By Patrick Wascovich

Drs. Kate Baron and Naga Sai Venkata Madhavapeddi both want to effectively assist the medically underserved, but are likely to approach their careers from entirely different angles.

Dr. Baron can see herself working at or directing a Federally Qualified Health Center while also partaking in policy and advocacy work. Dr. Madhavapeddi is planning to leverage his extensive background in information technology to improve health care delivery and patient experience, and to eventually run a sports-oriented clinic.

Their passion for service has made Drs. Baron and Madhavapeddi co-recipients of the 2016 William F. Ross, M.D., Scholarship Award in Family Medicine. Caring for others, especially those in dire need, have become lifelong ambitions.

The Ross Award, named after the Chair of Family and Community Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center from 1984 to 1993, includes a $1,000 scholarship from the Dallas chapter of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation.

Dr. Kate Baron

Dr. Kate Baron

Dr. Baron says the continuity of care offered to patients through family medicine has inspired and validated her focus on the specialty.

“Family medicine provides a framework that is efficient and effective, but it is also gratifying on many levels,” Dr. Baron said. “By understanding the context of a patient beyond their discrete medical conditions, family doctors can prevent disease by educating their patients and developing long-term solutions. By this, we can change lives in a way that is more affordable, realistic, and compassionate.”

Dr. Baron, whose parents own the Blue Mesa Grill and TNT restaurants in and around Dallas, graduated from Greenhill School before attending UT Austin. A double major (psychology and government), she graduated magna cum laude in 2008 with university honors. Other recognitions received while at UT Austin included Distinguished College Scholar, College Scholar, and induction into the Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society. She then went to Columbia University to complete her medical school prerequisites through the institution’s Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program.

At UT Southwestern Medical School, Dr. Baron was further stimulated by the dedication shown by faculty members like Dr. Tamara McGregor, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, and of Internal Medicine.

“Dr. McGregor is an incredibly inspiring physician who has dedicated her life and career to her patients, and her genuine care for them shows in everything she does on a daily basis,” Dr. Baron said.

For her part, Dr. McGregor said students like Dr. Baron energized each academic setting while helping to enrich the delivery of health care.

“I had the extreme pleasure to work with Kate not only in her family medicine rotation but also during her elective rotation with me on a special topics in family medicine-palliative care this past fall,” Dr. McGregor said. “I feel that she will be an exceptional physician and a blessing to her life-long future filled with grateful patients.

“Kate is an exceptional listener – intuitive and caring – and showed great compassion for the patients we cared for as well as for their families. She has great assessment and exam skills, but also shows a deep insight into the care needs (spoken and unspoken) of our complex patients and goes the extra mile to assure their needs are met. She worked on a teaching module regarding end-of-life decision making and she consistently exhibited a strong interest in every case we saw and discussed.”

In March, Dr. Baron matched to the Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai Beth Israel residency in urban family medicine in New York City, a program that is committed to providing comprehensive, coordinated, and culturally-competent care to underserved individuals in the community.

“I plan to focus my studies on the urban underserved,” Dr. Baron said. “I am interested in social justice, community outreach, and women’s health. I believe that primary care is the answer to many of our nation’s health care problems, and I would like to be at the forefront of spreading awareness in these issues.”

Dr. Sai Madhavapeddi

Dr. Sai Madhavapeddi

A career in medicine never crossed Dr. Madhavapeddi’s mind while he was growing up in India. He stayed busy studying and playing cricket.

After completing his undergraduate computer science and engineering degree in India, Dr. Madhavapeddi moved to the United States and earned a master’s degree in computer science at Clemson University. A few years of work in the Dallas area as a software engineer, however, made him realize that he wanted a career that would allow him to have a more direct and positive influence on the lives of others and did not limit his professional career to a 6x6 cubicle.

“A freak accident while playing cricket, a game I love, introduced me to medicine in the United States,” Dr. Madhavapeddi said. “It was during the time I was recovering from my surgery that I made up my mind to become a physician.”

From 2009 to 2012, he completed pre-med course work at UT Dallas and Collin County Community College before successfully applying for enrollment at UT Southwestern Medical School.

“Medical school has given me plenty of opportunities to explore the various aspects of medicine,” Dr. Madhavapeddi said. “As I rotated through different clerkships during my third year, one thought repeatedly crossed my mind: I would like to help and care for every patient I come across, be they young, middle-aged, old, male or female, irrespective of their economic status.

“I noticed how the main reason that brought most patients to the hospitals was not an exotic illness, but a basic problem that could have been identified and fixed early in its course with proper screening, education, awareness, and prophylaxis. Taking care of these problems early can be a win-win for patients and health care providers, and who better to provide this care than a family physician.”

A valued mentor through the years has been Dr. Dan Sepdham, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine.

“I have known Sai since he was a first-year student,” Dr. Sepdham said. “He truly understands what family medicine is about. I have no doubt he is going to do wonderful things for the community in which he practices.”

Dr. Madhavapeddi said he always received the support he needed.

“Dr. Sepdham has been a source of support and encouragement throughout medical school,” he said. “He was my small group mentor and though he is a family physician, at no point did he force me to consider his area of specialization. He was always available to discuss anything that was going on, be it in my academic or personal life. As I went through the clinical years of medical school and was considering different areas of specialization, he would reach out to faculty in those areas to help set up shadowing opportunities for me.”

Dr. Madhavapeddi also singled out Carol Wortham from the Graduate Medical Education Office as another source of support. “Medical school can be challenging, and people like Dr. Sepdham and Ms. Wortham were instrumental in helping me get through it. I will always reflect back on my time at UT Southwestern fondly. The four years of medical school were both challenging and rewarding. UT Southwestern is a world-class institution and provides students with abundant resources to help them reach their personal and career goals.”