“I can’t say there was any other path for me, but that’s because I never really considered any other path. I always planned to be a physician,” said Jacqueline Savage, MD. Originally born in Miami, Savage spent her childhood moving around a lot due to her father’s military service. “My family was doing their best to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. My job was to focus on school,” Savage explained.
Becoming a physician is no easy feat and Savage had several elements that were stacked against her. She spent her high school years in South Carolina and being both a Latina girl and economically disadvantaged, Savage says that she was not viewed as “the ideal physician candidate. Plenty of people told me that I needed to consider other jobs as I likely would not get into medical school.” But she had a supportive father and a wonderful teacher and mentor, William Barnhill, who was “a godfather-like figure and instilled the confidence to pursue [her] goal of being a doctor,” Savage explained.
While in her junior year of high school, Savage attended a “Day in the Life” of medical students at the University of South Carolina. Students were invited to view embalmed livers, brains, and other organs, comparing diseased and non-diseased tissue. “It was the coolest thing I had ever seen,” said Savage.
Though her father had wanted her to be veterinarian, she was fascinated by the intricacies of the human body and the mechanisms that allow us to do what we do every day. In part because of Barnhill’s help and guidance, Savage attended his alma mater, Wofford College, where she was able to complete her pre-medical studies. She ended up dual majoring in Biology and Spanish which included a 6-month health care immersion in Santiago, Chile.
Savage attended the Medical University of South Carolina before coming to Yale for residency in 2014. She had initially intended to complete a preliminary year as she had her sights set on dermatology, but during her intern year, Savage found herself at home within Internal Medicine in part due to the collegial atmosphere of the Traditional Internal Medicine program. The program director, Mark Siegel, MD, extended an opportunity to stay on within the program as a categorical resident and that decision had a positive impact on her career.
Though she always thought she would go on to complete a specialty fellowship, after her three years of Internal Medicine residency, Savage recalls feeling content, “like [she] would get all [she] ever needed to get out of [her] career just by seeing the patients [she] was already seeing every day.” Savage felt fulfilled by the variety of general internal medicine both in terms of the patient population and her career development.
Since completing residency in 2017, Savage has built a career for herself not only as a general internist but also as teacher. While working at Hartford Hospital as an assistant professor for UConn, she received several teaching awards.
Savage enjoys medical education, particularly for residents, because she feels she knows the challenges of residency and education and wants to help residents get to that next level while becoming the best internist they can be. For Savage, teaching is also mentorship and as “equal parts mom and physician,” she wants to be a resource for residents who are interested in growing their family.
Savage returned to Yale School of Medicine because she wanted to be in the primary hub of academic medicine. She loves how valued academic medicine is here at Yale. There is immense opportunity for growth and specifically in an academic education position. She is now an associate program director for the Yale Internal Medicine Traditional Residency program, co-director for ambulatory education, and holds a clinical position at the New Haven Primary Care Consortium.
When it comes to advice for medical students and young physicians, Savage says “the biggest thing is taking the time to know yourself and what you value. This helps to remind yourself why medicine is your calling and to guide yourself to a career path that sparks and fulfills that desire to serve.”
The Department of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine is among the nation's premier departments, bringing together an elite cadre of clinicians, investigators, educators, and staff in one of the world's top medical schools. To learn more, visit Internal Medicine.