Top Doctors Spotlight: Shared Sense of Mission
Lahey Physician Named One of the Region's Top Doctors
Dr. Stella Chow, a gastroenterologist at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center who was recently named a Top Doctor by Northshore Magazine, knows exactly what gets her out of bed every morning.
“The most rewarding part of what I do is knowing that we can really change the trajectory of someone’s life,” she says. “Sometimes in ways that they didn’t even realize at the time.”
This is especially the case for patients undergoing colonoscopies, one of the most common – and misunderstood – procedures in Dr. Chow’s repertoire. Colonoscopies are a routine, relatively pain-free exam for detecting abnormalities, including those that can lead to colorectal cancer, but many patients are under the impression that the procedure is invasive and painful, and some delay it for years before they finally make an appointment. As a result, lots of the people Dr. Chow sees are beset by nerves, especially those who have never had a colonoscopy before.
Putting those patients at ease is one of her top priorities, and she and her staff go to extra lengths to create a warm, comfortable clinical environment – complete with low lighting, calming music and soft voices – to signal to patients that they have nothing to worry about.
“We want to destroy the myth that colonoscopy is a painful, arduous procedure,” she says. “It’s not. We’ve had a lot of patients who have put it off for years and then when we’re done, they say, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I sweated that for four years.’”
Efforts like these are characteristic of Dr. Chow and her team, and they have helped form the strong bonds of trust that exist between her and her patients. Receiving the Top Doctors award is less a personal or even professional accomplishment and more a validation of this deeper, more meaningful side of her work. At the end of the day, her patients trust her to not only provide exceptional care, but to treat them with dignity while doing it.
As Dr. Chow is quick to note, this isn’t necessarily a reflection of her individual contributions; it’s a testament to the strength, hard work and dedication of the team she has around her.
“No one practices medicine by themselves,” she says. “We have nurses, support staff, endoscopy techs, medical assistants and other physicians who all contribute to the care of our patients. I think the recognition belongs to them as much as it does to me.”
That team is the connective tissue that makes her work at Lahey possible. When Dr. Chow first started, she was the only gastroenterologist on staff. Now, many of her colleagues have been working alongside her for years, creating a sense of trust and rhythm that not only makes the work day a productive one, but a joyful one, too.
“It really feels like a shared mission,” she says.
