Resident Award Winner Has Passion for Rural Health

“To get any kind of specialty care, you’re driving at least 45 minutes,” said Kelly Dougherty, M.D., who was one of five graduates in her local high school’s class of 2014. “If you need something even more specialized, you’re probably driving an hour and a half to two hours.”

Thus, Dougherty, a third-year resident at the Mercy-St. Louis Family Medicine Residency (on the opposite side of the state), recently spent a day off driving her grandmother 90 minutes to an appointment with an otorhinolaryngologist.

Though she currently lives in one of her state’s largest cities, Dougherty is determined to improve care and access for patients in Missouri’s small towns and rural areas. She spent a month in Washington, D.C., earlier this year as a visiting scholar with the Robert Graham Center and the Center for Professionalism and Value in Health Care.

Dougherty is continuing to work on related research, including a project related to contraception and another focused on access to family medicine and general surgery in rural settings. She’ll present posters with her findings this month during the NAPCRG’s annual meeting in Quebec City.

“My month in D.C. really showed me the impact family physicians can have on health policy, in particular rural policy,” she said. “It really changed what I thought my career would look like. I’ve always been passionate about patient care, and I knew that advocacy was important; I’ve gotten involved with that through my state chapter. But I didn’t realize how important the research is to illustrate the acute need for care in rural areas.”

Dougherty, who has served as the student and resident member of the Missouri AFP Board of Directors, already experienced a win on the state advocacy level. She successfully advocated for a bill that provides community preceptors with a $1,000 tax credit for each completed rotation, up to $3,000 per year.

“Hearing the impact my preceptors and teachers had on me as a student was really important for the legislators because tax credits are not always popular in bipartisan efforts,” she said. “I think my voice advocating for family medicine preceptors, and getting students experience in the community setting away from the academic centers, is something I’m really proud of because we know students are more likely to work in rural communities if they have rotated in them.”

Dougherty has served the AAFP as a student member of the Commission on Membership and Member Services and is currently the resident trustee for the AAFP Foundation Board of Trustees.     

“I think there’s no better way to continue to push our specialty forward than to give your time, energy and ideas, so it really makes me feel like I’m contributing to the specialty by volunteering in these leadership roles,” she said. “On a personal level, the connections are incredible. I’ve met so many people who have helped me advance my career and understand how I can be a better leader and a better person. In addition, I’ve had so many amazing conversations and made so many friendships. I can’t recommend being involved in state chapters and the Academy enough.”

Dougherty found an important mentor in the AAFP Foundation’s Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute, a year-long program for students and residents in which scholars develop and complete a project with guidance from a family medicine mentor. The ELI program paired Dougherty with former Missouri AFP president Marla Tobin, M.D., FAAFP, for a project that included surveying Missouri family medicine residents about their intentions to deliver babies (or not) after residency. The goal is to better understand why Missouri family docs aren’t doing more vaginal deliveries.

“We need to know what the issues are and what we can advocate for on the state level to increase the likelihood that family medicine residents will deliver babies when they’re attendings,” she said. “If we know there’s a problem, we can start to identify ways that we could correct it, and the state can change funding to get resources to improve residencies or fellowships for family physicians who want to deliver babies.”

Tobin is a family medicine trailblazer who was the first woman to serve as student and resident chair of the AAFP’s National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students (now FUTURE) and the first convener of what is now the National Conference of Constituency Leaders.

“I could not have asked for a more perfect mentor,” Dougherty said. “She’s so well connected in rural Missouri. She’s done so much for family medicine over the years, advocating for rural patients and for women in the specialty. I feel so lucky to have learned from her. And she is still checking in on me, trying to connect me and making sure I get a job.”

Dougherty, who will graduate in the spring, has not yet finalized her post-residency employment. She said she plans to pursue a master’s degree, likely in public health, while practicing to inform her efforts related to rural health research and policy. She’s continuing work related to her ELI project, now with help from Mercy program director Sarah Cole, D.O., FAAFP.

“Dr. Cole is an incredibly patient and intentional teacher,” Dougherty said. “Getting to see her model that has been incredible. She has supported me and is allowing me to share my ideas and hopefully make a difference in maternity care in the state of Missouri. She’s a powerhouse in family medicine, and I feel lucky to get to learn from her. I hope to lead with intention the way she does in the future.”

Dougherty was one of 12 residents recognized in September at the Family Medicine Experience in Phoenix with the Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education. Winners received a $2,500 scholarship, hotel accommodations, airfare and registration for FMX.

“My number one takeaway was the energy and just getting to connect with so many amazing family docs,” she said. “I plan to get my obesity medicine certification, so I did a lot of obesity medicine CME courses. I was really excited about those offerings at FMX. I feel like I learned a lot, and I’m already making practice changes because of the education that I got at FMX.”