Meet the OUWB alum who at 40 traded a successful career in IT to become a physician
Joe Vercellone built a successful career asking companies about their technology needs until he posed an audacious question to himself: Could he become a doctor in his 40s?
Short answer? M.D. now follows his name.
Long answer? Yes, but not before taking an incredible chance on a new profession (with almost no training in science) and a then-new medical school, while balancing it all with three young children and a wife working full time.
Either way, Vercellone, OUWB ’16, who is now an academic internal medicine physician at Henry Ford Rochester Hospital, wouldn’t change a thing.
“It’s the personal connections,” he says. “Nothing makes me feel better as a physician than having a family member or patient smile when you’re walking into the room and be happy that you’re coming in to talk with them.”
“Their eyes light up, and maybe you see some of the pain and anxiety they have in their face go away for a few moments,” he adds. “To have them joke with me even though they might be going through some of the worst times of their lives … that’s what makes all the difference to me.”
(Only partial stories are posted here with hopes to provide a brief overview and introduction to my most recent work. The full version of this story may be found on the OUWB InMedicine site here.)
