Students’ Lounge
A monthly feature written by the students of U of L Medical School
30
A Tale of Three Cities
Ben Rogers
I
spent my summers working on our
family farm in Auburn, Kentucky. At
night my brothers and I slept with the
windows open and I could smell the freshly
cut grass, ready to be bailed or rolled, on the
breeze. To this day as I drive the winding
road that leads up to my parents’ house I
roll my windows down and breath in the
memories. My brothers and I lounge and
talk now more often than we work, our conversations often extending late into the night. It wasn’t long ago that on one of these
evenings my younger brother, who graduates from Optometry
school this year, although he heavily considered medical school,
asked me if I thought he would have excelled had he joined me.
I answered without hesitation, “Of course. Anyone willing to
work hard can do well.”
I was sitting in my advisor’s office in Louisville, describing my
growing interest in “big data” and the way it relates to preventing
disease and cost effectiveness when he surprised me, “I’ve heard
a lot of people talk about their future careers this year. I can
honestly say you’re the first who’s come to my office describing
a set of interests like this.” It seemed unnatural that the diverse
group of people coming through his office would not share my
fascinations, but his comments have only been validated as I
traveled the country interviewing for residency positions. I’ve
met some unbelievably bright individuals, however they mention
molecular pathways and genomics far more often than reducing
Emergency Room visits or evolving payment models.
I finished my M.S. in Physiology early enough that I had a few
months available before I started Medical School. I elected to
work in a cardiovascular research facility. My studies, work there
and first few years of curriculum fostered a fascination with the
heart such that by the time I started speaking to interviewers I
had become confident that I wanted to do Cardiology. By the
time I got to Gotham, though, I was so accustomed to interviewers asking me whether I was going to pursue Cardiology or do
General Medicine and focus on data and cost that I had started
to preempt this by mentioning that I had accepted p