The New Doctors

Meet John Plescia ’04, MD ’09
Rockford Campus

John Plescia ’04, MD ’09, has prepared well for the role of rural family physician. Out of his class of 50, Plescia was one of 15 students in the Rural Medical Education Program who upon completing their residency will locate and practice in rural Illinois as primary care physicians.

During his family medicine preceptorship in Oregon, Plescia conducted a pedometer study researching severe obesity and diabetes problems in the area, and walked alongside many of the participants. “I enjoyed talking to the patients and realized that hearing their stories gave me a better sense of what they need medically,” he says.

Now a resident in family medicine at Rockford’s SwedishAmerican Hospital, Plescia has a personal affinity for his specialty. While he was in medical school, he and his wife, Trisha (also a 2004 UIUC graduate), had two children. “Having kids in medical school made me more efficient,” he says. “I didn’t have six hours to study, so I did it in two or three.”