Ann Pollock

by Kami Rice

Like many physicians, Dr. Ann Pollock knew at a very young age that she wanted to be a doctor. She suspects that all the stories she heard about her grandfather’s 50 years of adventures as a country doctor in Mason County, Kentucky, helped plant the idea in her mind. He died two years before she was born, but the stories of his life and work lived on and prompted her to follow in his steps.

Before graduating from UK’s College of Medicine in 1982 and subsequently completing her three-year internal medicine residency at UK, Pollock graduated in 1978 from UK’s College of Arts & Sciences with a B.S. in Biology. “I have this fond memory of my undergrad,” she reminisced. “It makes me happy to think of those days.” 

In addition to receiving very good preparation for medical school, Pollock is glad that she was able to study courses outside her major, allowing her to take a liberal arts approach to her undergrad experience. She remembers her Shakespeare class, where the professor brought Shakespeare’s work to life and created such an excellent learning experience that Pollock took another of his classes, one on John Milton’s Paradise Lost. “I knew I would be studying a lot of science in medical school, so I wanted to broaden my experience while I had the chance.”  

Pollock’s life still mirrors this mix of interests. She and her husband, Dr. John Patterson, love to travel and have made their way to numerous points abroad over the years, sometimes on their own  but more often accompanied by their three now-mostly-grown children. Two of the most culturally diverse trips were to Myanmar, and Istanbul, Turkey.

Though she’s intrigued by each place they’ve visited, Italy is her favorite country thus far. She loves its history, its people, its countryside, and of course its food.

Pollock and Patterson’s travel has included locales like rural Finland, where they visited one of the European au pairs who stayed with their family while their children were young. Knowing their jobs’ long hours meant they would need help with their children, Pollock and Patterson settled in Frankfort, Kentucky, in order to be near their parents, who helped a great deal. But they supplemented the parental help by having au pairs from abroad come live with their family. “We still keep in touch with them,” said Pollock. “They are our European family.”

As an internist, Pollock serves as a doctor to adults, treating patients age 17 and up. Most days begin with checking in on patients in the hospital, followed by seeing 20 or so patients at her office, and then wrapping up with rounds back at the hospital. She loves the variety that comes with practicing internal medicine. “You just never know what you’re going to walk in and see.”  She treats a lot of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, mostly a result of the high rates of obesity and smoking among Kentuckians.

A love of people permeates Pollock’s life and work. She lists her patients as part of what she enjoys most about working as a physician. In keeping with her original inspiration for practicing medicine, she’s begun making house calls in the Frankfort area since many of her patients are elderly and have a very hard time getting to her office for appointments. She enjoys seeing her patients in their home environment and says the home visits are fun. Plus, “My patients appreciate it.”

One can guess that her grandfather would be proud of this nod to the old way of doing medicine. Pollock also volunteers once every month or two at Mission Frankfort Clinic, a weekly Wednesday clinic hosted by First Baptist Church in Frankfort to treat uninsured patients. 

Medicine isn’t the only family tradition Pollock is part of. Building on a new, growing UK tradition, her daughter graduated from the university with her undergrad degree and is now a first year medical student at the College of Medicine, following the path of both her parents. Pollock and Patterson’s older son is a sophomore at UK. The jury’s still out regarding where their younger son, a high school senior, will attend college.

Though her older son is majoring in engineering, she says he’s taken classes in the College of Arts & Sciences. And that’s part of what she loves so much about the opportunities to be found there. The courses offered in the College of Arts & Sciences are important for students from all majors. “I am just a liberal arts girl,” she said. “I think the heart of the university is the College of Arts & Sciences.”

Photo: Dr. Ann Pollock and Dr. John Patterson celebrate with their daughter and first-year medical student, Elaine Patterson, at the White Coat Reception.