ABPC 2025 Resource List! Compiled by our undergraduates and medical students at Imani to support you on your physician journey

What drives you in medicine today?
Dr. Thomas Duncan (Trauma Medical Director, Ventura County Medical Center): 

• The opportunity to provide evidence-based medicine to improve the quality of care provided to sometimes unfortunate patients.

• The ability to spread the mantra of preventive care to decrease the number of preventable injuries and diseases that we see.

• The fortune to teach and properly instruct the up-and-coming generation.

• To serve as a role model for AAs aspiring to pursue medicine as a career.

• The opportunity to make change happen at the advocacy level and be a voice for those without one.

Dr. Stan Patterson (Chief Medical Information Officer, HCA, Family Medicine Physician): 

My love always present love for science and my desire to help people in any way I can is what drives me the most.  My motivation is, and has always been, the same as when I first made a conscious decision to pursue a career in medicine.  The satisfaction I get when I can be a part of someone's life, contributing in some way to their overall general physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being is a true gift that I am fortunate to experience every day I see patients.  Knowing that I have something, even small, to contribute to those who struggle to find quality health care from someone who care, no matter the circumstances, brings me joy.  I want to be a doctor, who my patients can build trust in, and who looks like them and reflects their values and culture, or deeply respects the values and culture of those I serve.  It matters to me because I didn't have that growing up.

Why did you pursue this field of practice?
Dr. Thomas Duncan (Trauma Medical Director, Ventura County Medical Center): 

As a child/teenager, I was always curious about how objects (radios, model toy cars, etc.) worked and found myself dismantling them to determine how they functioned. As such, my zeal was to work in a field of medicine involving technical skills if/when I became a physician.

Dr. Stan Patterson (Chief Medical Information Officer, HCA, Family Medicine Physician): 

Medicine chose me.  I was nine years old and through the dedication of my teachers at my school in South Central LA, I got to think about what I wanted from life, beyond grade school.  Having my mom serve as a major mentor in my life, showed me what I could accomplish as she demonstrated her strength, perseverance, resolve, dedication, patience, and grace to her 3 sons every day, despite having to do it all as a single parent.  She never told us what we should do in life as a career, but she supported and encouraged us regardless of our resources and never let us feel like we were "less than," or "less deserving."  This helped us seek other mentors with a similar message and sustained me as I navigated life's path towards my ultimate goal.  Family Medicine fulfilled all the things I never knew I needed in a career.  I love my work every day and have never felt a moment of regret.

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What do you enjoy most? 
Dr. Thomas Duncan (Trauma Medical Director, Ventura County Medical Center): 

• Seeing a medical student or resident blossom from their infancy stage to a full blown physician capable of managing all works of medicine in their specialty with confidence.

• Patients/families showing gratitude for the healing and/or change in demeanor from pain to near-absent physical ailment after an operation or intervention.

• Audience at conferences display joy when a process that could change their community, city, or state click.

Dr. Stan Patterson (Chief Medical Information Officer, HCA, Family Medicine Physician): 

I enjoy the ability to forge relationships with the people I get to meet and see every day.  Whether it involves seeing patients, teaching residents and medical students, or working with other clinical professionals in my current role as Chief Medical Information Officer, I cherish the opportunity to impact another person in as positive a way as I can.  It means more to me to make that impact on those who have experience less opportunity in their lives.  Mentorship molded me and I hope to pay it forward.

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What are/have been your greatest challenges? 
Dr. Thomas Duncan (Trauma Medical Director, Ventura County Medical Center): 

• Dealing with administrative bureaucracy.

• Handling state and federal mandates that do not add up to optimum outcomes.

• Wearing multiple hats in order to be at the table to be part of important decisions that affect under-represented communikties.

Dr. Stan Patterson (Chief Medical Information Officer, HCA, Family Medicine Physician): 

My greatest challenges have been balancing with desire of what I want to do and what I think we should do for those who have less health care access and less resources, in general, with what I am able to do with the resources I have.  It literally takes a village of like-minded, common-goal oriented individuals to pool what we have to do more.  That's always been a bigger hill to climb than I ever anticipated.  I have become used to doing more with less...It's the story of my life, but there are always so many circumstances where our patients and our youth deserve so much more than we can give.  It's frustrating to see the effect of what happens when we can't do enough and how it impacts those who would have benefitted.  I hope we can continually think of ways to constructively overcome those challenges.