Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Gordon Woodworth, Chronicle News Editor
After 10 years on the Glens Falls School Board, including seven as its president, Dr. Anna Poulos isn’t seeking re-election but is taking on a whole other challenge: She’s resuming her practice of medicine after 16 years away.
Dr. Poulos says she stopped practicing in October 2000 “because of my four children. I was a gastroenterologist, but I’m going to be going back to internal medicine. I’m not going to be doing GI.”
When The Chronicle reached her by telephone, Dr. Poulos turned out to be in Philadelphia at the Drexel College of Medicine, where she is taking an intensive three-month physician refresher course.
Refresher course ‘for confidence’
She said she wasn’t required to take a refresher. “I want to do this for my own confidence and to refresh myself with what is going on,” she said. “I will be forever board-certified, so I still have my board certification and I have a license so I could just go out and see if somebody will hire me, but if I were them, I wouldn’t, unless I went back and trained.
“There’s only four of these programs around the country. More and more people are doing this. There are more and more people who stopped practicing for whatever reason and are wanting to get back into practice.”
“It’s just a function of time,” Dr. Poulos said of her decision. “I’ve loved being on the school board but there’s a lot of other things I want to do now. I’ve had my own business in the Shirt Factory [Minervathena] for a while, and now I’m going to be going back into medicine, so I kind of want to devote my time to those things.”
She said she chose Drexel because “it’s the closest to me, and my daughter Alexandra lives here so I have a place to stay.” Alexandra, oldest child of Dr. Poulos and her husband Dr. Peter Hughes, is a ballerina with the Pennsylvania Ballet Company.
“I actually started in February with an online program,” Dr. Poulos said of the Drexel program. “It was 150 hours of lectures and testing. So I did that at home.
“And then I started April 4th in Philadelphia and it’s intensive program. It’s incredibly well-rounded so it’s a lot of lectures and morning reports and conferences and clinics and some in-patient stuff.”
It’s five days a week, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., “and then we have homework,” she said.
‘The whole climate is different’
“It’s pretty fun. It’s humbling (laughing) to realize how much I have not retained, and then how much has changed. Even the whole climate is different.
“The way you interview patients is different, the way you handle things is different, there’s a lot more algorithms and standards of care and how you order tests and when you order tests…It’s a lot different than when I was in practice, so this was something that was very much needed.”
She’ll finish up at Drexel on June 24.
“You get a report of sorts outlining exactly what you did,” Dr. Poulos said. “And there is pre- and post-testing. They actually have fabulous fake patients that we do videotaped things with. It’s kind of interesting.”
Regarding the school board, she said, “I think it’s fabulous that we have four candidates seeking two seats because there were some years when we had nobody running and we would have a write-in candidate, so I think it’s great.
“I know a few of the people who are running — I don’t know them all — but I think there are certainly some qualified people who are running who would be an asset to the board.
“I think the board will be fine. Suzanne Spector-Tougas is an experienced board member. This is her seventh year, I believe. There’s some very bright and very capable on the board. I think the board will continue to function and Paul [Jenkins] is a great leader. He’ll help guide them, and I’m around if anyone has a question.
“…I loved the time I was on the board. At the time, especially [closing] Sanford Street and [changing the] school start time and other things that were tough, but in retrospect it certainly was well worth it. It’s a great opportunity for people and it will be nice to have some fresh faces on the board.”
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