Originally from Russia, Dr. Kristina Wittig moved to New York as a teenager and realized her dream of becoming a physician as a freshman at Marist College in Poughkeepsie.
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“I started out as an environmental science major, and the first time they took us out into some field to take some water out of a pond, I realized that this is not for me,” Wittig told KHTS with a laugh. “I just realized that I really want to work with people and make people’s lives better.”
Not long after starting medical school at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, the specialty of surgical urology caught Wittig’s interest, leading her to pursue a five-year residency at the University of Connecticut.
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“I knew that surgery was something I wanted to do … and urology always stuck out to me,” Wittig recalled. “I was also lucky we had an amazing mentor in medical school who was our urology chairman. (He) was very involved with medical students and he always encouraged us to look into the field.”
Wittig decided to make the cross-county move to California for a fellowship in robotic surgery and urologic oncology at City of Hope, and never looked back.
“I loved City of Hope so much that I ended up actually staying,” she said. “I got a really good feeling about the people I was meeting and the place… It was definitely a good fit.”
Now a urologic surgeon and assistant clinical professor of surgery at City of Hope Santa Clarita and Antelope Valley, Wittig noted she loves that her specialty allows her to cultivate personal relationships with her patients while still acting as their surgeon.
“It’s not (that) I just do the surgery and then you never see the patient again — there’s a long-term relationship that gets established,” she explained. “I like that relationship and follow-up with my patients.”
Ed. Note: This article is a KHTS Community Spotlight based on a recent radio interview with Dr. Kristina Wittig of City of Hope Santa Clarita.23823 Valencia Blvd., Suite 250
Santa Clarita, CA, 91355
661-799-1999
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