Allina Health

Miriam Ragab, DO, RD: "I love my job because I like to take care of people. I think inherently I am a caretaker, as our CEO would call it. Not so much a doctor but an actual caretaker of people, whether I'm a mother, a physician, a friend, a sister, a daughter.

"My philosophy for taking care of patients would be to make the medical clinic as inviting as possible, so make it a place that they want to come to, not that they think they have to come to because they're afraid of finding anything (bad) out. In order to do that, I listen very carefully to what they're saying, I ask pertinent questions to their activities of daily living, how the stresses are in their home, before I even get into their chronic disease state.

"Because I firmly believe that if I can't fix their stress I can't fix their disease. So I make sure that everything within the home, within the family life, what's going on with their kids, their job, all their interpersonal relationships are as maximized to the best they can be and then get into how we can better their chronic disease states. So, stress will drive any process haywire so I try to fix the stress.

I help my patients reach their health goals by first letting them know that they are certainly not alone, that we're all dealing with similar issues. I try to maximize what I think their strengths are so I spend a lot of time trying to tease out what goes on in their day to day activities and let them know that they may feel coming in here that they're hopeless, but that there's always hope. I try to give them one or two things that will help them move forward in a more positive way.

"We're going to live a long time, statistics say, so when I get that into their brain, I help them understand it that they've got several more years, do you want to live it this way or be more happy and healthy. We do a close follow-up, bring them back, let them know it's a safe place to be here, you're never going to be judged here, we just want to help."

Annie Powers, MD: "Because I have young children of my own, I do feel that I am able to empathize with young families and what they're going through with their concerns with their children's health, both physical and emotional health, and really understand where they're coming from. There's nothing worse than feeling that your child needs your help or is sick and not knowing what to do. And I hope that I am there for my patients and their families as they go through that and I can go through it with them together.

"So what I love most about working with children is watching them grow and develop and really become their own person. We start out seeing children when they are newborns and that's very exciting to help families learn about their newborn and how to take care of them and what their needs are. And then we help them learn and understand what children need as they grow and progress throughout their development. It's a fascinating process and I feel privileged to be part of it with the parents.

"In my practice I really try to be a partner with the parents in the care of their child. I know that parents know their children the best and when they have a concern I always take time to listen to that and really meet them where they are with their understanding of what's going on with their child so that we can develop a care plan that best suits the family and provides the best care for the child.

"I always encourage parents to take time to read with their children every day for 15 to 20 minutes. It doesn't have to be long, but that is a wonderful opportunity to bond with your child especially at the end of the day, to reconnect after you've been apart from them, and it also helps with your child's cognitive, emotional and intellectual development which is always beneficial."

Michael McNelis, MD, FACOG: "I have a new project that I'm just now starting and that's as medical director of the Cornerstone Clinic here in St. Michael. I'm really excited about this project because it's a teen women's clinic. [The clinic] will be providing some STD testing, early pregnancy testing, early pregnancy ultrasounds.

"The main thing that I get out of working for Cornerstone is that it keeps me involved in the community and St. Michael, to me, reminds me of where I grew up in Excelsior, Minn., In a lot of ways it's a kind of throw back to more of a small town atmosphere that has an actual main street and churches and shops and small businesses and you can get to know people on a more personal level. It's a way for me to be involved with the community and give something back to the community. That's really it, plus I'm really dedicated to providing good care for young adults and young women and really helping them through what can be stressful times.

"So a little known fact about myself. I used to be the lead singer of a rock band called the Bi-Peds. We used to call it the band that time forgot."