Resident Spotlight – Catherine Harmer, MD

Dr. Catherine Harmer projects a warmth and humility when she speaks, and it’s evident in the choices she makes.  She is from Irondequoit, N.Y. and chose Highland Family Medicine because “she wanted to train in residency in a community I grew up in.”  She has continued to grow since reaching Highland Family Medicine, with particular interests in gender affirming care, abortions and full spectrum medicine, which is the crux of what Family Medicine does.

Although she felt the pull of social justice in High School and College, using medicine as a means to enact them was not the course she started on.  She went to Yale to study Physics but wound up feeling unfulfilled.  Now in her third year of residency, she remarks how great it is, as she gets to spend more time at HFM with the nurses and staff, using a word she will come to say and embody throughout our discussion: community. 

For example, she likes to sing in the community, doing so recently for a local Christmas fair with her high school teacher, plus she was part of a traveling group while in college. She will remain in the Rochester area after graduation as a Family Physician, expanding the mantra she learned at Highland Family Medicine, by “serving a socioeconomically diverse population.” She wants to continue her community involvement.

Currently, Dr. Harmer is working with Dr. Nina Piazza on an anti-racism curriculum and helping to secure guest speakers, including one from Yale. She has been training at Planned Parenthood and plans to continue her work there after she graduates. She credits the unique format of Highland Family Medicine for being supportive of their residents, in addition to utilizing her electives.

One of her recent electives includes learning about gender affirming care at the Oneonta Gender Wellness Center, developed by HH/URMC FMRP alumni Drs. Carolyn and Christopher Wolf-Gould. Family Medicine training doesn’t typically delve into this treatment, which deals with prescribing hormones for non-binary and transgender individuals. She says that these individuals tend to face health disparities and is seeking to ameliorate that issue. One such way is helping healthcare to be more diverse and understanding.

https://www.genderwellnesscenter.com/meet-the-team/

by Richard Rampello

4/2/2023

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