Kirsten Hill Avery, MD

I like being on the front lines of medicine. Becoming a Physician Assistant (PA) never felt like a choice. From the moment I first encountered a PA as a patient, I was sold. In school, they teach us that 80% of diagnosis comes from the patient history. Listening to our patients should be our top priority. I love the variety of conditions that are addressed in family medicine. I enjoy getting to know my patients, and I like being part of their lives. Outside of work, I enjoy spending time with my husband and chasing after our two kids. I also like yoga, sewing and making a mess in the kitchen. I try to avoid math, camping and laundry.

I chose to become a doctor because I truly wanted to help serve others. My philosophy of care is to partner with patients and encourage patient involvement. I will help/assist as much as I am able, but, ultimately, the patient is in control. I am particularly interested in women's health. Outside of work, I like to spend time with family, exercise, go to the beach and hang out with friends.

From a young age, I had always been a very curious person and expressed a strong interest in learning how things worked. After being exposed to and developing an interest in biology, the combination of my interests led me to medicine. It is that general curiosity and my broad interests that led me to family medicine. While I had started off residency with an internship in OBGYN, I found that there were so many more aspects of medicine that I wanted to continue to explore. Additionally, I found that one of my most important motivating factors was my desire to help provide accurate and well-informed guidance regarding the general healthcare of my family and friends. This is the same care that I am determined to provide to my patients. My approach to patient care is much like my approach to life—take a big problem and break it down into smaller problems. Like most things, managing health is about consistency and dedication. It is less about what happens in the minutes that I spend with my patients and more about the hours, days, and weeks in between. My job is to provide the roadmap and point out the potholes, but at the end of the day they’ve got their foot on the gas and their hands on the wheel. When I am not at work, I love learning and playing sports including basketball, rock-wall climbing and snowboarding when I find myself in the right climate for it. I am always up for a board game night and love an interesting strategy game.