FLH Welcomes Medical Student Megan Lafferty for Rural Medical Rotation

Finger Lakes Health (FLH) welcomes SUNY Upstate Medical University Rural Medical Education (RMED) student Megan Lafferty.

RMED is an elective experience that allows third-year medical students the opportunity to live and train in small-town communities. Participating students complete three core clinical rotations including: Family Medicine, Surgery and Emergency Medicine, along with the RMED elective while living and training in a small town environment. For the elective, an emphasis is placed on the continuous and comprehensive care of patients. Students develop skills in the diagnosis and management of a wide range of common ambulatory and secondary hospital problems of patients across the age spectrum. Students participate in office hours and conduct inpatient rounds, laboratory work, night call, and case presentations with community-based attendings.

Lafferty is a third-year medical student at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse and will be graduating in May 2024. She will be doing her clerkships at FLH in pediatrics, family medicine, emergency medicine, surgery and anesthesiology. Her surgical elective study will be in otolaryngology (ENT).

“Many rural communities are medically underserved. This is unfortunate because having grown up in a rural community myself, I see how far these smaller, underserved communities go to serve each other- neighbors help neighbors, and people genuinely care for each other. My hope is that by working in rural medicine, I can add more care through medical service to already caring communities’ states Lafferty who intends to specialize in family medicine after her residency.

Lafferty graduated cum laude from Hobart & William Smith Colleges in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

She is a native of Penn Yan, NY where she attended Penn Yan Academy.

Finger Lakes Health has a long-commitment to rural medicine education and has hosted 21 RMED students for clinical rotations at their various locations. Past students include:

• Cherilyn White, M.D., 1993
• Maureen Goldman, M.D., 1994
• Sean Mclaughlin, M.D., 1995
• Andrew Reese, M.D., 1996
• Douglas Bowerman, M.D., 1997
• Gavin Noble, M.D., 1998
• Douglas Bowerman, M.D., 1998
• Nicole Canada-McConnaghy, M.D., 2000
• Sami Beg, M.D., 2001
• Casey Patunoff, M.D., 2004
• John Robertson, M.D.,2005
• Rubie Jackson, M.D., 2006
• Kevin Smeenk, M.D., 2007
• Patrick Belton, M.D., 2014
• Rachel Kopicki, M.D., 2015
• Kyle Hagenbuch, M.D., 2017
• Elizabeth Presutto, M.D. , 2018
• Courtney Franceschi, M.D., 2019
• Tyler Fuller, M.D., 2022
• Claire Sheen, 4th year medical student, 2023
• Sophia Turbide, 4th year medical student, 2023