Lancaster Physician Fall 2017 - 42

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Member Spotlight

Where do you practice and
why did you settle in your present location or community?
I am a family physician at Family Medicine New Holland, one
of the Lancaster General Health (LGH) outpatient offices. For
almost 2 years, I've been working at this location. A circuitous
path brought me to PA. I studied Broadcast Journalism
and Policy Studies at Syracuse University. After working in
college at the local NPR affiliate (still a public radio donor/
supporter!), I worked as a paralegal, first at the University
of Pennsylvania Health System corporate office then at
Jefferson Health System. After I chose medicine over law, I
did benchwork research at Johns Hopkins for the NIH for a
couple of years and then went to medical school at New York
College of Osteopathic Medicine. I met my husband, James
Thurmond, MD, one of the neurosurgeons of Lancaster NeuroScience & Spine Associates, while I was in med school and
he was in residency at UMDNJ. I completed my residency
at an UMDNJ-affiliate hospital, Mountainside, which is now
part of Hackensack. We moved to Lancaster because it is
close to Philadelphia and my family.

NGA VU, D.O.

I've worked at multiple locations since moving to Lancaster
in 2009. I worked for other local, non-LGH entities, initially
Heart of Lancaster (now a UPMC-Pinnacle hospital) at multiples office sites, and then I joined Eastbrook Family Health
Center, part of Physicians Alliance, LTD (PAL), which is soon to
be a Penn State Health office. The changes in our health care
environment in the mid-state are dizzying! Medicine and
health care are always transforming. We have to be protean
physicians, able to adapt yet remain true to our calling and
purpose. I have tremendous respect for all of the caring clinicians and value the relationships I've formed along the way.

What do you like best about
practicing medicine?
The interpersonal relationships. People come into an exam
room and share their most intimate issues, their vulnerabilities, their joys, and their sadness. It truly is an honor to be
seated across from a person who has diabetes who trusts
me to prescribe medicines to help her control her sugars,
blood pressure, obesity, cholesterol, and to deal with her
depression. I get to know each of my patients on a personal
level. I tell each patient that I care for them with the respect
and honesty that I'd treat a family member and with the
compassion and earnestness that I'd hope a colleague would
give to my family. I do my best to give evidence-based plans
for treatment, and we work together to get to better health.
We're all struggling to make it work on this planet. I make it
a point to celebrate all small and big improvements along

LGHP-New Holland
Family Medicine
LANCASTER

PHYSICIAN

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Lancaster Physician Fall 2017