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Becoming a Global Advocate for Healthcare Dr. Erin Kirkegaard (Class of 2015) doesn’t just talk about fixing healthcare and gaps in coverage on a global scale – she’s actively working towards it. This year alone, she traveled to Rwanda as a volunteer physician and to Washington, DC as an advocate for creating more residency positions in U.S. teaching hospitals. Passion for Primary Care Currently, Dr. Kirkegaard is an Internal Medicine Resident at Providence Sacred Heart in Spokane, WA and teaches Internal Medicine at the University of Washington School Of Medicine. She is also heavily involved in medical research, a practice that developed as an undergraduate and included projects at Stanford University, where she studied the interaction and replication of polio enzymes. Despite her love of research, she finds patient interaction most rewarding. “I’m not a big fan of sitting behind a lab bench all day, I like working with people,” said Dr. Kirkegaard. Working with Congress Earlier this year, Dr. Kirkegaard traveled with the American College of Physicians (ACP) to Washington, DC where she met with lawmakers to advocate for Medicare reimbursement changes, more residency positions, and medical education reforms. She argued that the current Medicare reimbursement system,
which compensates teaching hospitals for training residents and provides a fixed amount for services covered under the program, is unsustainable for doctors entering primary care positions. “Student loan debt is a huge problem and partly why there’s a shortage in primary care physicians,” said Dr. Kirkegaard, “so students elect higher paying specialties to avoid dealing with debt and the lack of funds from Medicare to cover expenses.” Complexities of Practicing in an Unfamiliar Culture Recently, Dr. Kirkegaard returned from a three week trip to Rwanda, where she assisted an intra-thoracic cardiac surgery team with peri-operative management of open-heart surgeries. In total, she participated in 16 procedures that replaced valves and repaired congenital heart defects that, if untreated, would lead to rheumatic heart disease. Her contribution was significant, as there were only four cardiologists available to the twenty million people in Rwanda. Many of the patients she saw had no access to antibiotics and had walked over two hours to get to the clinic. “Many people would have died just from strep throat,” said Dr. Kirkegaard. “The sequelae of strep throat eventually attack the heart valves if left untreated. It was an eye-opening experience.” One patient was hesitant to receive much needed heart surgery because her fertility was at risk. In Rwandan culture, women who cannot bear children become outcasts. “Our treatment options were limited due to the financial, sociocultural, and logistical confines of the Rwandan medical infrastructure,” said Dr. Kirkegaard. “It was clear, however, that this young girl’s failing heart, through no fault of her own, could not withstand a pregnancy and she would die without surgical intervention. Thankfully, she decided to have the surgery.” The Future Dr. Kirkegaard is currently applying for a Global and Rural Health Fellowship, which focuses on improving healthcare in underserved communities around the world. She advises students to study hard, ask questions, and be confident. “There’s a misconception that Caribbean medical school students aren’t qualified to become successful physicians,” said Dr. Kirkegaard. “I am dedicated to making positive change in the world and my outreach this year proves that. When your work speaks for itself, no one cares where you went to medical school.” Photo Credit: Rajah Bose, The Spokesman-Review