News : Dr. Song speaks to the local Kiwanis Club

Dr. Kyle Song recently spoke to the Vinton Kiwanis Club about his experience and how he got into the medical field. Born and raised in New York, and with his parents are still living there Dr. Song and his family have now settled in Iowa.

After attending college at Virginia Tech, Song's first choice was to attend the Animal Science program and specialize in poultry. He shared that coming from New York City there was a bit of adjustment to seeing cows and a lot of cornfields. Because he needed a way to pay for college, he decided to enlist in the National Guard. The plan was that he'd be able to spend the weekends at drill and use the money from that to cover college. Upon learning that the National Guard hadn't been deployed since World War II it seemed like a good plan.

Then about two months later, 9/11 happened. Song was then deployed for a year in Afghanistan as a medic. Rather than treating chickens like he had originally planned, he found that he enjoyed human medicine much more. Following his service, he returned home and switched careers, and began medical school. So while he didn't expect to be deployed he describe his tour in Afghanistan as a blessing in disguise.

Spending time in the Washington D.C. area with his wife's family, he said, "The traffic was crazy, the system was crazy," and it was not at all what he thought medicine should be. In a large city, he said that practicing medicine became more about production, making money, and cranking patients through as quickly as possible.

He'd seen how medicine in a rural setting put the care of patients first, and it was more about the patients and he wasn't seeing that in the large city. Then life changed again. The extended family prepared to leave the area so the couple saw this as an opportunity to switch gears.

They decided to come to Iowa. Those in their circle asked, "Where's that?" The couple made their plans to relocate here. Upon meeting Dr. Meeker, he saw in him what family medicine is, he said. "Taking care of what you can, go above and beyond for your patients and that is not there in the bigger city areas," Song said. Dr. Song wants to be able to take care of everything for patients, whatever their needs are. He feels like the culture of what family medicine is has been lost.

He shared a little about the adjustments his wife and kids have made, and the little surprises they've discovered in small-town Iowa. The ability to find the same kinds of foods here as in New York that the family was used to, only cheaper. Traveling to Iowa City was about how long it took to get just down the road where they used to live near D.C.

Dr. Song took some questions from those in attendance. He was asked what he thought we had learned about COVID and what did he see for the future and discussed what he'd seen and thoughts for the future of the virus.

He also discussed the importance of keeping Virginia Gay local and independent for residents to receive treatment saying that hospitals like ours are few and far between and that rural hospitals are the backbone of the community. He also made the case for local pharmacies and their benefits to patients.

If you see Dr. Song and his family out in the community, be sure to give them a warm welcome to our little corner of the world!