Meet Ysabel Ilagan-Ying, from Conshohocken, PA. She attended Yale School of Medicine, and is a PGY-1 in the Traditional Internal Medicine Residency Program.
What led you to pursue a career in medicine?![]()
Both of my parents are physicians and encouraged me to explore fields beyond medicine. I originally attended Yale University with the plan to pursue art. However, halfway through my first year I lost my Lola Cora (one of my closest grandaunts whom helped raise me) very suddenly to ovarian cancer, which inspired me to take a reproductive biology course taught by Hugh Taylor, MD. He opened my eyes to the art of scientific study, and I spent the rest of my undergraduate years pursuing basic science research in his Reproductive Sciences Lab. I found myself fascinated with the livers of mice exposed to environmental estrogens, and eventually decided to pursue clinical research in hepatology. The year I got married, my husband, Lee Ying, whom was an MD/PhD candidate at the time, introduced me to Tamar Taddei, MD. She took me under her wing in the field of medicine and her passion in digestive disease, helped sponsor my research project to help facilitate my transfer back to the East Coast, and the rest is history.
What are your goals after you complete residency? Where do you see yourself?
I hope to pursue fellowship in Digestive Diseases (GI & Hepatology). My husband and I are a team, and someday hope to work together to treat patients with obesity and/or liver cancer. His current passion is to pursue minimally invasive surgery, and much of his PhD work was performing bariatric surgery in mice to study adipogenesis—they are very cute, just like Pixar characters!
Why did you choose Yale IMed for your residency?
Family in more ways than one. Yale IM is famously friendly to couples matching, and we were so lucky to be able to coordinate our vacation schedules together given our busy intern year rotations. My close mentors like Dr. Tamar Taddei, Dr. Albert Do, Dr. Jin Xu, among many others have also treated us like family and encouraged us to embrace Yale as our home!
Describe your experience at Yale IMed in 3 words.
Collaborative, innovative, and humbling.
What is your fondest memory at Yale thus far?
Two equally awesome memories: first one was when my big sib Andrea (PGY-2) and my husband Lee both visited me on my very first Peters night shifts of intern year for an impromptu dinner from Miya's (our fave neighborhood sustainable sushi restaurant closing its doors soon). My other fave memory is when my residents Reza and Laura (PGY-2s) competed on sending their interns home early on a Sunday on a light VA day—I got home at 10:15am, a personal record! I love sharing this as a fun fact with interviewees because it highlights the culture of wellness in our program and how much our residents "pay it back" to let their interns go home to enjoy the day when all the work is done. I'm excited to be able to mentor and advocate for next year's intern class.
Who has had the greatest influence on you, and why?
My grandfather, who raised me most of my childhood when my parents were still in medical training. He spent hours teaching me basic life skills that I still rely on to this day, like how to use old newspapers to clean mirrors, how to scrape a coconut to make Filipino bibingka, and how to properly fold a fitted sheet. He instilled in me principles of discipline, respect, humility, hard work, and a positive attitude. He had an incredible career: from University of the Philippines instructor of Agricultural Economics to international agricultural management consultant. Ultimately, he decided to teach himself how to manage his own investments so that he could spend time helping to raise me and my siblings, and support the career of his wife in the corporate offices of IKEA. As a child my playground was the kid ball pits of IKEA, and I got to help my grandparents open the Palo Alto IKEA store—IKEA feels like a home away from home.
If you could say anything to your younger self, what would you say?
It's okay to fail as long as you learn from your mistakes and share them with others so that we can all get ahead.
What's a fun fact about you?
I'm left-handed but use scissors with my right hand. I am a proud dog mom of Ollie, a 4-year-old spaniel mix rescue dog with awkwardly gangly legs, a silly fluffy tail, and a big smile.
What is one piece of advice you'd give someone who is applying for residency?
The Match is appropriately named—programs that want to interview you genuinely believe you are a good match for their institution, just as much as you want to be someplace where you'll be happy. Trust the system and rank honestly—talk out your priority list and communicate with your programs on factors like family, career aspirations, and mentors that mean the most to you.
What have been your biggest challenges and accomplishments since the beginning of the pandemic?
Finding creative ways to stay connected with friends. On my days off, I try to virtually hangout with friends, old and new, and talk about life outside of the hospital, which can be really hard when you spend a lot of time there.
The Department of Internal Medicine at Yale is among the nation's premier departments, bringing together an elite cadre of clinicians, investigators and educators in one of the world's top medical schools. To learn more, visit Internal Medicine.