Dr. Lisa Belisle

Healing Medicine

By Lisa M. Belisle, MD, MPH
Originally published June 29, 2006, Community Leader

We have reached a low point in medicine. Patients are frustrated with the healthcare bureaucracy, doctors feel overworked and undervalued, and everyone is concerned about the cost of offering decent services. One of my physician colleagues describes our current situation as being in “the valley of medicine.” I like this analogy because it offers a degree of optimism: as with any low point, the only way out is up.

The Other Daughter

By Lisa M. Belisle, MD
Originally published December 2000, Maine Times

As we spoke, the toddler chased dust bunnies from their hiding places udner the shiny hospital crib. Eighteen months old, her blue eyes and inquisitive fingers glanced over my coat pockets and stethoscope before resting on my shoes. I was a resident in Family Practice, and had been assigned the examination of “Kayla Marie,” newly admitted to the pediatric floor at Maine Medical Center. This was my final task before seeing my own children, after 36 hours away from them. Idly stroking Kayla’s hair, I felt my daughter’s locks shifting under my fingers.

Along for the Ride

By Lisa M. Belisle, MD, From the Department of Family Medicine, Maine Medical Center, Portland, Me.
Originally published March 2000, Family Physician, Vol. 32, No. 3

I meet her in the throes of labor. Her eyes are closed tightly against the outer world. Her fingers clutch the hand of a weak-kneed partner and the cool rail of an impartial bed. Her belly is locked in battle with a familiar yet foreign creature. A family practice resident covering for an absent attending, I meet her when she is deep within herself, oblivious to those along for the ride. 

The Specialty of Family Practice

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the American Academy of Family Physicians, as well as to acknowledge October as Family Health Month, Dr. Lisa Belisle has written the following piece. The names are changed.

Lisa Belisle, M.D., is a family practice resident at the Maine Medical Center in Portland. She is spending the month of October at Lincoln Family Medicine with Drs. Gold, Friedland, Soucy and Teel.

By Lisa M. Belisle, MD
Originally published October 30, 1997, Lincoln County Weekly

Cameron Thompson is a blue-eyed 2-year-old who cut his knee on a rock this morning at day care; Joe Evans is a retired plumber with long-standing diabetes and hypertension. Megan Wing is a newly pregnant 20-year-old who needs prenatal care. They all live in a coastal Maine town. Megan and Cameron are Joe’s grandchildren.

Road to M.D. Long and Winding

By Lisa M. Belisle
Originally published October 4, 1995, Portland Press Herald

A father’s inspiration leads to a daughter’s dream slowly coming true.

For me, the harbinger of autumn has always been the boxy yellow school bus, making its steadfast way down the country lanes. It doesn’t seem long ago that I was a small child, awaiting the bus with a mixture of anticipation and abject horror. I don’t feel old enough to be packing my own child’s lunchbox.

Fortunately, I have the dubious honor of never having gotten beyond the status of student.

Dr. Lisa’s Writing

Dr. Lisa’s columns, which have appeared in several publications over the past 15 years, are archived here in reverse chronological order. Future columns will be posted on the same day as print publication.

The publications and general topics are shown below and in the left column of this page under the heading “Categories.” You can click on any of those categories to find columns that appeared in specific publications or columns that fit into those general topics.

 

If you are looking for columns on specific topics — such as phthalates or parabens or dietary supplements — then you can search this site by keyword. Just use the google search box, located in the lower left column of the page.