Dr. Kyle Saysana: Hemphill-Gojer Award in Internal Medicine
Dr. Kyle Saysana is in a unique class as a physician in that he speaks five languages and is learning a sixth. Through an international exchange program, he spent an additional year of his medical school training learning about diverse care models at hospitals in three countries. His exceptional dedication to education led to his selection as a recipient of the Hemphill-Gojer Award.
What this award means: “If there’s anything my still-short time in this field has taught me, it’s that life can be incredibly fleeting and to care fiercely for one another as friends, family, and colleagues while we’re still here, especially in the context of this past year. That will remain my greatest lesson from medical school moving forward, and that is why this award is meaningful to me.”
Mentor comment: “An ardent advocate of marginalized populations and the child of immigrants, Kyle intimately understands the need to earn his patients’ trust and uses these experiences to create a more inclusive curriculum and widen others’ perspectives. Kyle truly embraces diversity and continual growth! He is poised for an incredibly successful academic career and will be a cherished colleague and leader in medicine.” – Dr. Reeni Abraham, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
Background and family: “My father is an aerospace engineer and my mother is a homemaker. I have a sister who’s a pharmacist in Houston. My family is of Chinese/Laotian heritage and emigrated from Laos as refugees, later ending up in the United States, where I was born.”
What led to your career path: “Growing up, I’ve always had an organic interest in math and science, but it was reading about and watching the stories of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a teenager that really moved me to consider medicine as a career. When I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition in high school, later facing the challenges it presented in college, it truly brought home my passion for this field.”
UTSW activities: “Through the International Medical Exchange Program here at UT Southwestern, I was able to spend an additional year of medical school in hospitals abroad, spending six months in France and three months each in Morocco and Argentina, rotating in the fields of critical care, cardiology, and infectious diseases, learning and working in French and Spanish, where I was able to see care and medical education delivered in three very different models from our own here in the U.S.”
Surprising fact: “With the exception of a few shows, I’ve watched every episode of television in the last five or six years exclusively in either French, Spanish, or both languages.”
Future plans: “I’ll be heading to Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital for my internal medicine residency prior to pursuing subspecialty training in either cardiology/advanced heart failure or pulmonary/critical care medicine. Teaching, mentoring, and care for the underserved are my passions, and I plan to ultimately spend the bulk of my time in a county teaching hospital where I can work with and teach students and residents while also taking care of patients.”
About the award: The award, presented to one or more top medical students in internal medicine, was established by Ross H. and Anne Seymour Hemphill in honor of their son and daughter-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Seymour Hemphill; their daughter and son-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Bernard Gojer; and Anne Hemphill’s parents, E. Clyde and Florine Allen Seymour. Dr. Hemphill and Dr. Gojer are both UTSW Medical School alumni.