July 29, 2019 08:39 am David Mitchell – Anna Askari, M.D., M.S.B.S., volunteered at a free clinic during her freshman year at Ohio State University in Columbus. When the clinic's medical director noticed that she was becoming a regular, that physician invited the student to shadow her.
Askari couldn't help but notice that this particular physician seemed capable of doing it all.
"She knew how to help anyone who walked through the doors of the clinic," Askari said. "She never had to tell anyone no. I asked, 'What kind of doctor are you?'"
Of course, that physician, OSU associate clinical professor Riza Tady Conroy, M.D., is a family doctor.
Askari continued volunteering at that clinic throughout college and medical school. She also volunteered at another free clinic for a year while she was pursuing her master's degree at the University of Toledo. She noticed that the primary care physicians she interacted with there, like Conroy, rarely needed a subspecialist's help.
"The attendings were usually family physicians, and they could see anyone because of their broad training and experience," she said. "It kept reaffirming that family medicine was right for me. You are able to provide compassionate, comprehensive and coordinated care in a range of practice settings as diverse as the specialty's patient population itself."
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