What is your hometown?
Rochester, Minnesota
How or when did you become interested in science and medicine?
I have been interested in science since I can remember and enjoyed working in several research labs during high school and college. Through college experiences of tutoring, peer advising, and serving as a resident advisor, however, I realized that I wanted to work with individuals in one-on-one relationships. While I enjoyed the research experiences, I realized patient care was my main goal.
How or why did you choose the UI to attend medical school?
Although I grew up in Minnesota, I was raised a Hawkeye and so automatically considered Iowa for medical school. I also knew that the University of Iowa was a great deal for high-quality medical education and had new medical school facilities. The final selling point for me in my decision-making process was that my brother was a first-year medical student at Iowa while I was applying and mentioned to me that he thought the administration and faculty were extremely helpful and student-focused. He said this struck him as different from other schools, which I also noticed in interviewing and applying to other schools. Iowa also impressed me when I attended my brother’s orientation activities and during my interview.
Is there a teacher, mentor or Carver College of Medicine faculty member who has helped shape your education?
There are many people at Iowa who have helped in shaping my education. I greatly appreciate the support members of OSAC have given me to shape my education to best fit my interests and goals. After I was accepted to medical school, I was allowed to defer for one year and pursued a job on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. After my first year of medical school, I decided I wanted to learn more about the social context of medicine, behavior change, and healthcare systems and policy than what we learned in medical school. I was allowed and encouraged to take a year off to pursue my Masters of Public Health at George Washington University. Cathy Solow and Jean Lantz helped make this year a possibility and Linda Bissell continued to work with me on financial aid issues throughout my time away.
I also feel lucky to have learned from and been inspired by great physician role models such as Dr. Richard Leblond, Dr. Geordie Lawry, Dr. Jeffrey Lobas, Dr. Ann Broderick, Dr. Isabella Grumbach, Dr. Phillip Schmid, and numerous outstanding residents I have met this year as a third year student.
What kinds of opportunities or advantages does being a medical student at Iowa provide? What about challenges?
The benefits of being a medical student at Iowa include having beautiful facilities with simulated patient suites and learning communities, a student-focused and supportive administration, a plethora of extracurricular groups and service projects available, and a continuous effort by most faculty and staff to improve the curriculum and teaching methods. I also value the exposure to rural health and primary care at Iowa as well as the exposure to tertiary care and research.
One challenge is a challenge that many schools face—by some measures our student population is diverse, but by others it is not.
Please describe your professional goals and interests.
My goal is to practice general medicine in an urban clinic working with the underserved and to be involved in policy-making through the government or a policy or advocacy group. I am also interested in teaching public health or policy and medicine at the graduate level.
What are some of your outside interests?
I enjoy spending time with my wonderful family and friends, traveling, following politics, reading, doing yoga, following the Twins, camping, playing with my parents’ dogs, and watching reruns of Scrubs and The West Wing.
I also have been involved with the Organization of Student Representatives, the student branch of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and was recently elected to the twelve-member national OSR Administrative Board. Being a member of the Ad Board allows me to combine my interests in medical education and patient care with my interests in policy and improving the healthcare system. The Ad Board meets four times a year to discuss and represent student opinion to the AAMC on issues ranging from the "Match" and USMLE licensing to innovative curricular reform, admissions standards, and issues of student wellness and diversity. The entire OSR meets two times a year and Iowa supports sending several students who are involved in the local chapter to each of these meetings-if one is interested in getting involved or learning more about what the OSR does for students, please check out the website http://www.aamc.org/members/osr/
Do you participate in any community service/outreach projects? If so, what are they and what have your experiences been?
After I graduated from college, I participated in a year-long AmeriCorps program at Joseph’s House, a hospice for the homeless living with AIDS in Washington, DC. This was a life-changing experience for me and I have been involved with Joseph’s House (www.josephshouse.org) in many ways since. My experiences there greatly affect how I view the world, myself and others, and my role as a physician. In keeping with similar work, I am a volunteer with Iowa City Hospice.
Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your work?
During my work at Joseph’s House, I understood more clearly than I had before that we are all much more similar than we are different. We all have experienced extreme happiness as well as deep sorrow. Regardless of education level, language, ethnicity, economic status, political affiliation, religious belief, race, cultural practices or other factors that seemingly differentiate us, each person ultimately is looking for many of the same general things in life—love, happiness, fulfillment, and respect to name a few. This seems like a simple concept, but it can be quite powerful for me when applied to daily interactions. It reminds me to treat everyone with the same level of respect, to try to give others the benefit of the doubt, to be less judgmental, and to be compassionate.
If you could change one thing about the world (or the world of medicine), what would it be?
To provide each individual a fair chance at life, health, and happiness. To provide access to care for everyone, to increase the quality and coordination of care, and to slow the rapidly increasing costs of care (hopefully by decreasing the commercialization of medicine and improving efficiency). Lastly, to make healthcare workers more compassionate with patients, each other, and ourselves.
What one piece of advice you would give to students who are interested in applying to medical school?
Plan to maintain interests and friends outside of medicine and let these factors, as well as the medical education you receive, help create the physician you will become. Have fun with medicine as well as in your life outside of medicine. My family, friends, and involvement in extracurricular activities have helped me maintain my sense of humor and excitement about life and my career in medicine.
What do you see as "the future" of medicine?
The movement is already growing to establish better methods of measuring quality and reimbursing for it. I believe quality measures will shape reimbursement rates, establishment of new care models, and the structure of medical education. I also believe that our system will move, however incrementally, toward some level of universal access to healthcare as the current system causes more people to be covered by less insurance or none at all.