Making Scents of Residency

"In certain cases, it is the odors that emanate in a patient’s room that have proven to be as important in making a diagnosis as their renal function or the opacity on their chest X-ray." Patrick Twohig, a fellow with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, shares how performing a thorough physical examination draws on a variety of tests and tools - even one's olfactory sensibility. This essay was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the January 2021 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.