On our introductory page, we told you that Dr. Gary S. Berger attended Harvard College as an undergraduate student. That alone should tell you the caliber of doctor we are discussing here, but it is only the beginning.

Although we are all very grateful to have doctors and the researchers who advance medical knowledge, I wondered what entices a young person to pursue being a doctor when there is all that schooling and long years of training that follows such a decision.

For Dr. Berger, it began with work as a summer “intern” following his sophomore year. Up till then he had pursued mathematics, music and philosophy trying to find the right major for him. This summer internship was in the pathology department at the local hospital. The teaching program was run by a Dr. John Abbott who Dr. Berger describes as “…the most inspiring person I had ever met. He was a scholar, a most gentle person, and so devoted to the welfare of others. I had never met anyone like him before, and I wanted to become like him.” Dr. Berger also wanted to help people. With a mentor like Dr. Abbott, this led Dr. Berger to wanting to be a doctor as well. The long years of study just didn’t phase him as he was a hard worker and a serious student which those who associate with him know he still is today.

Returning to college after that summer, Dr. Berger decided to major in biological sciences which is the equivalent of being pre-med. He graduated with an Artium Baccalaureus (A.B.) degree with honors and began his medical training as a student at the University of Rochester Medical School in Rochester, New York.

Once he graduated from medical school, he began his internship at Duke University Hospital learning all about internal medicine. He worked for a year in all sorts of departments at Duke such as metabolic diseases, cardiology, neurology and emergency medicine. Hey, just like ER on TV, except with real cases and real people.

While still in medical school, Dr. Berger had enjoyed obstetrics and gynecology. This is why he decided to do his residency in this field. He served his first year of residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

However, Dr. Berger was such a hotshot in school in his statistics and epidemiology courses that he was offered a position as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Family Planning Evaluation Program at the Centers for Disease Control, also know as the CDC. Dr. Carl Tyler, the chief of the Family Planning Evaluation Program for the CDC would visit medical schools looking for young recruits. Due to Dr. Berger’s performance in the courses above and his interest in ob/gyn, Dr. Tyler invited Dr. Berger to work with him after his first year of residency. Given the time in history, Dr. Berger was all too glad to spend a couple more years in a learning environment in public health. You can see very clearly Dr. Berger loves to learn.

After this, he did the next three years of his ob/gyn residency at the University of North Carolina. What sent the good doctor to UNC was a desire to pursue a Master’s degree at the same time as doing his residency. His time with the CDC increased his interest in public health to such a point that he wanted to get a degree in it as well. He was fortunate enough to have, as the chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a man that was a progressive educator who agreed to let him pursue the master while doing his residency. That progressive educator was Dr. Charles Hendricks.

So when all of Dr. Berger’s education was completed, he had not only attended some of the top schools in the country, Harvard and the University of Rochester Medical School, he had also completed an internship in internal medicine at Duke University Hospital, four years of residency in ob/gyn at John Hopkins Hospital and the University of North Carolina, obtained a Master of Science in Public Health degree and served as a Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer. This was only the beginning as you will see when you read about his further training in microsurgery techniques.

To this day Dr Berger continues his academic pursuits by collecting, maintaining and publishing the results of his surgeries which form the basis for a continuing study in tubal reversal procedures. From these tubal reversal study results he had learned and further developed his surgical procedures to give the many women desiring a second chance for a child that very possibility.