Pub 5 2021 Issue 1

The COVID-19 pandemic provided interesting challenges for the interview process this Match season, but that challenging experience didn’t dampen enthusiasm for family medicine! When results from the National Resident Matching Program Main Residency Match were released on March 19, they showed that 4,493 applicants had matched into family medicine.

Congratulations to our Family Medicine Resident Graduates!

After a year of doing everything virtually, UAFP is looking forward to the possibility of in-person events (with proper precautions, of course) in the upcoming months. All of the following events are tentative and subject to change, based on the data and safety precautions recommended closer to the event. Please continue to check our website at utahafp.org and watch for announcements in the UAFP Weekly Beat emailed to members every Friday.

There is a good chance you have seen the names and faces of Dr. Dixie Harris and Dr. Jeanette Brown in the local news lately. That is due to the fact that these two outstanding physicians, who have both spent time at the front lines treating the most critically ill patients with COVID-19 over the past 15 months, and are also treating patients who continue to struggle with COVID-19; sometimes months after their initial symptoms began. This patient population, often referred to as “long haulers,” now have access to even more specialized care in Utah with the opening of the University of Utah Post-COVID Clinic and doctors and research scientists learning more and more everyday about how best to provide care.

In November 2020, the FDA granted emergency use authorization of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of COVID-19. Studies have shown that these medications, if infused within the first seven days of symptoms in high-risk patients, can lower one’s risk of hospitalization. Despite potential benefits to both patients and hospitals, uptake across the nation has been rather slow due to challenges and barriers to connecting patients to these potentially lifesaving drugs.

A friend of mine is a teacher at an elementary school in Murray, Utah. Prior to the pandemic, we would routinely get together to walk around a nearby park and chat. One time she relayed this story to me:

Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes more than 32,000 new cancer cases in the U.S. each year and most are preventable. Even though the HPV vaccine is an effective strategy in cancer prevention and has been available for more than 12 years, only 51% of adolescents have been vaccinated, far below the national target of 80% by 2020. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, that gap widened and caused more than 50% of adolescents in the U.S. to not receive HPV vaccinations. As grave as the gap is between the target rate and those who have received the vaccine, it is much worse in Utah which ranks 44th of 50 states for HPV vaccination completion among 13-17-year-olds.

This year’s session was very different from previous years. With COVID still in full swing and very few people vaccinated, the legislature opted for a hybrid version of the session. Committees that were typically held in small rooms were moved to larger spaces, all committees were given video access (most previously were audio only), and participants were encouraged to participate remotely. Because of the larger spaces, people were allowed to attend committees. Masks were required at all times, and chairs were spaced far apart.

I grew up in Holladay, Utah, with my parents, Wendy and Jamie, and my younger brother, Alex. Even before we could walk, my parents worked hard to instill a love of the outdoors in us. We went camping every weekend, backpacking, skiing, or biking. It was a running joke among my parents’ friends that no matter where they camped on Friday night, they would wake up to Wendy and Jamie there in the morning. It was a ton of work on their part, whether it was packing up after a long day at work or four-year-old me giggling in the bike trailer as I shrieked at dad, “faster, faster!” as he peddled up a steep hill. My parents’ hard work paid off, though, and I developed a deep love of the wild places around us. After undergrad, I even took off on a backpacking trip across the country, where I covered 1,200 miles of trail in 26 different parks over six months. There were so many memorable trips — solo horse packing through Yellowstone, picking wine barrels in Napa, deciding I could travel faster cross country, and being terribly wrong — it’s hard to pick a favorite, but that’s part of the fun.

I was born in Provo, UT, and moved around a few small Utah towns growing up but call Beaver, UT home. I graduated from Beaver High School, went to Southern Utah University (SUU) for undergraduate study and the University of Utah afterward for medical school. I got married while an undergrad at SUU. My wife is a Beaver, UT native — born and raised. She grew up on a farm and, as I have, has missed the country lifestyle, and we can’t wait to get back after residency. We graduated in the same high school class and started dating after we both started at SUU. She earned her bachelor’s in accounting and currently works for an accounting firm in Lehi. We have two children — Dax (five) and Zoey (one). We have a great deal of outdoor hobbies and take the children nearly everywhere with us … sometimes, we get some funny looks with our six-month-old on Timpanogos summit, or backcountry skiing with our 8-month-old, or biking with them in packs on our back, etc.