Hello, (Friends of Doctor) Dolly!

I know many of you are landing here thanks to my daughter, Dr. Dolly. She was just published on KevinMD.com, and my celebratory post on Facebook labeled her a "chip off the old Doctor Dalai". Thus, her friends are now discovering what I do in my spare time. Hopefully this won't reflect badly on Dolly. She is, after all, at the beginning of her career, and I'm at the end of mine. We don't want potential employers, colleagues, administrators, scrub-nurses, or Uber-drivers to think she might turn out like me! (For privacy reasons, I'm not linking back to KevinMD.)

In some ways, I've taken a page from her book. While in medical school, Dolly went on a number of mission trips to such amazing places as Oaxaca (Mexico), Nicaragua, and Uganda. And South Dakota. Having more time available and more training behind me, it occurred to me to do the same while bouncing around the purgatory of quasi-retirement. Once I found RAD-AID, the die was cast. Both of my loyal readers know that I've been to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana, an incredible trip. You can read about it right here on my blog if you haven't already. A medical mission trip is not something you do once; the experience changes you (for the better). The desire to give back, and the growth involved in the process, is addictive. The friends you make, the things you see, the joy of being out of your comfort-zone all necessarily call for an encore performance.

Thanks to a tremendous opportunity provided by RAD-AID and SNMMI, I will be going to Tanzania this summer to provide what little expertise I can muster for the Nuclear Medicine program at the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam.

The whole thing comes as a bit of a surprise to me, as I will be the recipient of a Hyman-Ghesani RAD-AID SNMMI Global Health Scholarship, which will cover much of the expense of the trip. The surprise is that this program seemed to be geared more toward academia, and I applied with little hope of success. But I seemed to have impressed the committee to an adequate degree and so off to Tanzania we go. I am truly honored and humbled by the confidence and trust in me. I do have to say that in my 27 years of private practice, I've come to find that experience is the best teacher. Of course, experience and brilliance would have been a better combination, but we can't have everything.

The mission has only one downside. I'm committed to present a report at the subsequent Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging meeting, and in 2018, it's in...Philadelphia. Meh. Oh, well, we have to make some sacrifices here and there.

I've said it before, and I'll repeat...RAD-AID is an incredible operation, worthy of your donations of money, and better, of your time. There is tremendous need out there for your radiological expertise, and yes, your cash. There is a lot of work to be done. Come join me.