Ryan Miller, MD - Chief Resident
Where are you from?
Phoenix, AZ.
What are your personal interests/hobbies?
I used to be cool and do cool things, but since having two beautiful daughters I spend most of my free time doing dad things- by which I mean being the bad guy in fairy princess games and complaining about my joints aching and always being tired.
What are your professional interests?
My goals for future Dr. Ryan are to be competent, fast, appropriately narrow in testing and treatment, and exceptional in communication with both patients and colleagues. Moreover, I hope to become conversational in Spanish, or at least more competent than my current practice of pointing at body parts and yelling ¿Dolor? at patients.
Why did you choose UA EM?
First and absolutely foremost, the people. This program has excellent role models for applicants looking to work in private practice AND those with academic aspirations. Moreover, working with underserved populations incredibly rewarding for me. Also the longitudinal medical Spanish teaching was huge selling point. I just got back from learning Spanish in Guatemala, sponsored by the program!
What's your ideal vacation?
Mount Lemmon is awesome. No matter the time of year, you just drive up the mountain until the weather is nice, and stop there for a hike/ride/camp.
What are your non-medical goals during residency?
All right EM residency applicant. You are the only folks who read these (as I did) so instead of droning on about my life I’ll try to relate to you. As you fly around the country just trying to remember what state you’re currently in, you’ll be staying up irresponsibly late the night before an interview hurriedly researching the program. Every program, every single one, asks the question “why our program.” And you’ll unfortunately have to come up with a better answer than “because I want to be a doctor and you happen to be hiring.” Know that UA at South Campus is a very special program. I can’t think of another program that offers residents the opportunity to work in a county-style ED, a large academic ED, and a Peds ED that share the same attending staff and EMR. South campus is a hospital with amazing, caring, collegial staff from Program direction to paramedics. Pro tip- if you want to do a rotation here, be proactive in contacting our med student program coordinator (currently Kristina Waters) EARLY in the VSAS season. Good luck and God bless you in your journey to be an EM doc. It really is the best job in the world.