About

Hanna Erickson, at your service.

(Hope you get the Hobbit reference)

👩🏻‍🔬 I am a gastroenterology fellow and physician-scientist-in-training.

I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN and was a chemistry major at the University of Minnesota. As an undergraduate, I did not think I wanted to be a physician. I knew I was interested in the medical field and felt that I could contribute better to our fund of knowledge as a researcher. Then in the spring of my junior year, I discovered MD/PhD programs, and my eyes were suddenly opened to a whole new career trajectory. Within a few months, I took the MCAT and applied to medical school.

Fat (in red) staining in the liver of mice
undergoing fasting 🐭 (📸: Me)

My med school application season ultimately led me to my MD/PhD training at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My PhD research in the Anakk Laboratory was focused on understanding how the liver responds to stresses such as diet- and toxin-induced injury, and ultimately, how this contributes to the development of liver disease. Liver disease is a major public health issue, which affects an estimated of 10-30% of the US population. Lifestyle is a major contributor to the development of liver disease, and this experience made me excited to explore how lifestyle, in combination with targeted molecular approaches, can be utilized as a tool to combat this growing epidemic.

American College of Physicians Leadership Day 2022 in Washington, DC.

Early into my medical training, I knew I was going to be an internal medicine physician. As a scientist, I felt that internists thought in a way that most closely aligned with my way of thinking. This was reinforced by meeting so many wonderful internal medicine physicians including through the American College of Physicians (ACP) who were not only excellent physicians and educators but were also strong advocates for their patients, taking the extra time to impact policy at an organization and even a national level. I had the honor to serve in many roles through the ACP as a medical student, which taught me valuable lessons I will carry through my career.

Leaving my last shift at Massachusetts General Hospital (📷: Me)

My path to becoming an internal medicine physician-scientist led me to Massachusetts General Hospital where I trained as part of the Stanbury Physician-Scientist Pathway (PSP). I spent two quite intense years at that hospital where I grew more as a physician than I thought that I could, overcoming imposter syndrome the best that I could and developing a confidence that I would not have gained in the Midwest. I had the ability to care for a wide range of patients from all different background and advocate on their behalf to receive the best care.

As a graduate student, I explored subspecialties in internal medicine. While I originally thought I was going to become an oncologist, it was ultimately gastroenterology that stole my heart. I enjoyed that gastroenterology still involved multiple organs but was more focused than all internal medicine, but it was really the procedures and especially seeing the villi in the small intestine during a colonoscopy that made me love the procedural aspect as well. With a growing interest in liver disease through my PhD research, I felt that gastroenterology and hepatology was the best fit for me.

While short-tracking residency, I applied to gastroenterology fellowship. While many programs coordinate these into a physician-scientist training program, mine did not and I appreciate it even more for it. While I am so thankful for my time at MGH, this allowed me to look again to the programs across the country and decide where would be best for my fellowship training. This brought me home to Minnesota to train at Mayo Clinic.

It is an absolute joy to share my journey on this blog. I hope that over the decade+ of its existence that it has been able to bring some assistance to those who come after me. While it doesn’t take the forefront of my mind, I hope to continue to intermittently contribute to it throughout my career and welcome the opportunity to help those who come after me.

I receive no compensation for my writing on this blog, all of which is purely my own unless directly stated. While I do express my opinions, I emphasize that there is no guarantee that they represent those of my university or employers, and so should not be transferred onto them. My work should not be taken as medical advice. I do not wish to allow advertisements on my blog (other than the ones WordPress puts on here).

If you like my writing, please consider following my blog. There’s a link near the top of the side bar to do so. Also, feel free to like my Facebook page (MD, PhD To Be), follow me on Twitter (@MDPhDToBe), and follow me on Instagram (MDPhDToBe). I am trying my best to remain active in each of these channels throughout my training! Any questions, comments, or requests for future blog posts can of course be directed to me from any of these locations or directly emailed to me at via the contact page. Thank you for reading!