Three months after hearing Shama talk in Hawaii, Dr. Lawrence J. Eron can still rattle off each of the three strategies Shama preaches for enjoying medicine more. He says Shama reached him personally and made him part of the presentation.

"He could make you feel a part of things even though I think there were between 50 and 100 people in the room," said Eron "I think what you see is what you get also. He doesn't just seem to have a facade of warmth."

Participants say Shama's smaller workshops, which teach doctors how to deal with difficult patients, allow them to explore the material in an even more personal way.

"The workshop had a really very cathartic and therapeutic quality," said Dr. Frederick A. Pereira '64, a New York dermatologist who attended a Shama session at a meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology. "It's very, very funny to laugh at yourself and laugh at others in this very safe role-playing environment where no one is threatened. It has a certain touchy, feel-good quality about it."

The Pro-Circuit

The number of full-time medical motivational speakers is hard to estimate--less than a dozen, say a number of doctors on the professional speaking circuit.

Many doctors give speeches part time, like Dr. Andrew T. Weil '63-'64, the alternative medicine expert and Dr. Fred Allen Jr., son of the comedian. But the number of part-time speakers is also small; only 12 of the 4,000 professional speakers registered with the National Speakers Association describe themselves as giving motivational talks on medicine.

Karen Buckman, a registered nurse who has worked full-time as a speaker for 10 years, says doctors who attend medical conferences expect to learn practical medical skills for the their conference fees.