Rheumatologist Michelle Kahlenberg, MD, PhD, Pursues Rural Dream

While the drought tested her resolve as a farmer, she says farming is also her salvation, both as an individual and physician.

Dr. Kahlenberg and her husband, Mark Skowronski, run an organic vegetable and pasture-raised meat farm.

“What surprises me is the satisfaction that I get from farming,” she says. “As a kid, my parents would tell me to go weed the garden, which ended up being a chore. But the peace and stress relief I get now from dirtying my hands and doing physical labor is really something that I love. That was a pleasant surprise.”

It also helps build better patient–doctor relationships. Visiting a renowned academic medical center, such as the University of Michigan, can be intimidating for rural patients, she says. But when they realize their doctor is also a farmer, it seems to ease some of their anxiety. More likely than not, they end up swapping stories about farm life.

Many patients ask about the animals and seem happy to address something else other than their condition.

“It really gives me a way to communicate with people besides talking about their diseases,” she says. “Patients enjoy that—getting to know their physician in a way they can relate to.”

Carol Patton, a freelance writer based in Las Vegas, Nev., writes the Rheum after 5 column for The Rheumatologist.