Letter: Some still choose family medicine

I just read the article on physician families in the November 25 issue of Medical Economics. (“When practicing medicine runs in the family,” November 25, 2014.) I am a family physician in a small community in Northern Wisconsin and have practiced here for the past 40-plus years. I did everything from delivering babies, newborn care to nursing home care.

Our two children, a son and daughter, saw the lifestyle and the time commitment needed, both as a member of a clinic group and as a solo practitioner. They spent time in the office, came to the emergency department, and came on rounds with me. Our son was committed to medicine from grade school on and went on to medical school, residency in family medicine and is in practice in Washington state.

Our daughter started college with plans to teach high school math. At the end of her freshman year she announced that she was changing her major to chemistry and biology and was going to medical school. She spent a year in graduate school in pharmacology and then on to medical school and a residency in family medicine. She now is in family medicine in Duluth, Minnesota.

Both love working with their patients but are frustrated with the regulation and the workings of the large healthcare systems. My wife and I put no pressure on them to go into medicine, or family practice. They obviously liked what they saw and made their own choices.

William E. Raduege, MD, ABFM 

 Woodruff, Wisconsin