Dr. Yusuf Ruhallah is about halfway through a month-long stay at the Platte Valley Medical Clinic. He is here to complete the rural medicine portion of his residency which he is completing in Cheyenne at the University of Wyoming Family Practice.
Born and raised in Pleasanton, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area, Dr. Ruhallah said practicing medicine has always been a goal of his and he wants to go into family medicine.
He went to medical school and completed a one-year internship in Hyderabad, India, which by Indian standards was rural, though much bigger than Saratoga. That initial rural experience prompted a stay in Saratoga to satisfy a desire to continue getting experience with rural medicine.
Ruhallah had a few other options in the state to get rural experience, like Worland and Wheatland, but chose Saratoga.
“I floated down the river a few times and did some fly-fishing here as well and I heard great things about Dr. Bartholomew,” Ruhallah said.
Along with his tour at the clinic, Ruhallah has enjoyed Saratoga.
“It is a really neat little town, I have definitely enjoyed it so far,” Ruhallah said. “I thought people were friendly in Cheyenne, they are even more approachable here.”
Ruhallah is pleased with his time in Wyoming and originally intended to stay in the state to practice medicine, but now plans to return to California to be closer to family.
Having been a doctor on two continents, Ruhallah will have a well of experience to draw from when he starts his own practice.
Though the practice of medicine is essentially the same in India as in the U.S., Ruhallah said there are some cultural differences and the volume of patients is a lot higher in Inda.
Ruhallah saw patients with typical ailments like colds, flu and high blood pressure, but said there were a lot more patients with end stage cancers in India, along with more infectious diseases like tuberculosis and malaria.
“Only 10 to 20 percent of the population has insurance in India,” Ruhallah said. “There are some government programs, but not everyone utilizes them the way they could.”
Which is partly why he’d like to return to India once a year for a month or so to volunteer his time and skills.
He also plans to visit Wyoming in the future.
“It’d be nice to come out in the summer and go fishing and hunting,” he said.
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