By Sarah-Ashley Robbins, MD
My path to the Gaudiani Clinic came about in a very serendipitous way. Starting back in my pre-med days, I went to Florida State University and received my undergraduate degree in Nutrition and Food Sciences. Most of my classmates were dietetics majors, and I developed huge respect for them; I always thought it would be awesome to incorporate a dietitian in my future medical practice for this reason. I went on to do medical school at Florida State University and did not know which speciality I wanted to pursue until the end of my third year. I enjoyed all my rotations and wanted to continue a broad training so I chose family medicine. I interviewed at 15 residency programs across the country and matched my first choice at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver, CO. My residency was challenging with a lot of time spent on the obstetrics and intensive care unit floors in the hospital. Our clinic was very busy, broad spectrum, and cared for an urban, underserved population. After residency, I joined a Denver medical group and practiced outpatient primary care for 2 years. At this point in the story, you are probably thinking, “I don’t see anything about eating disorders yet.” Unfortunately, like most physicians, I received very little training on eating disorders. However, just before I started at my new outpatient primary care practice after residency, I was introduced to a dietitian who specializes in eating disorders. She was looking for primary care physicians to see her clients. Honestly, my initial interest in meeting with her came from my previous interest in dietetics and the importance of that in primary care. I was up-front with her that I knew nothing about eating disorders. I started seeing some of her clients and absolutely loved the time I spent with them. I started getting more referrals from other dietitians and therapists, and my eating disorder patient panel grew. I felt energetic after seeing my patients with eating disorders in the midst of a very busy primary care practice. The medicine was very interesting, and I had to do a lot of reading and research to understand the best practices for treating these patients. I recognized the harm that is often caused by the medical system and doctors in particular. I also had to come to terms with the harm I had caused in the past unintentionally. I felt like I could truly make a difference in this space and recognized a huge need for eating disorder-informed providers. As my overall patient panel grew, it became more difficult to give adequate care to patients with eating disorders in my primary care practice. I also felt that I needed to pursue more formal mentorship in the subject. When the chance to join the Gaudiani Clinic arose, I saw it as an opportunity to truly embrace the education, mentorship, support, and resources to continue taking care of patients with eating disorders. One of my ultimate professional goals is to increase awareness and education of eating disorder care for physicians in training. All it took for me was to be introduced to this world to fall in love with the medicine and the patients. I know there are other physicians out there that would love it too but just don’t know it yet. Eating disorder medicine is unique and challenging but incredibly rewarding for patients and providers. We need to get more physicians enthusiastic about this incredible specialty so that there can be more access to expert outpatient eating disorder care. I hope to personally contribute to that awareness and exposure through my work at the Gaudiani Clinic.