Downing Scholarship Recipients Share Experiences in Urban Health Primary Care

Don’t be fooled by his gentle demeanor: William Downing is unstoppable.

While running his own business under the steam of a Harvard M.B.A., he volunteered and supported Northeast Ohio organizations that helped people who lacked access to good health care. He wanted to give more, so he came to NEOMED to become a primary care physician.

Downing was looking for a family medicine track that focused on urban health. And he found his people: classmates who shared his commitment to helping the underserved in urban areas.  

Though his own graduation took four years longer than expected, due to a family illness, on Saturday, May 7, Bill Downing will graduate as Dr. Downing at the top of his class: Gonfalonian of the College of Medicine Class of 2022.

On a recent Wednesday night, Downing sat at one end of a dinner table at Fairlawn Country Club, where he had convened four past and current recipients of his own Downing Scholarship for Urban Health.

At his right was Anna Cherian, a fourth-year medicine student who received the good news that she was this year’s recipient at around the same time she found out that she had matched into a four-year residency program in medical education and pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Hearing from their peers

Over dinner, Cherian and Downing asked two of the first scholarship recipients, Anna McLaughlin, M.D. (’18) and Sara Brown (’18) – two of Downing’s original classmates – what it was like going through their residencies and then moving into practice.

They remembered, as residents eager to help, drawing up a plan for various kinds of assistance with practical matters like how patients could more easily pick up their medicine. “One of the women on the advisory council looked at our plans and just started crossing things out, saying, ‘That pharmacy isn’t open any more, this bus doesn’t go there.’ We had brought them something we thought they needed, but they told us what they needed,” said Brown. Lesson learned: Ask first.

Seated next to Dr. Brown was Dr. Deni Drenic (’21), last year’s Downing scholarship recipient, now finishing his first year as a resident in internal medicine at MetroHealth in Cleveland. Since there had been no Downing scholarship dinner last year, due to COVID-19, Dr. Drenic was catching up on the chance to trade stories and experiences – like when he helped a Kenyan family at MetroHealth who spoke little English to navigate (in all senses) the process. What might have been a 30-minute visit for someone else took two hours, helped by Dr. Drenic, who sized up their situation and personally walked them through the hospital.

An empathic healer

Dr. Drenic’s family fled Bosnia as refugees, coming to Cleveland when Deni was just five. He picked up English quickly but saw that it wasn’t as easy for his parents (who found jobs as factory workers) or older siblings. Today, working in an urban setting in Cleveland, “The people we see are not medically adept. They have financial needs, they have many health concerns and they don’t go to doctors. They have been left behind in society. I put myself in their shoes,” he said.

Dr. Drenic lit up when the subject of motivational interviewing training at NEOMED came up. “It was really beneficial. It’s ideal to pose questions that will help patients pick their own brains and figure out for themselves what path is best,” he said. The challenge: “It’s nearly impossible to do that in a 15- or 30- minute visit.”

Things happen quickly in hospitals, agreed Dr. McLaughlin. A physician doesn’t have much time to establish rapport with a new patient, and yet patients must quickly confide personal medical information that has deeply affected their lives. “I feel privileged to hear it,” she said, speaking with emotion.

Beyond residency

On the cusp of their residencies, Cherian and Downing also wondered aloud what the step following residency  will be like. Dr. Brown, who in January joined Lake County Family Practice, said with a smile, “It’s so easy to tell someone what to do with a baby before you have one yourself.” She has a new appreciation now that she has her own eight-month-old daughter. Darren Smucker, M.D., the third Downing scholarship recipient in 2018, might agree; he wasn’t able to attend the dinner because of a babysitter issue.

The three residency veterans agreed that it’s great to get out and start seeing patients. And they reassured the two getting ready to begin their residency intern year, it’s good to know that after all that time in school, you really do have something to offer.

From left are Anna McLaughlin, Deni Drenic, Bill Downing, Anna Cherian and Sara Brown.