Fergus Falls is welcoming a brand new doctor at Lake Region Healthcare, Katie Bressler, MD, who will have a dual practice in family medicine and obstetrics.
In addition to that, Bressler said she is excited to be able serve LGBTQIA+ patients in the area with their unique needs as well.
“I think the mainstay of LGBTQIA+ care is really just being sensitive. It’s kind of the basics of family medicine in general, trying to be sensitive to each of our individual’s patients’ needs. I have found that sometimes members of LGBTQIA+ community miss out on certain screenings. It’s really important to stay up with that. There’s a specialized type of approach to try to get that primary care done, especially in transgender patients, other kinds of services that I provide include hormone therapy for transgender patients,” said Bressler.
Bressler also feels strongly about addiction treatments and will offer that as well.
“It’s really rewarding to work with folks with addictions. Sometimes I think there’s a lot of stigma around opioid use disorder, methamphetamine use disorder and alcohol use disorder. This is a special place to be in the room with my patients and seeing them as a human struggling with a disease. Instead of seeing it as a fault in character, it’s just such an honor to be able to provide needed help for patients. I get to see the success stories too, in fact, the vast majority of people who are treated do achieve remission and that provides hope,” said Bressler.
According to her bio on the LRH website, Bressler is originally from the Duluth area and graduated from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with undergraduate degrees in Biology and Spanish. In college, she studied abroad for a year in Quito, Ecuador, where she interned at a maternity hospital, sparking an early interest in primary care and women’s health. She completed medical school at the University of Minnesota, residency at the Duluth Family Medicine Residency Program and an obstetrics fellowship at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho-Boise/Full Circle Health. She also completed a nine-month rural rotation during medical school at LRH, where she worked closely with many specialties, including family medicine and OB.
On her educational journey of becoming a doctor, the stint in Ecuador was life-changing for Bressler.
“It was really influential as far as my career path choice. I spent probably four months of that year working in a maternity hospital in Quito. I worked mostly with adolescent mothers in a maternity hospital that came in from the rural areas of Ecuador mostly. It really introduced me to the OB side of medicine, but also the public health side of medicine. I think that year is what led me to family medicine with the OB in general,” said Bressler.
She is fluent in Spanish. Bressler also enjoys spending time outside with her husband, Pat, and two rescue dogs, Rebel and Chester. Hobbies include running, hiking, camping, canoeing, cycling, reading and knitting.
After returning to the area, Bressler says herself and her husband were delighted with all the early snow this year.
“We’re excited to that it’s snowing already this year, we missed that snow when we lived in Boise.”
