August Spotlight Special: Where Are They Now? Tyler Herzog, MD
This August, we're starting a new series as a part of our monthly spotlights: Where Are They Now? This series will feature former pre-health students who worked with the PHSRC and have gone on to become practicing health professionals.
Our August spotlight is Tyler Herzog, MD. Dr. Herzog graduated from the College of Biological Sciences, 2013 with a BS in Biochemistry and a Minor in Spanish, and is now a Fellow Physician in the Center for Sleep Medicine at Mayo Clinic.
Tell us why you wanted to be a physician! Are there key moments or stories that come to mind when you think about your motivation to pursue medicine?
I was always interested in science and biology growing up. I loved to be outside and learn about plants and animals. I became interested in a health career from a young age after some of my relatives were diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetic condition which affects the lungs and many other organs. At the University of Minnesota, I chose biochemistry as my major because I was interested in how plants and animals function and thought it could work well for a career in either basic science research or healthcare.
I looked at many career paths in college before deciding to pursue a career in healthcare as a physician. After working in a lab for a few semesters, I found that basic science bench work was not for me. Through volunteering in the Children's Hospital, shadowing physicians, and completing a clinical research project with a physician, I found that I enjoyed working with patients and could see myself enjoying the work of a physician.
I came to the decision a little later in undergraduate to pursue a career as a physician and ultimately ended up taking a gap year after graduating to work in clinical research while applying to medical school.
Where are you currently practicing, and how are you finding your work?
I am currently working as a physician completing a fellowship in Sleep Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. I completed medical school followed by three years of internal medicine residency and three years of pulmonary and critical care fellowship before starting my one-year Sleep Medicine fellowship this July. I never anticipated my current Sleep Medicine fellowship, but found during my Pulmonary and Critical Care fellowship that I gravitated toward the patients I saw in Sleep Medicine and the opportunities for my career that it afforded me.
My work is very rewarding. The training has been long (over a decade after undergraduate) and there have been times with late nights, long hours, and stressful situations, but I find my work fulfilling and enjoy the teams that I work with.
Are there aspects of your career that you wish more pre-health students knew about? Positive or negative?
Being a physician can be very rewarding, and diagnosing and treating patients appropriately with a good outcome can be extremely gratifying. However, it can also be emotionally draining and difficult and it is easy to get burned out throughout the process of becoming and practicing as a physician. Try to guard against this by building and maintaining relationships (with your family and friends, both in and out of health care), pursuing hobbies and other interests outside of medicine, and remembering to enjoy the day-to-day, not just focus on getting to the MD or the next big milestone.
Many people are familiar with Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine following the COVID pandemic, and we can always use more physicians in the field. Sleep Medicine is a relatively new specialty and features a great combination of physicians from different backgrounds (Pulmonary, Neurology, Psychiatry, Primary Care, Pediatrics) which makes for a diverse and interesting team. If you do decide to pursue a career as a physician, consider Sleep Medicine or Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine!
What resources or strategies did you find most helpful as a pre-health student?
As a pre-health student, it's important to explore the career field while still doing well academically. Doing well academically is important not only to help your application, but it also helped me to build a strong academic foundation so I could absorb the fire hose of information in medical school and employ the good study habits I made during undergrad to medical school.
Outside of academics, I found getting lots of different experiences early in college and then diving into a few of those experiences for the long term was helpful in ultimately deciding to pursue a career as a physician. While I chose to become a physician, there are so many careers in the healthcare field besides being a physician. I thought I knew many of them, but there are even more than I realized as an undergraduate. Healthcare is a team sport these days, and daily I communicate with and learn from my non-physician team members in different healthcare careers.
Searching online or using the Pre-Health Student Resource Center (including the classes) are good ways to start your search for what might be a good fit for you. Once you know a few careers you might be interested in, volunteering, shadowing, or interviewing people in the field is a good place to get an idea of what a career in that profession may look like. When something interests you, try to pursue it fully. For instance, I got a lot more out of doing the same volunteering job at the Children's hospital for several years on a regular basis than I would have doing one-off volunteer events here and there.
Continue to pursue your interests outside of healthcare as well, whatever they may be. If you pursue being a physician, I found the Pre-Health Student Resource Center a good place for helping to work through my career plans, medical school targets, and to get my application started (I took the AHS 3401: Writing a Personal Statement for a Health Program course!).
What factors led to your decision to take a gap year?
I chose to take a gap year after undergraduate during which I worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator for a group of Orthopedic Surgeons. I learned a lot on the job including how to set up and run various types of clinical research studies (retrospective, prospective, and general databases) and work with the Institutional Review Board (IRB). Since I was applying to medical school, the surgeons I worked with were also very generous in letting me shadow and involving me in the writing process for various manuscripts. I was able to be an author on several papers through my work.
Multiple factors led to my decision to take the gap year. I decided to pursue a career as a physician a little later in undergrad and felt that I needed a little more time to put together a strong resume and application. This gave me time to more fully pursue some of my extracurriculars and take the MCAT. However, I also wanted to take a year off from schooling and get some experience in the working world. In hindsight, I am very happy that I took the gap year to work. It gave me another perspective and a better appreciation for the work that clinical research coordinators and other administrative staff do, often behind the scenes, and gave me many beneficial experiences to grow personally and professionally.
Thank you for sharing your story and insight, Dr. Herzog!