What have you been doing (for work, for graduate/professional school, or otherwise) since you graduated from LSM? Are you working on anything outside of your current occupation?
After graduating from LSM in 2018 I spent my summer studying for the MCAT before starting work as a business analyst at McKinsey and Co. I spent two years in consulting working almost exclusively on healthcare related strategy and operations projects, serving clients such as academic medical centers, regional health care payors, biotech / pharmaceutical companies, healthcare device start-ups, and global health philanthropic organizations. I left McKinsey in the fall of 2020 to embark on my medical school journey, which I am halfway through now! I’m finishing my second year at the University of Michigan. Outside of school I continue to stay in touch with my “business” side by doing independent consulting for small biotech firms and also participating in our medical school’s pro-bono consulting club!
What is the most rewarding part of what you are doing currently?
I find myself really loving clinical medicine and patient interactions. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at McKinsey partially because I always knew I wanted to go to medical school and ultimately be a practicing physician, so I selectively chose healthcare projects in various sectors. I had the opportunity to work with some amazing healthcare providers which continues to color my perspective on improving the healthcare system on a really macroscopic scale. Now that I’m doing clinical rotations in medical school, however, I get to see and experience the rewards of impacting individualized patient-care specifically. It’s really incredible to be part of multi-disciplinary treatment teams to help someone who is sick enough to be in the hospital, ultimately recover health and go home to their families again.
Do you think LSM prepared you for life after college? What aspects were most helpful?
The two things I am most grateful I gained from the LSM program are 1) the network of people across the spectrum of life sciences industries and 2) time management skills. The people truly make the LSM program so incredibly special – not just the LSM-specific professors but my classmates (who all continue to amaze me!), the alumni, the administrators / counselors, and the advisory board. In a practical sense, being a dual degree student taught me a lot about managing my time to get work done in an efficient manner while still finding time to enjoy extracurricular activities.
Do you have future plans beyond your current role?
I’m still figuring out what type of residency programs I will apply to, but likely something with a surgical aspect to it! In addition to seeing patients, ideally, I will continue to carve out time to independently consult for small healthcare start ups or take on an administrative role at an academic medical center, maybe even work designing clinical trials / commercializing therapeutics at a major pharmaceutical company! Ultimately, I see myself bridging the individual and macroscopic components of healthcare.