The (new) doctor’s in

Fergus Falls is attracting physicians from region, nation and world

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The newest doctors with Fergus Falls Medical Group may differ in background and expertise, but they all have one thing in common: A passion for their work.

Take Dr. Gloria Tong, a native of Taiwan, who received a B.A. in English literature in Taipei before earning biology and medical degrees at the University of Utah and the University of Utah School of Medicine. Tong attributes her interest in geriatric psychiatry to growing up with a father who was in his 40s when she was born.

“It’s different to open up yourself emotionally than physically,” she said. “I think you can do a lot of good things (as a psychiatrist) and you may be the only person (patients) open up to.”

Tong joined Fergus Falls Medical Group in January and says she was attracted to small town life, the availability of geriatric patients and, believe it or not, the snow and cold.

“I’m fairly new here so I’m not tired of the weather yet,” she said. “I’m happy to be here and to be doing what I do best.”

Next door to Dr. Tong is Dr. David Tomb, a Pittsburgh native who has degrees in physics and math from the College of Wooster in Ohio and a Ph.D. in oceanography from the University of Virginia.

“In Ohio, the ocean seems awfully exciting,” he said of his initial plan to be an oceanographer. “I found, however, that living in Ohio didn’t prepare you for the ocean and I never got over being seasick. So I was kind of stuck and I had to find something else to do.”

Tomb chose medicine and earned his medical degree from Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, with his internship and residency in psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He obtained his fellowship in child psychiatry at the same school and taught there for about 20 years before arriving in Fergus Falls in January.

“I needed a change,” he said of the move. “After awhile, you’ve done everything there is to do.”

Tomb is also the author of about a dozen books, his first published in 1981. For Tomb, writing is more about the process than the product.

“I enjoy the process of collecting information and making it useable and available,” he said.

Like Tomb, Dr. Eric Lokken had a different career path in mind before pursuing a medical degree. A native of Bottineau, N.D., Lokken worked as a nurse’s aid while studying chemical engineering at the University of North Dakota. Lokken said the lack of human interaction within chemical engineering persuaded him to take anatomy and biochemistry classes and later complete his medical degree at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.

“That interaction is what makes (medicine) more interesting than other careers I would have picked,” he said.

Lokken joined Fergus Falls Medical Group in August after completing a LaCrosse-Mayo Family Medicine Residency in Wisconsin. With family in the area and a variety of patients, Lokken says Fergus Falls is a good fit.