{"id":92650,"date":"2014-04-30T12:52:40","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T16:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=92650"},"modified":"2014-05-07T15:31:57","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T19:31:57","slug":"a-tribute-to-camaraderie-in-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/04\/a-tribute-to-camaraderie-in-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"A Tribute to Camaraderie in Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"gionfriddo_william\"<\/a>
William Gionfriddo, UConn School of Medicine Class of 2014 commencement speaker. (Janine Gelineau\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To Will Gionfriddo, practicing medicine is as much about people as it is about science.<\/p>\n

Interaction with people is what drew him to the profession, and that interaction is also what stands out as he reflects on his four years at the UConn School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the camaraderie I felt with my peers and my colleagues, making lasting friendships, having conversations with people that help stimulate, challenge and enlighten you,\u201d says Gionfriddo, who will address his class at commencement May 12. \u201cUnhealthy competition doesn\u2019t exist here, people are willing to help each other and teach each other, the faculty are very welcoming and very approachable. It\u2019s an environment in which you can learn medicine and you can learn it effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gionfriddo says he started considering medicine as a career while attending high school at Bristol Eastern, and became sure of it while studying for dual degrees at UConn, in history and psychology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed taking my general biology classes in college, but it was more so the learning about the human condition in history and psychology that made me interested in medicine itself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The last stop before medical school was UConn\u2019s Medicine and Dental Medicine Post Baccalaureate Program. Up next is an internal medicine residency at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Gionfriddo says he plans to specialize, perhaps in cardiology.<\/p>\n

Gionfriddo spent time in his fourth year of medical school as a student preceptor for a correlated medical problem solving class, helping teach first-year students about pathophysiology and mechanisms of disease.<\/p>\n

\"gionfriddo_will_student_preceptor_1\"<\/a>
As a student preceptor, Will Gionfriddo explains correlated medical problem solving. (Chris DeFrancesco\/UConn Health Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBoth learning and teaching are integral parts of the culture of medicine, and you must be able and willing to do both for the rest of your life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

What excites Gionfriddo the most about the future of medicine is a sense that a convergence of technology will lead to an explosion of innovation in health care, citing electronic medical records and mobile orders while rounding on patients as examples.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also on the cusp of making patient care more effective and efficient by using these systems that are being put in place with technology and a revived focus on collaboration and teamwork, and through that I think you\u2019ll see in the upcoming years, patient care become more streamlined,\u201d Gionfriddo says.<\/p>\n

The grandson of Italian and South American immigrants, Gionfriddo is the first in his immediate family to become a doctor, which he says is a source of pride.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also proud and honored to be the voice of his class at commencement, as he says goodbye to the university that\u2019s been such a major part of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to taking all of that camaraderie and all of that interaction that I\u2019ve had the privilege of experiencing here at UConn into my residency, and I look forward to having that guide me in my patient care,\u201d Gionfriddo says. \u201cI\u2019m just grateful for the whole opportunity to learn what I\u2019ve learned, do what I\u2019ve done, and be a part of this field.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow UConn Health<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn School of Medicine student commencement speaker Will Gionfriddo\u2019s interest in medicine is as much about people as it is about science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":92653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-92650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 18:09:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92650"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92783,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92650\/revisions\/92783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/92653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92650"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=92650"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=92650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}