Yue Meng, MD

Pronouns: She/her

Hometown: Shenzen, China

Fun Fact: I worked as a part-time lab zookeeper during college taking care of spiders, crickets, scorpions, and other bugs!

• Where are you right now, in terms of your career?

  Current: Stanford PM&R residency

  Medical school: Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

  Undergraduate: Harvard College

• What kind of identities do you inhabit?

  First generation Chinese immigrant

• The path to medicine is not easy. Can you tell us why you decided to pursue it?

  I emigrated from China with my parents when I was 14. My parents were in their mid-50s, spoke minimal English, and had little savings. They were unemployed during some of my time in high school, and when they could find employment, held low-paying service jobs. Even though we were covered by the state health insurance for low-income families, we rarely saw a doctor or went to the hospital for fear of “unaffordable co-pays.” As an immigrant with fresh and still raw memories of alienation, insecurity, and powerlessness in a system I did not fully understand, I was inspired to use my interest in the sciences to practice medicine for communities facing challenges in accessing care-- often people afflicted by those same senses of alienation, insecurity, and powerlessness.

• I think we all on some level have had moments where either others have told us we can’t or shouldn’t pursue medicine as a career, or moments where we’ve told ourselves that. Can you share one of those moments with us and why you decided to keep on pursuing medicine anyway?

  The biggest moment for me was when I received a C+ in my college molecular biology class, and was told that I could “kiss medicine goodbye.” What kept me going was taking some time off (I took two gap years doing research) and realizing that just because certain concepts didn’t click for me early in college, or I couldn’t read fast enough in a timed exam, or that English wasn’t my first language, doesn’t necessary mean that I wouldn’t become a good doctor.

• How do you see a career in PM&R (or medicine) as advancing equity?

  People with disabilities and chronic illness often face many types of inequities and biases. PM&R as a field can do so much in advocating for people living with disabilities and eliminating societal barriers. This could also be expanded to addressing all the social determinants of health in medicine as a whole.

• Can you tell us a little bit of your aspirations - either for your career or for the field of medicine/PM&R?

  I am interested in many areas of PM&R. So far I have found my inpatient neurorehabilitation rotations meaningful and rewarding, and I have enjoyed building longitudinal relationships with patients. A bigger aspiration is to empower our patients by working towards a more equitable society, raising more awareness on issues surrounding disabilities, and addressing the many societal/environmental barriers, biases, and social determinants of health.

• Where can we find you on social media?

  Instagram @yskyue

Yue as a kid

Last updated 12/31/2021