Primary care physicians — family medicine practitioners, pediatricians, internists, obstetricians, gynecologists and more — are at the core of the health care system, providing essential preventative care and fostering long-term patient relationships. Yet, despite their critical role, the Association of American Medical Colleges projects a deficit of up to 40,400 primary care physicians by 2036.
Aligned with the school’s strategic aim to train physicians to lead the future of health, Dell Medical School is stepping up to meet this challenge by cultivating the next generation of primary care leaders: Currently, 37.5% of Dell Med trainees are pursuing specialties in primary care across four of its 48 graduate medical education programs.
At the forefront is Robin Reister, M.D., the program director for the internal medicine residency program’s primary care track. Reister is dedicated to inspiring aspiring physicians to embrace primary care, emphasizing the importance of building enduring patient relationships and advocating for comprehensive health solutions.
Q&A With Reister
What is it about primary care that lay readers need to know in order to understand your approach to medicine?
Internal medicine focuses on adult medicine both in hospital and clinic settings and ranges from general medicine to specialty care. Primary care internists are often referred to as the “detectives” of medicine, piecing together clues from our patients’ histories and objective data, and following them over time to solve the case.
In addition to diagnostics and management, primary care providers are also coordinators of care, sometimes getting into the nitty gritty of things like scheduling appointments, helping organize transportation or going through a bag full of pill bottles — this is what I mean by advocacy on an individual level. We are the doctors who will not give up on our patients getting the care that they need.
Primary care internal medicine is a noble, rewarding and endlessly interesting specialty, with a great need and opportunity to make positive impacts on our patients’ lives as well as the larger health care landscape. I hope that if a student is reading this — especially one who is interested in long-term patient relationships, the art and science of medicine, and advocacy — they consider primary care internal medicine as a career.
It can be challenging navigating the health care landscape, and there is a growing shortage of primary care physicians in our country. This underscores the importance of training programs with a mission to train primary care doctors, like our program here at Dell Med.
How did your personal experiences pull you to primary care?
From a young age, I wanted to help those in need and try to make the world a better place. I think that came from a combination of places — my family, the Jewish concept of mitzvah and my love for Star Trek. I realized in medical school that primary care was the specialty with the greatest need for physicians and one where I could make the greatest impact. I trained within a primary care track for residency and was exposed to many different sides of medicine — medically complicated patients who required detective-like skills to devise their care plan, socially complex challenges in South Bronx, global medicine and advocacy on individual and system-wide levels.
During my residency training, I had several mentors who were able to take simple medical cases and dive deep into the science behind clinical decision-making, the evidence that guides our care and the mountains of questions that we still don’t have answers to. I love being able to empower residents to tackle clinical challenges and show them how exciting it can be.
In primary care, we often work with underserved populations, or groups of people who have faced some kind of discrimination throughout their lives. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I understand what it is like to face personal challenges and adversity. This has served me in many ways throughout my career by allowing me to relate to patients in need of empathetic care and residents who are struggling and in need of help and support. It’s also driven me to advocacy work on behalf of populations who need allies.
Currently, my leading areas of interest are LGBTQ+ health, forensic medical exams, health policy and primary care medical education. I’m lucky enough to help excite residents about primary care and all that it entails, which really feels like the best thing I can do. Teaching is truly is the best part of my job.
Is there a specific memory or anecdote that has shaped your approach to primary care?
In medical school, I saw a man speak at a conference about his journey to receiving asylum in the U.S. He grew up in Jamaica, and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, he was taunted, beat up and had rocks thrown at him. He had a harrowing journey escaping torture, and thanks to a physician who was able to document that his scars and mental trauma were consistent with his story, he was now safe from harm with a path to U.S. citizenship.
I was blown away that a physician could help someone in this way, using her expertise to save someone from having to return to a place where they would face torture and/or death. Since that time, I have been committed to using my position as a physician to help people in need, both in and out of the exam room. I have now trained dozens of physicians and learners to do these lifesaving forensic medical evaluations, and our training program here at Dell Med continues to grow.
Graduate medical education, or GME, refers to the period of education in a particular specialty or subspecialty following completion of medical school. This continuation of training through residency and fellowship programs provides the clinical and educational experience needed for physicians to achieve autonomy, deliver high-quality patient care, and prepare for challenges in an evolving health care landscape.
Dell Med, in partnership with Ascension Seton, is home to 480 resident and fellow physicians and sponsors more than 40 residency and fellowship programs ranging from family medicine and neurology to pediatric emergency medicine and cardiovascular disease.