Shortly before he died in 2024, David Scheffer, M.D., told his mother and a family friend that one way he would like to be remembered was helping fourth-year medical students go on out-of-state rotations as they explore and try to solidify their choice of specialties.

“When they told me he had said that, it just instantly took me back to our conversations from when he was fairly young about trying to help other people when you can,” said his father, Russell Scheffer, M.D., chair of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at KU School of Medicine-Wichita from 2007 to 2014 and now a medical director for an insurance company.

A meaningful experience for David ­— a Dallas rotation affirming his choice and confidence in pursuing anesthesiology — has resulted in meaningful help for students following him through KUSM-Wichita: The Dr. David Russell Scheffer Medical Student Support Fund.

Last fall, the need-based fund helped send four students on visits. The rotations — students do four or five dozen in total each year ­­— occur most often in the fall and are just another cost during years in which there are many.

“He knew people in his class who weren’t as fortunate,” his father said. “It’s not a huge fund, but as long as I can I’m going to help keep growing it.”

A bit about David and his choice and his residency trip

David Scheffer, M.D., who graduated from KUSM-Wichita in 2022, had long been interested in medicine, but his choice to pursue it as a career strengthened after health challenges led to amputations that left his father wheelchair bound. David began volunteering a good deal, helping people with disabilities, his father said.

In medical school, “he was good at psychiatry, but that was not what he wanted to do,” said Scheffer, adding that to some extent it might have been a “didn’t want to be like dad kind of thing.” But anesthesiology drew in David. The Scheffers had lived in Dallas — they’d call David “Big D” — and the anesthesiology residency at UT Southwestern is well respected. His rotation there in 2021 affirmed his choice.

“When he was getting close to finishing his rotation, he had an exit interview with the chair,” his father recalled. “The chair was talking to him as though it was a foregone conclusion that he was going to get into a good anesthesiology residency, and that David really reminded him of himself.”

The feedback was so positive that David asked his father: “Does he have to say those things? I’m like, ‘No, they don’t but they can. They’re recruiting the best people in the country, and they don’t have to blow smoke like that.’ He had decided by then that he was going to do anesthesiology, but it really reinforced it to him.”

Ultimately, David selected Northwestern Medicine in Chicago for residency. There, during his second year, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of colon cancer. Returning to Wichita for care and family, he died April 15, 2024, at age 28.

“We had about a year from knowing that he had cancer until he died,” Scheffer said.

What the rotations entail

David’s experience during an out-of-state rotation isn’t unusual. Often taking place after a specialty has been picked, the rotations can be a good way to receive letters of recommendation or to help the students decide if a program or location is or isn’t a good fit.

“Some students say they got to the program, and it actually wasn’t what they were looking for,” said Ally Turner, assistant director of KUSM-Wichita Academic & Student Affairs. “Others say it was a good experience, that they loved it, that it’s their top pick. It’s just a great way for students to actually get a feel for the program before they potentially match and spend their future there.”

Some students do more than one rotation, and last school year 31 students did 50 rotations. This academic year, 38 students are scheduled to do 63 rotations. Some programs offer free housing, or  students choose locations where they have family or tap websites offering budget-friendly rentals.

In recent years, students have done rotations in plastic surgery, dermatology, pediatrics and other specialties. They go near — Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado — and far, such as North Carolina, Florida and Connecticut.

With residency applications submitted in September, some schedule rotations in October, November and December.

“Some students use it like an in-person interview for residency,” Turner said. “The residencies get to see the student and how they work with patients, and so it’s a benefit for the residency as well.”

Students apply for the Scheffer fund and are assessed to ensure they have financial need. Since needs exceed funds at this point, recipients are then selected randomly. During the last school year, Megan Baumgartner, Namie Fotion, Annie Carlson and Maggie Ziegler received assistance. Baumgarter went on to match at the Wichita general surgery program, Fotion in psychiatry at UCLA, Carlson in obstetrics-gynecology at the University of Iowa and Ziegler in pediatrics at Boston University.

Ziegler did rotations at Yale Children’s Hospital and the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital.

“The scholarship helped make my away rotations possible by alleviating some of the financial burden,” Ziegler said. “I was very grateful to be able to use the funds toward the cost of travel.”

“By immersing myself in a new city and hospital system, I learned how to adapt to my surroundings and apply my medical knowledge in a new environment,” Ziegler said. “The experiences affirmed my desire to pursue pediatrics and gave me invaluable learning opportunities in pediatric hematology/oncology and pediatric infectious diseases, subspecialties I am very interested in exploring.”

The Scheffer fund is just one of several overseen by ASA and KU Endowment to help students. The Wichita Emergency Fund, for example, helps those in financial crunches, while the Bridget Harrison, M.D., International Education Support Fund helps make overseas trips possible.

Russell Scheffer went to KU School of Medicine in Kansas City on a military scholarship, graduating in 1991. His rotations were to military locations, and he’d go on to psychiatry residency and fellowship at military-affiliated programs.

“I was fortunate,” Scheffer said. “There’s no way I could have paid my way to go away for a month. I could barely pay rent. It meant a lot to me that in the last couple of weeks of his life, David was thinking about helping others.”

Above, left: David Scheffer, M.D.

Scheffer Support Fund

If you’re interested in supporting the Dr. David Russell Scheffer Medical Student Support Fund, you can contribute here. If you would like to start a similar effort to support students and the mission of KU School of Medicine-Wichita, contact Brad Rukes, KU Endowment senior development director-Wichita, at 316-293-2641 or BRukes@kuendowment.org.