Today, Friday, May 6, the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Class of 2022 will walk across the stage at the U of M’s Northrop Auditorium to receive their diplomas, officially becoming what they have spent four years studying, working and practicing toward: doctors.
The next step for a recently graduated physician is to spend three to seven years in residency, where they apply their education as they begin to see and treat patients.
University of Minnesota Physicians (M Physicians) has its own residency program with North Memorial Health at the M Physicians Broadway Family Medicine Clinic in North Minneapolis, which is focused on providing training in underserved and international medicine, sports medicine, research, osteopathic medicine, reproductive health and procedures.
We’re excited to introduce you to two of the Broadway Family Medicine Clinic’s incoming residents: Katie Casty, MD, and Rebekah Fiers, MD:
Katie Casty, MD:
Hometown: Collegeville, Penn.
What led you to pursue becoming a doctor?
I think I have a little bit of a different story than some people. I did my undergrad in math, and then I was planning to do a PhD in biostatistics and do research. That's how I ended up in Minnesota.
I came here and started out in the biostats program and then about a year into it, I realized I missed connecting with people on a more individual level. So I ended up doing the masters and I began applying to medical school. I had sort of thought about medicine during college, but I didn't think it was quite what I wanted. And then it really took doing something different, doing biostats, to help me realize that medicine was a better fit for me.
You chose Family Medicine as your specialty. How come?
I think it comes back to the same questions I was thinking about when I was switching from biostatistics, which is that I really found that I valued connecting with people on an individual level, getting to know them and knowing them over time– forming those longer term relationships.
So when I came to medical school, I knew I was already leaning towards family medicine, and going through my rotations confirmed it. I’m looking forward to forming those longer-term relationships and getting to know people over time, caring for them throughout the different points of their lives and listening to their stories.
What are you looking forward to in your next three years at the Broadway Family Medicine Clinic?
I'm looking forward to getting through the first year and then looking back and seeing that I learned something and seeing how much progress I made as a learner and as a physician.
The faculty are also just really awesome. They're engaged with the community, they really value that commitment to the community, and they're fun people to work with, so I'm looking forward to working with them.
Rebekah Fiers, MD:
Hometown: Hastings, Minn.
What led you to pursue becoming a doctor?
I felt called to go to medical school because my mom is a family practice nurse practitioner, and I had a lot of opportunities during undergrad to work in public health and global health initiatives.
All of this just made me very passionate about preventative healthcare, and it led me to want to consider Family Medicine. I think that's always been one of my passions, too, to help provide preventative healthcare access to underserved populations.
You chose Family Medicine as your specialty. How come?
I started in Duluth for my first two years of medical school, which is very focused on family medicine. There, I did some environmental justice-related research, which looked at how physicians are involved in advocating for environmental regulation.
I also did the Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) in Willmar during my third year, and getting to really connect with a rural community and kind of live the life of a family doctor for nine months was really cool.
In Family Medicine, you also get to take care of patients from birth until death. It's the whole spectrum of life. And just getting to know your patients and really having that strong relationship with them, I think, was something that really drew me to it.
What are you looking forward to in your next three years at the Broadway Family Medicine Clinic?
I'm looking forward to working with the really amazing faculty there who are doing all different kinds of work in the community and with advocacy, which is just so inspiring. And I think that it'll just be a really great opportunity to learn a lot about different people and be able to serve their communities.