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Cory Edwards grew up in a town with less than 1,000 residents situated on the banks of the Ģ����Ƶ River. He's about to graduate from the Ģ����Ƶ University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and will be heading to Ģ����ƵHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus where he will be doing an internal medicine residency. Edwards, a graduate of Morehead State University, hopes to pursue additional training as a rheumatology fellow after his residency.

What are you most excited about as you take your next step in your career?

I’m looking forward to gaining the confidence and autonomy to be able to handle acutely ill patients on my own, and to be able to urgently identify which interventions need to be done to help patients get back to a state of health. I’m also looking forward to learning more about some of the internal medicine specialties that I didn’t have a chance to see much of as a medical student – such as gastroenterology, hematology/oncology, and others. Additionally, I'm looking forward to working with medical students in an educational role. Before medical school I briefly worked as a 10th grade biology teacher, and I was a tutor during my second year of medical school, so helping people out in that capacity is always something I've enjoyed.

If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would it be?

I think it would have helped to find a mentor who has an understanding of what medical school at your particular institution looks like from a logistical perspective, that way you have a greater idea of what to expect during your time there. As the first physician in my family, I didn’t really have a mentor or contact who I could get a full picture from regarding what my preclinical years would look like, what rotations look like, what to expect from board exams, etc. This led to me tackling a lot of these changes by myself as they came up – which isn’t insurmountable – it just would have helped to know more about how these things present before starting medical school.

What led you to a career in medicine?

My parents are both registered nurses, so seeing them achieve satisfying and fruitful careers in medicine was initially something that attracted me to the field. As I grew up, I also realized that the sciences were my favorite things to study – namely chemistry, biology, biochemistry and physiology. Synthesizing those interests together with my desire to directly help people made medicine seem like an obvious conclusion.

How would you describe your time at the Heritage College?

I’ve enjoyed the time I've spent at HCOM, and the education I've received here helped prepare me for the next step of residency training. The program I’ll be training at has a long history of taking HCOM alumni, with many of the attendings and current residents there being former Bobcats, which I think reflects well on HCOM’s reputation of training Ģ����Ƶ’s physicians. In talking with students from other schools, I've heard stories of competition, toxicity, and negative emotions which permeate the entire school, and I’m happy to report that wasn’t the case with my time at HCOM. Our class has always been warm and cooperative – at least from my perspective – and that’s something I’ll always remember about my time here.

Looking back on medical school, what were you most important experiences?

I think the knowledge gleaned during my clinical rotations has been one of the most impactful parts of my medical education. When you’re on service with residents and attending physicians, working together to make decisions that are impacting patients, the ability to learn how to identify and treat various conditions becomes much easier to retain than if you just read it from a book. Another crucial moment during my medical school career was the dedicated studying period for our first round of board exams. The stress and rigor associated with preparing for those exams, in my opinion, seemed to be a real “make or break” moment and overcoming that elevated tension is something I'll always carry with me.

Tell us about your inspirations in life.

My earliest academic inspiration was my older brother, who was always academically focused and would challenge myself and my twin brother to think critically about different topics. Learning this skill at a relatively early age is something that really shaped how I came to tackle not only school, but other aspects of my everyday life. My parents are also a massive inspiration, with their careers in medicine being a large contributor to myself pursuing medical school.

Were you involved in research? If so, can you share more about what you worked on?

In between my first and second years of medical school, I completed the Research and Scholarly Advancement Fellowship through HCOM which led me to contributing to a biomedical science research project aimed at studying morphological changes in cancer cells using fluorescence microscopy. It sounds really complicated, but it was mostly looking through a fancy microscope while listening to music!

Who has helped you along the way? Is there anyone you want to recognize?

The wonderful preceptors at Holzer Health System in Gallipolis, Ģ����Ƶ. The clinical education I’ve received there has been indispensable, and I’m confident that they provided me with a skillset needed to thrive in residency. Also, I’d like to thank Whitney West, the student coordinator at Holzer, and Stacy Hayes, one of HCOM’s Academic Program Administrators, for being incredibly helpful resources and making our medical education possible.

What hobbies do you have?

My greatest passion is music. I have a vinyl record collection that includes records from every decade since the 50s, predominantly consisting of 80s/90s alternative bands. Discovering new bands or artists and sharing them with people has always been something that brings me joy. I’m also a big sports fan, with the Cincinnati Reds and Cincinnati Bengals being my favorite teams, despite the pain they seem to bring every season.

What didn't we ask that you'd like to share?

I think it’s important for every medical student to try to take something away from every class, every clinical rotation, and from any other curricular activity that you become involved in. It seems daunting, especially at first, when you review your schedule for the upcoming weeks and note how many class sessions you’re forced to attend. While it may be overwhelming, remaining engaged and focusing on the big picture during each session, rather than stressing over every minute detail, should make classes a bit more tolerable. Also, during clinical rotations, treat every new specialty as an opportunity to learn a new skillset, even if the specialty is of no particular interest to you. Even if you don’t like general surgery, for example, it’s still important to understand how that specialty operates and what their particular skillset is.