Louis Gerges, M.D.
Family Medicine, Boone Health Primary Care – Nifong
I moved around a lot when I was younger but spent most of my time growing up on Long Island, NY. I went to undergraduate school at New York Institute of Technology before going to medical school in Grenada. Moving around while growing up lent itself to great experiences, but I found myself wanting to call someplace home. Completing residency in Indiana introduced me to midwestern hospitality, where I was in awe. I looked for towns in the Midwest and learned about Columbia. I knew this was a place we could call home.
Why did you get into the health care field? Almost everyone in my family is a doctor, so being exposed to medicine early on piqued my interest. Learning about all the different things they were learning and doing had me engaged until I decided to pursue medicine myself.
What interested you in your particular specialty? Although most of my family are physicians, many are specialists, and we don’t have a lot of primary care. I loved the variety that comes with primary care; everything from the broad patient population to the wide scope of the practice had me very interested from the beginning.
What is the most rewarding part of your job? The opportunity to improve people’s lives, by far, is the most rewarding part of my job. The medical field is vast, and knowledge is evolving, so this becomes challenging. But when we make that successful diagnosis, or find that strategy or medication that works, and you see how relieved and happy your patients are, that is rewarding.
What is the most challenging aspect of your job? As doctors, I do believe we wear several hats in medicine. We are advocates, we are diagnosticians, we are communicators, collaborators, and we are often many of these things at the exact same time. Weaving all those elements together through a variety of patient encounters can be challenging.
What do you see changing in health care in the next 5 to 10 years? I think many of us are aware of the rise of AI recently, both in health care and virtually every other field. I do believe this will indoctrinate itself in healthcare, although I think it is difficult to say what the exact changes will be in the coming years. I believe technology will always advance, and we learn from our data, and that will drive changes in medicine.
What advice would you give someone looking to become a doctor? Study hard! Medicine is challenging but incredibly rewarding. Foster your interest early and dig your heels in; the road is long but worth it.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work? Cooking and music are likely my two biggest hobbies. I do play piano by ear and have written and recorded songs in the past. I am getting a little more into that again and spending more time on the piano. I also enjoy trying new dishes at home and new cuisine in town!
What advice would you give to someone who is going to be a patient in a hospital for a period of time? Time can be challenging, but time can be a healer. I think our experiences shape who we are and who we become and can foster resilience. We don’t want things to break or people to get sick, but if that happens, I would want them to come out stronger.