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Creating the Next Generation of Family Doctors

Growing up in a close-knit family in Fort Kent, Maine, Traci Marquis-Eydman of Clinton knows the importance of family—and the importance of family practitioners. Today, as director of the Medical Student Home (MeSH) program at the Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, Traci works to help create a new generation of family practitioners who will commit themselves to under-served areas, such as the rural Maine community of her childhood.

“Having that really tight family who places such importance on care of others—I feel that’s an important part of me and how I got where I am,” says Traci, who was recently visiting her parents, along with her two younger brothers and their families at the time of the interview. Both of Traci’s parents worked as teachers. “I grew up in an area that had just general care and that’s what I thought of as a doctor: I thought of folks who could treat the whole patient. That inspired me to want to become a family doctor.”

Traci graduated with honors from Dartmouth medical school in 1996 before completing her family medicine residency at St. Louis University in 2000. She worked as a family practice specialist at a branch of Middlesex Hospital in Madison for about 12 years, and then started in 2013 as chief experience officer of Northeast Medical Group, Yale-New Haven Health Systems. There, she focused on improving the patient experience. At Quinnipiac, she strives to do the same thing—but from the ground up.

“My hope was rather than try and coach doctors on how to be good communicators, my goal is to help create a workforce of physicians who would do that from the very start,” she says.

The MeSH program is relatively new to Quinnipiac, with its first four-year contingent of students graduating this coming spring. In MeSH, Quinnipiac’s med schools students spend half a day of each week during their first and second years with a primary care physician in the community. The physician becomes their mentor, often helping them choose a career path.

“They learn some of the skills of being a good physician early: how to connect with patients, how to document,” says Traci, who was appointed director of the program earlier this fall. “In their third year they have a lot of experience under their belt.”

Part of Traci’s job is finding community physicians willing to participate in the program. Today, almost 100 local doctors are involved. MeSH puts students right into clinical situations they will face on their own as family practitioners, dealing with difficult situations such as breaking bad news to patients.

“Not all schools have this kind of a program,” Traci says. “I think our students are educated on primary care from the very beginning and they understand it’s not just a buzz word; it’s about treatment of the whole patient, treatment of the whole family, looking at the social aspects of health. We start that early.”

However, ensuring access to health care is the program’s main goal.

“You don’t realize there’s a terrible shortage of doctors until you got to inner-city areas or rural areas—these folks drive for miles and miles to get to a doctor,” explains Traci. “We need to create a primary care workforce that will not just stay within the comfort of a suburban area, but go into underserved areas, rural or urban.”

Today a resident of Clinton, Traci landed on the shoreline thanks to a colicky baby—her son Will. She and her husband Bill, who teaches the gifted and talented program at Old Lyme Middle School, would trade off driving in the car to quiet the baby, starting out from their then-hometown of Norwich.

“One night—on a particularly cranky night—it was my turn to drive him,” Traci recalls. “I went for a meandering drive and I ended up going through Old Lyme and then to Madison and coming back on Route 1. I fell in love with the shoreline.”

The couple moved to Clinton in 2004. Today Will is a sophomore at Xavier; his sister Abby is in 8th grade at Eliot School.

When she’s not at work or spending time with her family or close friends in Clinton, Traci enjoys hiking with her dog Bella, who is also trained as a Canine Good Citizen therapy dog. When Bella isn’t hiking with Traci, she joins her at work, too, making the rounds in her official therapy dog vest.

“I take her to work with me sometimes during the week,” Traci says. “When students are studying for their exams or feeling stressed they can pet her. She gets to be pet all day. It’s pretty much a win-win.”