City Home Page: Framingham, MA ; Lowell, MA
Population: 71,265 (2021) ; 113,994 (2021)
Locum Assignment: Newborn Hospitalist and Pediatric Hospitalist (Generally 24 hour in-house shifts, often back to back)
Restaurants/Things to Do: Framingham – Framingham Station Brazilian Steakhouse ; Lowell – Riverwalk

It’s interesting when people assume that just because I’m a locum tenens provider that I’m in the middle of nowhere away from big centers. While, yes, that is where a majority of needs generally are, there are times that even big medical centers have gaps. I won’t name specifically, but I’m sure it’s easy to guess the mammoth of a medical center and system I was called to help at in Boston, one of the largest and most medical places in the country if not the world.

As a locum contracted through a larger medical system and then on a secondary level to the community affiliates within the network, I was ping ponged between Framingham and Lowell working 4 24-hour and 2 12-hour shifts generally within the span of around 11 days… It was not ideal, it was not fun and I didn’t get to explore as much of the state or the surrounding areas as I’d hoped, but by this point in locums work, the payout was worth it and the learning is always useful.

Framingham (& Natick)

The two coolest things about being centered in Framingham, a small town ~30 minutes west of Boston, (I’d usually stay in this nearby town called Natick that had the best Japanese buffet around called Minado) were: The Brazilian Population and The Framingham Heart Study. As a linguaphile it was fascinating to me that this area of the country has one of the largest Brazilian populations anywhere. The most spoken language other than or possibly even greater than English was Portuguese. Like always, I did try to pick-up some of the language in my time and had some of the best Brazilian food in the area.

The second thing which I found fascinating as a Physician was that this small town was the heart of The Framingham Heart Study (see what i did there?!). I remember briefly hearing the word “Framingham” throughout training, particularly in the adult world in regards to discussing cardiovascular risks and stratifications, prior to specializing in Pediatrics. From a historical standpoint, it was humbling to be able to see the place that has influenced so much of the world of medicine and the direction we’ve gone with understanding heart disease – I nerded out basically, but medical history has been growing on me lately (stay tuned for the post on that one!).

The hospital was old… But had the most amazing view for most of the patients looking out onto a beautiful lake. It was amazing to watch a snow storm onto it one day as I played with a little bebe. Also the staff were great and I was at least able to recertify my NRP here, so that was a nice convenience.

Obrigado.

Some of these pictures technically from surrounding areas (eg: Ashland, Hopkinton), but it felt easier to lump those together here.

Lowell

I don’t have a whole lot to say about Lowell, but apparently there’s some colleges and stuff here. There’s lots of Cambodian people here! I learned finally that khmer is NOT pronounced k’mere and actually is k’meye so… I guess there was that point of learning.
សូមអរគុណ