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Web extra: From birth to death
Katherine “Toni” Clark, D.O. (’88)

By Anita Martin
Photo by John Sattler

Before enrolling at OU-COM, Katherine “Toni” Clark, D.O. (’88), was a social worker at Community Mental Health in Athens (now Tri-County Mental Health Services). At the time, she had several physician friends who inspired her to take patient advocacy to the next level.

“I think family practice resonates naturally with the reason most people go into medicine. Most doctors enjoy people and want to help people, rather than be procedure-based technicians,” she says.

Clark believes that dubious policy-making has driven down compensation for primary care, discouraging many young physicians from pursuing the field. “We’re paid for procedure rather than quality, and that can get frustrating.”

Despite the national decline in medical students choosing primary care fields, Clark believes the tide may be turning.

“In more than 20 years in family practice, I’ve seen the pendulum swing,” she says. “When I first graduated, everyone was competing like crazy (for family practice residency programs), then it plateaued for awhile, but the upswing may have begun.”

Clark, a clinical faculty member with the Wright State family medicine residency program, reports that the program has received more applications than in recent years, and the quality is better than ever, she says.

“I’m really an advocate for family practice,” Clark says. “I’m glad there are folks in other specialties, but the continuous, comprehensive care of individuals and their families, from birth to death: that’s the foundation. The variety, the pay-off, the opportunity to really take care of people and watch their families grow—there’s nothing like it.”

George Ceremuga, D.O. (’93)

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