Natalie, a medical student at UCD, shares a difficult lesson she learned in When All You Can Do Is Say Nothing at All. She recounts a heart-wrenching story of attending a birth that was anything but routine.
Karen Poirier-Brode, MD
Dr. Poirier-Brode reminisces about the sights, sounds and moments that accompanied growing up in a small town in a lovely poem, “Manitoba at Age Four.” You'll feel as if you're there, transported in time to the Canadian prairie.
Gerald N. Rogan, MD
A recent cruise abound the Baltic gave Dr. Rogan an opportunity to meet two new colleagues and learn more about health care in Latvia, where the government pays for the medical care of its residents and medical training is almost free.
All articles are copyrighted for publication in this magazine and on the Society’s website. Contact the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society for permission to reprint.
Cover photo: A summer day at Ferme Éthier, a strawberry farm in St-Etienne-des-Grès, Québec, Canada. Photo by Caroline Giroux, MD.
Editorial Committee
Megan Babb, DO
Sean Deane, MD
Mohammadomid Edrissian, MD
Caroline Giroux, MD
Manoj Kesarwani, MD
Robert LaPerriere, MD
Teimour Nasirov, MD
Karen Poirier-Brode, MD
Gerald Rogan, MD
Leslie Tamura, DO
Glennah Trochet, MD
Lee Welter, MD
Eric Williams, MD
Medical Student Representatives

Aileen E. Wetzel, Executive Director
Ken Smith, Managing Editor
To easily email an author, click on their picture on the contributors page or in their article.

Volume 75/Number 4
Official publication of the
Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society
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2024 Officers & Board of Directors
Vanessa Walker, DO, President
Adam Dougherty, MD, President-Elect
J. Bianca Roberts, MD,
Immediate Past President
District 1
Lisa Guirguis, MD
District 2
Sarah Barnhard, MD
Janine Bera, MD
Raminder Gill, MD
Eli Groppo, MD
District 3
Tom Valdez, MD
District 4
Shideh Chinichian, MD
District 5
Olana Aberra, MD
Christina Bilyeu, MD
John Coburn, MD
Roderick Vitangcol, MD
District 6
Karen Hopp, MD
2024 CMA Delegation
Delegates
District 1
Reinhardt Hilzinger, MD
District 2
Lydia Wytrzes, MD
District 3
Tom Valdez, MD
District 4
Anand Mehta, MD
District 5
Sean Deane, MD
District 6
Karen Hopp, MD
At-Large Delegates
Sharmila Amolik, MD
Barbara Arnold, MD
Megan Babb, DO
Janine Bera, MD
Christina Bilyeu, MD
Christine Braid, DO
Carol Burch, MD
Amber Chatwin, MD
Angelina Crans Yoon, MD
Mark Drabkin, MD
Ann Gerhardt, MD
Douglas Gibson, MD
Raminder Gill, MD
Helena Hart-Rathbun
Brent Jackson, MD
Richard Jones, MD
Steven Kmucha, MD
Hao (Harry) Li, MD
Vong Lee, MD
Charles McDonnell, MD
Leena Mehta, MD
Sandra Mendez, MD
Richard Pan, MD
Siddharth Raghavan, MD
Ernesto Rivera, MD
J. Bianca Roberts, MD
Ellen Shank, MD
Ajay Singh, MD
Lee Snook, MD
Roderick Vitangcol, MD
Vanessa Walker, DO
Anna Yap, MD
Alternate Delegates
District 1
Dana Jacques, MD
District 2
Vacant
District 3
Vacant
District 4
Shideh Chinichian, MD
District 5
Dale Cotton, MD
District 6
Sarah Favila, MD
At-Large Alternate Delegates
Olana Aberra, MD
Jonathan Aron, MD
Alyssa Ashbaugh Ortega, MD
Daniel Bernet, DO
Leo Chen, MD
Ashley Feldkamp, MD
Eli Groppo, MD
Arthur Jey, MD
Gregory Kann, MD
Vimal Mishra, MD
Steve Monda, MD
Virginia Tsai, MD
Asmaneh Yamagata, MD
CMA Trustees, District XI
Adam Dougherty, MD
Margaret Parsons, MD
Robert Oldham, MD
AMA Delegation, District XI
Barbara Arnold, MD
Debra Lupeika, MD