Alumni Spotlight
David Leslie, DO
GRADUATED FROM MGL FM RESIDENCY IN 2017
How is life as an attending?
● Life as an attending is very rewarding. It is great to be able to take all of the things that you learn during your time in residency/fellowship and apply them into your own clinical practice.
Tell us about your practice!
● I am currently work with the Ochsner Sports Medicine Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana. There are four orthopedic surgeons and three primary care sports medicine specialists in my group. My practice is primarily sports medicine and non-operative orthopedics. I am a concussion specialist and much of my practice consists of osteopathic manipulation, diagnostic ultrasound procedures, and ultrasound-guided injections. I am a primary care provider for many of the local high school and collegiate athletes.
What do you do for fun?
● - For fun, I would like to spend time with my wife and daughter, Caroline. We are exploring our new city and we are enjoying all of the food and local events that New Orleans has to offer. We very much like to travel during our time away from the office and on our weekends off.
What advice do you have for FM residents or medical students?
● It is important to enjoy and learn from all of the things that residency he has to offer. This including the support from your attendings and hospital/clinic staff, didactic/lecture sessions, and your ability to rotate with different sub-specialists. Although this time can be very stressful, it is important to soak up all the information and experience that you can as these 3 years go by very quickly and he will be able to get them back. Lastly, remember that correction does not equal criticism and learn from all your experiences both good and bad.
Spencer Tingey, DO
GRADUATED FROM MGL FM RESIDENCY IN 2017
How is life as an attending?
● Life as an attending is great. It still is a bizarre feeling to be in charge of myself and having other attendings ask my opinion on things, but I'm slowly getting used to it.
Tell us about your practice!
● My practice is with a group of primary care physicians as part of the University of Utah Health system. I am in a suburban area in an office with 4 other FPs, 3 IM/peds doctors, and 2 pediatricians. I am the only sports medicine specialist in the office and often see referrals from the others in the office, those patients make up about 1/4 of my patient load. I am seeing an average of 16-20 patients per day, which is not a bad pace.
What do you do for fun?
● For fun I take my wife and kids into the mountains as much as possible. We live in northern Utah and have a lot of outdoor options. We have been hiking and camping in southern Utah and skiing at a couple resorts near Salt Lake City. Whatever we can do to get outside.
What advice do you have for FM residents or medical students?
● My advice for residents and med students is to pay attention to those around you with more experience and learn as much as you can from them. Before you know it others will be looking to you for advice. Also, use evidence-based guidelines when making your assessments and plans, this will make your life much easier when trying to decide how to treat a patient. As hard as school and residency are, it's a time that you will never be able to replicate so try and savor the whole experience, the good and the bad.
Kevin Valvano, DO
GRADUATED FROM MGL FM RESIDENCY IN 2016
How is life as an attending?
● Life is great! It's nice to finally have consistent hours and a sense of independence. The best part is that you can begin to tailor your practice to make it specific to what you're interested in treating.
Tell us about your practice!
● I'm currently working for WellSpan Health in York, PA as part of a primary care sports medicine practice. As part of this practice, I work in the Orthopedic Urgent Care two days per week and in the Sports Medicine clinic two days per week. I manage a mixture of acute injuries (sprains/strains, fractures, concussions, etc) and chronic ailments (arthritis, gout, etc). In our office, we have x-ray and musculoskeletal ultrasound, which are both used on a daily basis. Lastly, I have not forgotten my roots and continue to utilize OMT as a part of my practice.
What do you do for fun?
● This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but I continue to participate in recreational sports. We have many local venues nearby that offer adult leagues in all the major sports. Additionally, WellSpan Health sponsors other recreational events throughout the year.
What advice do you have for FM residents or medical students?
● As Confucius said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." I know this sounds extremely cliche, but I use it to make this point: Medical students and FM residents often don't realize how many little niches there are in medicine. It really should be virtually impossible to not find a field you love. Now, it may take lots of searching and networking, but I guarantee there is something out there that will meet your passion. That's the benefit of FM; you can tailor your practice to fit whatever scope of medicine you'd like. In just my few years of residency, I saw graduates starting to build practices specializing in acupuncture, alternative medicine, geriatrics, manipulative medicine, obstetrics, pain management, sports medicine, and the list goes on. Overall, my advice is to figure out what you're passionate about and to make a career of it; no matter how small or specialized that field may seem to be.
Pearce Dupuis, DO
GRADUATED FROM MGL FM RESIDENCY IN 2016
How is life as an attending?
● Life is great! It's nice to finally have consistent hours and a sense of independence. The best part is that you can begin to tailor your practice to make it specific to what you're interested in treating.
Tell us about your practice!
● I'm currently working for WellSpan Health in York, PA as part of a primary care sports medicine practice. As part of this practice, I work in the Orthopedic Urgent Care two days per week and in the Sports Medicine clinic two days per week. I manage a mixture of acute injuries (sprains/strains, fractures, concussions, etc) and chronic ailments (arthritis, gout, etc). In our office, we have x-ray and musculoskeletal ultrasound, which are both used on a daily basis. Lastly, I have not forgotten my roots and continue to utilize OMT as a part of my practice.
What do you do for fun?
● This comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me, but I continue to participate in recreational sports. We have many local venues nearby that offer adult leagues in all the major sports. Additionally, WellSpan Health sponsors other recreational events throughout the year.
What advice do you have for FM residents or medical students?
● As Confucius said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." I know this sounds extremely cliche, but I use it to make this point: Medical students and FM residents often don't realize how many little niches there are in medicine. It really should be virtually impossible to not find a field you love. Now, it may take lots of searching and networking, but I guarantee there is something out there that will meet your passion. That's the benefit of FM; you can tailor your practice to fit whatever scope of medicine you'd like. In just my few years of residency, I saw graduates starting to build practices specializing in acupuncture, alternative medicine, geriatrics, manipulative medicine, obstetrics, pain management, sports medicine, and the list goes on. Overall, my advice is to figure out what you're passionate about and to make a career of it; no matter how small or specialized that field may seem to be.
Matt Zimmerman, DO
GRADUATED FROM MGL FM RESIDENCY IN 2014
How is life as an attending?
● Different from residency, but overall great. Nobody is in training, so it’s very different from residency. I have a full practice, and everything is going really well. I sometimes miss sharing cases and bouncing ideas off others. There are other providers but they are not always accessible since they work on opposite days or are busy with their own patients 50-60 feet away.
Tell us about your practice!
● Missouri Baptist Sullivan hospital is around 40 minutes from St Louis. We basically have a multispecialty clinic that includes OBGYN, Pediatrics, FM, 2 Family Medicine nurse practitioners, 2 Internal Medicine docs. Missouri Baptist Sullivan is a critical access hospital with 25 beds; we have wound care as well. The hospital is part of the Barnes Jewish Christian Hospital system.
What do you do for fun?
● FM has more time off for the most part, which is nice. Woodworking and spending time with family.
What advice do you have for FM residents or medical students?
● I’ve felt this way since residency, that the great thing about Family Medicine is that you can do all parts of medicine, if something interests you, you can do it. My advice is to keep reading because it gets really hard to do once you have your own practice. I still struggle with it now. I still think Family Medicine is the coolest thing for the flexibility it gives you.