Dear Doctor: Anna Barbieri and Suzanne Fenske
The New York City women’s health providers and founders of TaraMD on blending the best of modern and integrative medicine.
Anna Barbieri and Suzanne Fenske met at Mount Sinai Hospital during a minimally invasive gynecologic surgery fellowship and, later, reconnected through their passion for providing integrative and high-quality care for women.
Their joint venture,TaraMD, is an innovative gynecology practice in NYC that focuses on whole-body health by blending the best of modern and integrative medicine. Read on to learn more about why they started their business and their commitment to building better, comprehensive healthcare for women.
How did each of you find your way to women’s health?
Anna: I’ve been involved in women’s health for almost 25 years. I first found myself on this path as a young and somewhat naive medical student. My original intention was to go into the field of medical oncology. But that all changed after the first 48 hours of my OBGYN rotation.
Even after all this time, I feel incredibly fortunate to have found women’s health. Though I’ve certainly evolved and transformed over the last 25 years, I remain forever convinced that this is what I was meant to do.
Suzy: I’ve wanted to be a physician since I was a child, but it wasn’t until the very end of rotations that I realized that I wanted to work in women’s health. One of my mentors at the time asked me what I could imagine myself doing day in and day out without getting bored, and that was when I knew.
I loved building relationships with women and the opportunity to be a part of some of the most important parts of my patients’ lives. But I also believed at that early stage in my career that there needed to be better care for women, and I wanted to be a part of the solution. I couldn’t imagine doing anything more rewarding.
How did you two meet?
Anna: Suzy and I first met over 10 years ago in an operating room. We were both in the middle of a minimally invasive gynecologic surgery fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Looking back, we’ve covered both extremes of the field together: we met while learning about minimally invasive surgical interventions and have more recently founded our current company, TārāMD, to offer a broad spectrum of interventions, including more holistic care, to our patients.
What inspired you to found TaraMD?
Suzy: Both Anna and I are double boarded in OBGYN and integrative medicine. I can easily say that completing the Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the University of Arizona was a life-altering experience, both on a personal and professional level.
At that point in my life, I was working in an academic practice and Anna was in a larger group private practice. But after completing our fellowship, we both realized that there were certain limitations in the way that standard medical care is delivered. We saw a need for better, more comprehensive women’s care, so we decided to build it.
Anna: On a personal note, I’ve also recently witnessed a close friend navigate some serious health challenges which has further emphasized my commitment to delivering care from a more global perspective. I think women’s health suffers from a particular problem of delivering care through a very narrow lens. But women’s health isn’t just about caring for a person’s vagina, uterus, or ovaries, but instead should be about how caring for our reproductive health can improve our overall health.
In what ways does integrative medicine inform your approach to patient care?
Anna: Suzy and I have both practiced in an integrated way for a long time, even prior to formalizing our training through the University of Arizona fellowship. What integrative medicine means to us is simply really good medicine.
Integrative medicine acknowledges that our health is not limited to one thing. It acknowledges the relationship between physical health, emotional health, hormonal health, and so on. And it also means that in addition to sometimes necessary and effective pharmacological or surgical solutions, we can also improve our patients’ health using different tools, whether they be nutrition, counseling, or acupuncture.
Though the umbrella term of integrative medicine hasn’t changed how we practice, it has enabled us to offer our patients more diverse tools to address their health in a personalized way.
What has been the most rewarding moment of your career to date?
Suzy: There hasn’t been just one moment that I can point to, for which I’m grateful. One of the reasons why I love practicing medicine is that every single day provides a rewarding moment.
And that’s what helps me to remain positive and keeps me wanting to learn more and do more. And it definitely helps offset the burnout that comes with practicing medicine.
Anna: I agree. Medicine is an inherently rewarding field that offers daily rewards and affirmation, and I think that’s what has kept both of us going. Even the little things, like teaching a fifteen-year-old about menstruation or helping someone understand how their body works, feel personally rewarding.
In women’s health, we have the unique privilege to share in very intimate aspects of our patients’ emotional and physical lives, which lends itself easily to providing a wealth of rewarding moments.
Vital Signs
What’s your go-to way to unwind?
Suzy: Exercise.
Anna: A warm bath with a glass of sauvignon blanc in hand and a mindless (but not endless) scroll through Twitter.
Favorite meal or restaurant in NYC?
Suzy: Posto shroomtown pizza. If I could choose, it would be my last meal!
Anna: My favorite restaurant is a nostalgic pick that reminds me of my life in New York in the early 2000s: Balthazar.
Do you have a beloved book, TV show, or podcast of late?
Suzy: I love podcasts and am currently into Body of Wonder and The Doctor’s Farmacy with Mark Hyman. Choosing just one beloved book is impossible, but I will always hold A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith in a special place in my heart.
Anna: I recently re-read my favorite book of fiction, Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.
What’s one healthful habit you’d love to see patients adopt?
Suzy: Meditation.
Anna: 5–10 minutes of physical activity a day.
You can learn more about TaraMD here.
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