Family plays an important role in medicine, says Dr. Evangelia Kalaitzoglou
We met with Dr. Evangelia Kalaitzoglou for this week's edition of Making the Rounds. As a pediatric endocrinologist at the UK Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center, Dr. Kalaitzoglou cares for children who have been diagnosed with diabetes and thyroid issues as well as puberty and growth problems. Read our interview where we discuss her path to becoming a doctor and what makes her excited about her work.
Who in your life inspired you to pursue medicine?
My grandfather was a professor of medicine at Athens then at UCSF here in the United States. He inspired me to go into medicine. We always had a lot of medical books. I had exposure from a young age, so that’s how I decided to get into the medical field.
Why did you decide to specialize in endocrinology?
During our clinical rotations is when I was first exposed to some patients with endocrinology problems. My mom also had some thyroid issues. I found it fascinating. It just made sense.
Describe your patient care philosophy.
I believe in individualized care, so I usually take into account what the family wants into the treatment plan and what the patient wants after a certain age in the pediatric population. We usually discuss the plan and get the family’s agreement before we do anything.
What do you find rewarding about your work? What do you find challenging?
The thing I like the most is working with children. I find it very rewarding and also fun at the same time.
Working with kids can be challenging. You need to build a relationship with your patients. I see that in clinic as well. When patients come in, they’re usually more shy or reluctant to share information with me in their first or second visit, but as they come back to clinic, you start developing that relationship with your patients. In the end, I find a lot of patients opening up to us as time goes by and sharing things with us that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Watch our interview with Dr. Evangelia Kalaitzoglou to learn more about what sets her apart from other pediatric endocrinologists.
