Family Medicine Clinician Spotlight: Lonzale Ramsey, Jr., MD

Dr. Ramsey is an assistant professor with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health working with North Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program. He is chair for the board of the Ladder for America. His particular interests include health literacy, full-spectrum family medicine, and preventative health.

What brings you joy in practicing your specialty and why?

I think of it in two different aspects. One is that, for my specialty, family medicine as a whole, the biggest thing is seeing the continuity. Being able to see a patient with an issue and helping them to reach the other side in whatever way, shape, or form that looks like, whether it's improving diabetes numbers, improving blood pressure, improving kidney numbers, decreasing pain, or whatever it may be.

On the other side of this is the bigger aspect of my job, which is as faculty in a residency program. I get to watch residents grow their confidence and see them go from collecting all this new information to synthesizing it, to forming out a plan and carrying it out on their own.

Those are the two big things that I really enjoy about my job.

Why did you choose family medicine? 

Number one was seeing how important it was for my mom, who had a chronic medical condition, to have a primary care doctor who was able to help her navigate the healthcare system. So I knew I wanted to do primary care.

I actually decided on family medicine in medical school. While there, I actually worked with a private practice family physician and got a chance to see her work with multiple generations of a family and how beneficial that was for the patient. It was also beneficial in terms of how she was able to care for her patients because getting that secondary information from other members of the family was so much easier at that point.

Also, those who were in family medicine were the people that I meshed with the most: those who were very interested in the continuity throughout the life span and very interested in those social determinants of health.

What advice would you give to yourself as a physician just starting out? 

If I were coming into residency, I would tell myself to be open to other styles and feedback and that it's okay to change. We all come in based on what we've experienced before residency and understanding that our perceptions of how to see things, as well as how to practice medicine, will change.

The biggest example of that for me was I came in and didn't like obstetrics because of the experience I'd had previously. And after seeing how family medicine obstetrics worked and getting a chance to care for a mom throughout her pregnancy and then be there for the birth and then take care of the child afterwards, I really came to enjoy obstetrics. Now I teach obstetrics.

Coming out of residency, I think what I would probably say is it's still okay to ask questions. When we finish residency, there's suddenly this probably self-imposed idea that you have to have all the answers. And it's okay to not have the answers. It's okay to ask one of your colleagues if you're just not sure because we're still learning and we're still growing, and that's okay.

What are your key messages when teaching residents clinical care?

The first one is probably about health literacy. Does your patient understand what's happening to their body? And assuming that they understand, do they then understand why you're recommending what you're recommending? Because it makes it a lot more difficult for a patient to take a medicine every day if they don't really know why they're taking the medication. And it makes it a lot more difficult to agree to a procedure if you don't exactly understand why you really need this procedure.

As I am teaching, especially in the beginning, I always make sure that you know it's okay to propose to me a wrong plan. The important thing is to show that you are thinking and trying to put the pieces together. To show that you're considering options and that you're learning and that you're growing. Show me what you're actually thinking about. It's okay to put that forward; that's how we learn. We talk about it. And maybe for all we know, that's 100% correct, but we don't know until you put that forward.

What are you particularly proud of as you consider your clinical career so far?

Looking back, the number one thing I am proud of is that I was able to come out of residency and practice independently as a physician before I came back as a teacher. That speaks to what I talked about earlier. That idea of how you're supposed to know everything when you finish residency. I was nervous and scared, but I wanted to do all the things. So for a little over two years, I did all the things. I rounded in the hospital, practiced obstetrics, cared for very sick patients during COVID, worked in clinic and learned how to do telemedicine. That's probably one of the proudest things I can say about myself right now.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

In my spare time, I enjoy electronics. I am a big video game person and enjoy single player games in the same way that a lot of people enjoy reading. I enjoy playing video games because it's kind of a way to de-stress and unwind and think about something else. I also enjoy watching movies. I really like going to restaurants since the Twin Cities have a wonderful restaurant scene. And then, especially in the summertime, I enjoy going out for a walk to clear my head and enjoy the fresh air.

Going back to your experience as a clinician and a teacher, what do you hope to achieve in the years to come?

In the years to come, I want to help train physicians that value health literacy for their patients and value the stories of their patients—people who are willing to ask the questions to get deeper into what's going on with patients. That’s because the labs and the imaging are very important, but they don't tell us about the loss of a loved one that they just experienced. Or they don't tell us about when the person is at home alone, maybe drinking more than they think they're drinking. It doesn't tell us about that choice between feeding your child or picking up your medications.

Helping to encourage residents and encourage learners to ask those questions to think about those potential causes of struggle and strife in healthcare would probably be the one thing that I really want to achieve. I want to help create a generation of doctors that thinks much larger than the clinic that we're in because the clinic that we're in only does so much.

Is there anything else that you'd like to share? 

I've really enjoyed my time coming back and being a teacher. I've done it for about three years now at this point. I had my first full class of residents graduate. They're doing great things in their communities now, and I hope to see many more.