39 min
Full Scope Primary Medical Care in Rural America with Dr. Zed Zha The Prosperous Doc
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- Medicine
From an early stage in her medical education and training, Dr. Zed Zha knew she wanted to do primary care family medicine. The urban market of highly specialized care wasn’t the place for Dr. Zha, given her love for delivering babies, geriatric care, and an interest in dermatology, all of which led to work in rural areas where she could practice a variety of medicinal care.
In this episode of the Prosperous Doc®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP® talks to Dr. Zed Zha, MD about her work in a rural eastern Washington State farming community of 8,500, where the predominant population is made up of Spanish-speaking and Indigenous-speaking residents. Dr. Zha talks about building trust with her patients, who are mostly immigrants and/or undocumented workers. Her own experiences as an immigrant prepared her empathy toward and understanding of the population she serves.
💡 Featured Guest 💡Name: Dr. Zed Zha, MD
What he does: Dr. Zed Zha is a board-certified primary care physician offering obstetrics and hospital medicine in rural Washington state, where she is also a clinical instructor for the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Company: Columbia Basin Health Association
Connect: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
⚡ Prosperous Insights ⚡[07:40] Bilingual business: Nearly all of the medical assistants and staff at Dr. Zha’s rural Washington clinic are bilingual.
[11:19] A dying breed: Current trends indicate a coming physician shortage over the next couple of decades, which will particularly affect country doctors. Dr. Zha argues for the importance of more rotations in medical school and residencies and reversing misconceptions about primary and rural care.
[18:27] COVID-19 task force: Dr. Zha hails from Beijing, China and always kept a close watch on current events there, which allowed her to be privy to COVID-19 and its spread before the pandemic spread to America.
[22:34] Outreach: Dr. Zha, along with her colleague Dr. Jude Alsarraj, took action to inform non-English-speaking community members about the risks and safety measures of COVID-19 by creating accessible media in their own native languages.
[26:22] Work in progress: Along with co-author Chloe Ackerman, PsyD (and the helpful guidance of her literary agent, Kathryn Willms), Dr. Zha is currently working on her first book, “Essential: A Chinese Doctor on Rural America’s Pandemic Frontline,” which chronicles Dr. Zha’s work as a full-scope family doctor in rural America during the pandemic.
[29:53] Social justice: Without health equity, there is little to say about health care, as it is a human right that is unequally allocated in America.
[37:08] Shout-outs: Dr. Zha gives thanks and credit to the many people who helped her achieve her goals: Dr. Cathleen E. Morrow, MD, Dr. James Withers, MD,...
From an early stage in her medical education and training, Dr. Zed Zha knew she wanted to do primary care family medicine. The urban market of highly specialized care wasn’t the place for Dr. Zha, given her love for delivering babies, geriatric care, and an interest in dermatology, all of which led to work in rural areas where she could practice a variety of medicinal care.
In this episode of the Prosperous Doc®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP® talks to Dr. Zed Zha, MD about her work in a rural eastern Washington State farming community of 8,500, where the predominant population is made up of Spanish-speaking and Indigenous-speaking residents. Dr. Zha talks about building trust with her patients, who are mostly immigrants and/or undocumented workers. Her own experiences as an immigrant prepared her empathy toward and understanding of the population she serves.
💡 Featured Guest 💡Name: Dr. Zed Zha, MD
What he does: Dr. Zed Zha is a board-certified primary care physician offering obstetrics and hospital medicine in rural Washington state, where she is also a clinical instructor for the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Company: Columbia Basin Health Association
Connect: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
⚡ Prosperous Insights ⚡[07:40] Bilingual business: Nearly all of the medical assistants and staff at Dr. Zha’s rural Washington clinic are bilingual.
[11:19] A dying breed: Current trends indicate a coming physician shortage over the next couple of decades, which will particularly affect country doctors. Dr. Zha argues for the importance of more rotations in medical school and residencies and reversing misconceptions about primary and rural care.
[18:27] COVID-19 task force: Dr. Zha hails from Beijing, China and always kept a close watch on current events there, which allowed her to be privy to COVID-19 and its spread before the pandemic spread to America.
[22:34] Outreach: Dr. Zha, along with her colleague Dr. Jude Alsarraj, took action to inform non-English-speaking community members about the risks and safety measures of COVID-19 by creating accessible media in their own native languages.
[26:22] Work in progress: Along with co-author Chloe Ackerman, PsyD (and the helpful guidance of her literary agent, Kathryn Willms), Dr. Zha is currently working on her first book, “Essential: A Chinese Doctor on Rural America’s Pandemic Frontline,” which chronicles Dr. Zha’s work as a full-scope family doctor in rural America during the pandemic.
[29:53] Social justice: Without health equity, there is little to say about health care, as it is a human right that is unequally allocated in America.
[37:08] Shout-outs: Dr. Zha gives thanks and credit to the many people who helped her achieve her goals: Dr. Cathleen E. Morrow, MD, Dr. James Withers, MD,...
39 min