December 19, 2024
Dr. Rayala works as a family physician at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, where he also serves as a clinical professor of Family Medicine and as the Director of the Career Development Fellowship in Family Medicine Procedures. In addition, Dr. Rayala serves on the editorial board of FP Essentials and as associate editor at Essential Evidence.
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Dr. Rayala was born and raised in the Philippines, and his father was one of the first in his family to graduate college. “Dad grew up on a farm and has the most curious mind, while Mom has a keen sense of people and a generous heart,” Dr. Rayala says. “Growing up in a house like that, I became really interested in learning, teaching, and service. I later learned that that comes naturally in Family Medicine.”
Dr. Rayala also learned that Family Medicine offered the entire spectrum of care that he wanted to practice. “I always thought that I should be serious about providing comprehensive care to patients,” he says. “Throughout my rotations as a medical student, I didn’t find any specialty that came close to the comprehensiveness of care that Family Medicine provides. Plus, I was always attracted to the intellectual but practical aspect of finding solutions to hard problems. Family Medicine gave me the tools to think through the cases that aren’t straightforward while also giving excellent care to my patients.”
It helped that pursuing Family Medicine as an international graduate in the U.S. was practical for Dr. Rayala. “There was more openness in Family Medicine for international graduates,” he says. In 2002, he matched at the Family Medicine residency at Michigan State University. “I lucked out by finding a perfect program and thriving community that enhanced my interest in academic medicine and also my interest in providing practical care where it’s needed,” Dr. Rayala says. After residency, he was recruited as faculty at Michigan State and later completed a dermatological fellowship.
“I always gravitated toward the teaching side,” Dr. Rayala says. “And in Family Medicine, it comes naturally: we’re natural teachers to our patients, to their families, and to our communities.” His interest in teaching, together with the fact that his brother, Christopher, was a family physician working at Duke Primary Care, eventually brought him to teach at the UNC School of Medicine in 2011.
Speaking of his family: Dr. Rayala’s brother and his wife, Jade, are both family physicians here in North Carolina. Meanwhile, his daughter, Hannah, is currently a medical student at the East Carolina University (ECU) Brody School of Medicine who is also an engaged member of the NCAFP. This past year, she served as the student representative on the NCAFP Workforce committee. Next year, Hannah will serve on the NCAFP Advocacy committee also, and she is interested in becoming a family physician. “We’ve always encouraged our kids to think independently and pursue what is meaningful to them and what can contribute to society,” Dr. Rayala says. “When Hannah started medical school, we kept telling her, ‘Okay, open your mind. Think broadly.’ But at the end of the day, she is as independent as anyone else. Maybe she has decided that Family Medicine is her way of contributing to the health care of our state and our nation. I’m very, very proud of that.”
He says that his work as Director of the Career Development Fellowship draws from his continued interest in learning: “The cool thing about Family Medicine education and Family Medicine residencies is that you’re always with a group of intelligent, passionate people who have already committed themselves to the specialty,” Dr. Rayala says. “I’ve always been challenged by them in a good way, by their questions and our very practical work of caring for people. I’ve just been lucky enough to really be a ‘comprehensivist,’ where I can take care of the cognitive aspects of patients but also be surgically competent.”
His clinical work at the UNC Family Medicine residency has continued to teach him, even as he and his team have built its one procedure clinic up to several procedure clinics across Chapel Hill, Siler City, and Prospect Hill. “At the first procedure clinic, we would do things like vasectomies, IUDs, toenail procedures, and evaluate lesions for skin cancer. But as the years progressed, we’ve gotten the practice built up,” Dr. Rayala says, “and now we have about nine procedure clinics spread out within the UNC residency program. We now have plenty of opportunities there, where procedures are being taught by family physicians.”
During this transformation of UNC’s Family Medicine clinical surgical services and residency procedural curriculum, Dr. Rayala’s learning has naturally included teaching others. During his time at UNC, he has mentored eleven fellows and over 100 residents. “I'm proud to say that all the faculty who staff those procedure clinics are all brilliant doctors whom I’ve been lucky to mentor,” he says.
He taught “Dermatology in Pictures: An Illustrative Guide to Dermatologic Conditions for the Family Physician” session on Dec. 7, after an invitation from Program Chair Dr. Thomas White. “Dr. White challenged me to come up with an illustrated presentation that would be useful to family physicians,” Dr. Rayala says. “Like, what are the most important primary care dermatological conditions?”
helped that Dr. Rayala has compiled a collection of dermatological photos, which he then used to put together the presentation “sort of like a textbook,” he says. “It was quite a challenge to come up with something useful for the whole audience just by using my own pictures, but I think it came together nicely in the end,” Dr. Rayala says.
This 2024 meeting was his first time attending the NCAFP’s annual meeting, and Dr. Rayala reports that it went well and that he plans to return. “My relationship with the NCAFP is just beginning!” he says.