Serena Suzanne Mitroo, MD

I chose to go into medicine as a teenager because I had family members who were ill. I thought it was a very noble profession to take care of somebody and help them when they're ill, hopefully heal them, but if not, at least comfort them. What I love about internal medicine is that it encompasses the whole patient. You care for patients from their youth throughout their whole life, so you see a lot of their health conditions. You care for the whole person for the whole lifetime. Several different things motivate me: when patients improve and because I could help them and positively change their course of their lives; figuring out what's wrong with somebody and helping heal them. The most gratifying part of medicine is having a long-time patient who refers their friends, who continues to see me, who feels that I give them good care and who knows I care about them and will do my best to take care of them.