Family as the center
José M. Villalón-Gómez’s passion for family medicine blossomed in Rome, as did his family
Family medicine was exactly that as José M. Villalón-Gómez, MD, MPH was rounding with his medical residents and encountered his wife in labor. This happened twice at Floyd Medical Center in Rome, Georgia, where he practiced for six years from 2011 to 2017. The punchline of the birth stories of children Manuel and Cecilia: “Both my kids are Romans.”
More seriously, Rome’s location 75 miles northwest of the Emory campus gave Villalón-Gómez invaluable experience training medical residents and inspired him to become a more creative, resourceful leader. Working with rural families expanded his diverse skill set, and most of all, fired up his devotion to family medicine.
Today Villalón-Gómez is program director of the Emory School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program. His wife, Laura F. Slivka-Villalón, is an emergency room physician at Emory University Hospital Midtown; she began that position part-time by commuting from Rome. Rome (pop. 38,000) offered great community support for families with young children. Villalón-Gómez brought to Emory an adaptability that he honed in Rome by serving immigrants, itinerant farmworkers, families with multiple generations, and other populations.
“That experience really shaped my life and how I approach challenges,” Villalón-Gómez said. “Staying in a city practice wouldn’t have given me the perspective I have today.”
A great fit for family medicine and family
The empathy and advocacy that he enhanced in Rome are pillars of his leadership, along with curiosity. He encourages Emory residents to fearlessly open any “Pandora’s box” that piques their interest. How might their creativity expand if they chose to practice where resources were limited — like a rural community?
“I tell my residents if they want to connect with their community and practice the full spectrum of health care, then give rural health care a try,” he said. “I always try to plant that seed.”
The appetite for exploring that drew Villalón-Gómez to Rome began in Puerto Rico, where he was raised and attended medical school. (In between he achieved his undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University, where he met his wife.) A major influence was his grandfather, a journalist who modeled the importance of educating society and passing down knowledge to younger generations. Villalón-Gómez researched malaria for his undergraduate honors and made a website to educate students about malaria. As chief resident, he enjoyed shaping the training for his peers.
In 2009, Villalón-Gómez went into private practice in Pensacola, where he welcomed Florida State University medical students for training. Inspired to seek a position in academic medicine, he found the one in Rome. He was barely older than his trainees, who were the only residents in the hospital. They had to find their own solutions, and imagination became even more important to him.
Helping them grow, Villalón-Gómez grew too. He learned to adapt his teaching to their learning styles, and innovation made the job even more fun. The pediatrics-to-geriatrics scope of family medicine matched his insatiable curiosity.
“In a bigger city, I would not have had the full spectrum of work that Rome gave me,” Villalón-Gómez said.
In Rome, he grew alongside his residents as a doctor and person. He became a more patient observer and learner, as he saw how the residency training affected the personal lives of trainees. They were coping with complicated births, unexpected deaths and everything in between, just like their patients.
“All those things are part of your learning experience, and how you react to them shape the way that you develop as a physician,” Villalón-Gómez said.
Rome fit what these two doctors wanted
From their first visit, he and his wife felt welcomed in Rome’s warmth. Everyone rubbed elbows more often: he and his residents worked out at the onsite gym with the hospital CEO, CFO, and CMO.
The hospital impressed him with its community commitment, and so did the opportunity to raise a family and not fight traffic to get home, or to school or church. Rome hosted fairs and film festivals, and lots of public outdoor activities happen at 27,000-acre Berry College, the world’s largest college campus. All the layers of closeness appealed to them.
“In Rome, people were very mindful of your family time, and I got to see a lot how the family can get integrated in community service and engagement,” he said. “That’s something I miss in the city. In rural settings, things circulate around the family as the center.”
Most of all, Floyd Medical Center reflected his own values.
“They were transparent about the challenges and resources in the city, and their plans and targets for access to care,” he said. “They also were willing to take a risk to try something new. There was a big immigrant population that we took care of, and we did a lot of prenatal care and health care for the workers in the fields close to Rome. That transparency made it easier for me to take the risk to try something new by moving there.”
Rome wasn’t that far from Atlanta; his wife took attending shifts at EUHM or Grady Memorial Hospital that were before or after Atlanta rush hour. Colleagues in Rome supported the family spending as much time together as possible, especially when their first child was born premature. “My colleagues really stepped in to take over my responsibilities so I could be with my family during difficult times like that,” he said.
“It was a nice sense of community that you don’t get in the bigger cities,” he added. “I interviewed in North Carolina and New York, but I didn’t see the integration of the community or sense of commitment to the wellbeing of the city that I did in Rome. When you feel that investment in your work environment, it makes a big difference.”
The Emory carryover
As director of the Family Medicine Residency Program, Villalón-Gómez extends his experience in Rome by taking on new challenges, even uncomfortable ones, to grow as a physician leader. He advises trainees to follow his lead.
“Knowledge is constantly changing and growing, and you have to really expose yourself and get out of your comfort zone to be an effective teacher,” he said. “The success of our field will depend on the success of those generations that are coming, on developing our specialty to be a welcoming environment… my role as a program director and teaching that generation is to make them and allow them to succeed in their fields so they can give back to the generations that are coming.”
Story by Michelle Hiskey
Photos courtesy of Dr. José M. Villalón-Gómez