Larry Koenig III, MD, was one of those children who was always a tinkerer. Drawn to mathematics and the sciences, he studied chemical and biochemical engineering in his undergrad.
“I was fascinated by opening something up and putting it back together,” Dr. Koenig shared. “It turns out, I liked engineering in school, but not in practice.”
After five years in the field, Dr. Koenig decided to go to med school. “Med school was always in the back of my mind,” Dr. Koenig said. “Treating patients is a very focused, goal-oriented kind of job. Working with people, on people, and seeing the results of your efforts – that’s what I enjoy. And engineering wasn’t as personal or as obvious as that.”
At Jefferson Medical College he decided very early on that he wanted to become a surgeon, but it wasn’t until he started his residency that he knew he wanted to pursue a vascular specialty. “Becoming a surgeon finally gave me the opportunity to get away from a desk and use my hands to solve problems. In a way, I had finally found a career reminiscent of the deconstructing and mending I enjoyed as a kid,” Dr. Koenig explained. “And vascular drew me because it is fairly technical and detail-oriented surgery.”
Dr. Koenig completed his general surgery residency at Union Memorial Hospital and his vascular fellowship at Geisinger Medical Center. “After living in downtown Philadelphia for med school and downtown Baltimore during my residency, Bloomsburg was a bit of a shock.” Even though he had been used to life in the city, he came to appreciate the “quiet, hometown, know-your-neighbors, family-oriented feel” of rural Pennsylvania. Dr. Koenig likes that Fredericksburg is a little bit in between, with Richmond and D.C. so easily accessible.
Together with his wife of 21 years and their two children, Dr. Koenig lives in Spotsylvania. “We’re pretty busy with sports and extracurricular activities, but we usually manage to eat dinner together,” Dr. Koenig shared. “Working in an outpatient setting accommodates this ability to be truly present to my patients and truly present to my family.” Dr. Koenig and his family love the Fawn Lake community they live in and, when the weather is nice, they take advantage of all there is to do outdoors. “We really like our neighborhood and our town. It’s a good mix of where we grew up and where we lived before moving here.”
According to Dr. Koenig, “The best thing about VIVA is how well-run and well-organized the practice is. From the physicians to the support staff, everyone is good at what they do. It makes for a very pleasant work environment and the practice is very stable. For a town of this size, the quality and quantity of our offerings is advanced.”
“You get to be a doctor in a way that a doctor should be. Your focus is on treating your patients. Having someone else figure out everything else, means better care for our patients. We get to focus on them and on medicine. I still have a lot of paperwork, but I don’t have to think about a lot of things that other doctors have to juggle.”