Public health and preventive medicine was a natural fit for me. During my clinical training, I often felt like we were chasing after diseases that could have been prevented. For example, type 2 diabetes was rampant, but the main thing we had to offer seemed to be medication. I wanted to spend more time talking to my patients about things like diet, exercise, and other health-related behaviors, but the way the system is set up it’s hard to do that and stay on schedule. Now, I’m surrounded by people who make that sort of thing the focus of their work. How can we address health behaviors on the population level, so fewer people will get type 2 diabetes (or HIV, or heart disease, or smoking-related cancers) in the first place? I also think a lot about the quality of health care and how we can improve our system, which is another big focus for my specialty. Beth Seltzer, MD, MPH
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