We are excited to welcome Dr. Frederick (Fred) Stone, Jr. to Louisiana as Program Director of the LSU Rural Family Medicine Residency Program at Our Lady of the Angels Hospital.

We asked Dr. Stone to tell us about how he came to Louisiana. He stated, “I grew up in the Los Angeles Area (the other LA) and lived there through my undergraduate college career at UCLA. I am an only child, so foot-loose and fancy-free. I then began moving around over the years, with Louisiana being the tenth state in which I have lived.

I have an MPH degree from The University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and my MD degree is from Georgetown University. I did my family medicine residency at the University of Missouri. I did a fellowship in rural medicine at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, and a rural family medicine obstetrics fellowship at Tacoma Family Medicine in Tacoma, Washington. I practice full spectrum family medicine, seeing patients and teaching residents and medical students in the outpatient setting, hospital, labor and delivery and the nursing home.”

Dr. Stone stated, “Growing up I considered going into teaching since I had several teachers whom I greatly admired. I also had several experiences with the health care system as a patient. Eventually becoming a physician won out. Since I am a faculty physician, I ended up being a teacher after all.”

He continued, “Working with young people as they are developing their career goals is important to getting people excited about a career in family medicine. Participating in career days in high school gives us an opportunity to show them the “wow” factor of family medicine. Working with medical students and mentoring them is a further opportunity to get more people into family medicine. For new graduates in family medicine, I encourage them to be excited about the lifelong learning opportunities and experiences. Interaction with colleagues to be mentors can help. We all learn from each other.”

When asked about how he chose family medicine, he stated, “I have always liked the diversity and challenge of family medicine. I never wavered from my interest in family medicine during my professional formative years of medical school. I greatly enjoy the opportunity to know patients as people over time. Being relationship oriented is one of the more important aspects of being a family physician.”

Dr. Stone is a champion of graduate family medicine education. He talked about his career path, “Most of my career has been as a faculty physician. I have been on faculty at the Kingsport Family Medicine Residency of East Tennessee State University, the rural part of the program at the University of Missouri Family Medicine Residency Program in Fulton, MO, outside of Columbia, MO, as well the Phoenix Baptist Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program in Phoenix, Arizona.”

In addition to his experience as family medicine residency program faculty, he has also served as the founding program director, developing the program in Flagstaff, Arizona and was the first on-site director at the University of South Carolina/Prisma Health Family Medicine Residency Program in Sumter, SC. Dr. Stone stated about his current role, “I am pleased to join the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans, Rural Family Medicine Residency Program in Bogalusa, to contribute to its further growth and successes in educating family docs for rural Louisiana.”

Outside of medicine Dr. Stone loves to travel. He described his love for travel, “I have been to all fifty states and the District of Columbia. I have seen a little of Mexico and Canada. I lived with a family for four weeks in Valladolid, Spain between my first and second years of college and traveled in part of the country with my American group for two weeks. I did a trip to China with a group of physicians. We toured a medical school and a traditional Chinese hospital in Beijing and a rural clinic outside of Chengdu. I had a spiritually and professionally gratifying medical mission trip to Guatemala just before COVID broke out.”

Please give Dr. Stone a big LAFP welcome to Louisiana!