“I enjoy this field
and being able
to help women
with what I do,
and that helps
make my home
life better.”

M.D.

Erin Saunders may have
spent four years as a music
major attending college on
a vocal scholarship, but by
the time she graduated from
her alma mater, Furman
University, she was singing a
different tune. The Knoxville
native stuck with her original
goal of going on to attend
medical school, and she has
since come full circle, having
recently relocated to East
Tennessee to practice medicine with the Fort Sanders
Obstetrical and Gynecological Group, P.C.

As an OB-GYN, Saunders covers the usual bases of her
specialty, including annual exams and labor and delivery
duties. But during her residency at the University of
Tennessee Center for Health Sciences in Memphis, she
gravitated toward the sub-specialty of urogynecology, a
field that deals with specific urinary-related conditions
like incontinence. A one-year fellowship from 2005 to
2006 allowed her to discover the intangible rewards of
pelvic surgery.

“I loved being in women’s medicine, but I especially
loved the idea of focusing on surgery. It’s nice being a
female in that field, because I understand the issues that
are involved,” Saunders says. “I also like having that
continuity with a patient, being able to follow her from
her first exam to her first baby all the way to a pelvic
prolapse, if that’s the case.”

Prior to moving back to Knoxville, Saunders spent
three years as a clinical instructor at the University of
Kentucky Department of OB-GYN. Her new assignment
at Fort Sanders has allowed her to shift from an academic
setting to practicing in a region where the need for
urogynecologists is underserved.

“I’m glad to be working in a wonderful hospital facility
that delivers wonderful care,” she says. “This is an
efficient system with competent partners who have a solid
work ethic and a patient-first attitude. It’s very refreshing.”

The move to Knoxville was actually the result of a new work
opportunity for Saunders’ husband, Brook, who is a
gynecological oncologist. The transfer worked out well for
Saunders herself, a graduate of the Webb School of Knoxville
and the daughter of a local ear, nose and throat doctor.

“I grew up here and wanted to come back home,” says the
mother of two young children. “It’s a nice place to raise a family.”

She admits that balancing a medical career with being a wife
and a mother can get fairly hectic but that the satisfaction she
draws from her career carries over into her family life.

“I enjoy this field and being able to help women with what I
do,” she adds. “And that helps make my home life better.”

Her goal now—to help grow a
successful practice where patients feel
that they’re getting the best care they
can receive.

“I’d like to eventually earn a
reputation as a doctor that people
want to see, who understands
medicine and has the skills to take
care of people the way they want to be
taken care of,” she says.

And if she can squeeze in singing
the occasional solo at a friend’s
wedding, so much the better. EK