For Bridget Adcock, a fourth-year student at KU School of Medicine-Wichita, getting a rotation with volunteer faculty member Freidy Eid, M.D., felt like hitting a medical school jackpot.

“He has an excellent reputation” for providing impactful cardiology elective rotations, said Adcock, who did a two-week clinical rotation with Eid in February.

A rotation with Eid provides students with a variety of experiences since he sees patients in both a private practice setting and at the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita and he also performs procedures as one of two invasive cardiologists at the VA center.

“The pace at the VA center is a bit slower so students have an opportunity to ask more questions and get more one-on-one time,” said Eid. “We have time to open up books, read EKGs, review echocardiograms, and discuss other cardiac testing modalities and clinical trials.”

"His use of clinical trials to practice medicine in an evidence-based way is the epitome of what you want any doctor to do,” said Adcock, about the many insights she gleaned from her rotation.

“It’s really special that he makes sure you are engaged and learning,” she said.

For example, after observing a heart catheter lab procedure, the medical students assist Eid in subsequent procedures during their rotation.

Eid became a KU School of Medicine-Wichita volunteer faculty member not long after joining the VA center’s staff in 2009.

“Professionally, it’s more fulfilling for me to be helping students in a medical program than just seeing patients and doing the usual medicine,” said Eid. “It’s a way of giving back. I had my own teachers and mentors so now it’s time to teach the next generation. You can read the books as much as you want, but eventually, you need someone to show you the practical part of it and how they give their personal touch to the art of practicing medicine.”

The latter particularly resonated with Adcock.

For her, she saw that Eid’s patience, grace, humor and thorough patient visits resulted in both staff and patients showing him respect and admiration.

“His popularity with patients and staff shows how good he is. As a medical student, that’s important to see in your mentors. He’s very personable so not only will he teach you a lot — he taught me more about cardiology in the two weeks I was with him than I’ve learned in all of medical school — but he’ll show you how he interacts with patients.

“I really looked forward to going to work every day with him. I was so excited because I knew I’d have a positive experience and that’s not always something that happens in medical school. I think the fact that he does this in a voluntary way out of the goodness of his heart is really profound and worth noting.”

Above, left: Bridget Adcock, fourth-year medical student at KU School of Medicine-Wichita, is pictured reviewing patient charts.