By MacLean James

For The Ironton Tribune

Born into a family of doctors, Michael Basedow never really doubted that he would follow in their footsteps.

Both his parents, William and Arlene, own their own practice in Ironton. His brother and sister, Joey and Sara, are currently in their postgraduate residencies and plan to finish within the next year.

Basedow finished medical school at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Erie, Pennsylvania in 2017, and went on to complete his residency in Columbus at Doctors Hospital, which he finished this year. He will soon be joining his parents at their clinic as a family doctor, with an emphasis on musculoskeletal medicine and osteopathic manipulation treatment.

He sees a big need for more doctors to come to the Tri-State. It is an underserved area, and often patients will have to travel out of town to receive the care they need.

It’s important for that care to be more accessible. Basedow is hoping that more young professionals and doctors will choose to return and build up their services and practices here.

But he is starting his practice during unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought along many challenges to the medical field. It is something he has been dealing with since March and believes will continue until at least the end of this year or longer.

The Basedow Family Clinic is currently offering telehealth services to help combat the virus, and will continue for the foreseeable future.

Basedow looks forward to serving the people he knows in the place where he grew up.

“When I went to medical school I didn’t exactly know what specialty I wanted to go into,” he said. “But spending some time with my mom and dad at their office and doing rotations with them, I got to see that patient connection they have. It’s a more personal thing with a family medical doctor as opposed to specialists, who you might see only once or twice and that’s it. … As a family doctor you get to follow them along, sometimes from birth until death. You can get to know them pretty well. It’s that personal relationship that made me gravitate toward family medicine.”