For Lindsey Van Duyn, VCOM–Carolinas ‘15, the journey to medicine began in rural Iowa—but clarity came later.
After graduating from the University of Central Florida, she explored different jobs while medicine lingered quietly in the background. It wasn’t until she volunteered at the Mayo Clinic that everything aligned. There, she witnessed the powerful combination of scientific rigor, research, and patient care.
“As I learned more about osteopathic medicine, I knew it fit my values,” she recalls. The DO philosophy’s emphasis on whole-person care—and the responsibility to treat patients as people, not diagnoses—felt right.
Dr. Van Duyn was a late applicant to VCOM, encouraged by other prospective students who spoke highly of the College. She joined the Spartanburg campus in 2011 and what she found was an environment that balanced high expectations with genuine support.
Medical school, she says, often felt like “drinking from a water hose.” But during significant life changes, VCOM faculty and staff ensured she was supported. Those relationships, built during some of the most demanding years of her life, remain meaningful today.
Her memories of VCOM are both serious and joyful. She helped launch a pediatric kids fair, organized emergency response programming that included a helicopter landing on campus, and attempted to break a Guinness World Record to raise awareness about blood pressure in Spartanburg. She still laughs about a geriatric lecture that left a lasting clinical impression that still guides her prescribing decisions years later.
A Career Redirected
When she entered medical school, Dr. Van Duyn planned to become an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine. She matched into an orthopedic residency and began training. Then, during her first year, she discovered she was pregnant with twins.
That moment reshaped everything.
Balancing the demands of surgical residency with a growing family ultimately led her to return to her home state and transition into family medicine. Today, she practices primary care at a clinic in her hometown in rural Iowa and serves as medical director of a local nursing home, providing care across generations. Her therapy dog, Arrow, supports patients and staff alike.
Turning Crisis Into Innovation
You might think that motherhood and being a devoted family physician would be enough to keep Dr. Van Duyn busy. But in 2020, Dr. Van Duyn began to notice a troubling pattern: teenagers in her community struggling with severe depression and suicidality, often with limited access to effective therapy. Traditional mental health resources were scarce or not working for some of her patients. She refused to accept that as the endpoint.
Driven by both clinical urgency and personal commitment, she found time to immerse herself in research, where she encountered data pointing to the potential of virtual reality as a therapeutic tool for mental health. When she struggled to find a program she felt confident using with her patients, she created her own.
Her company, Immersive Medical Therapy (IMT), was born out of her work with real patients and a refusal to settle for inadequate options. The platform uses virtual reality to support mental health treatment, particularly for teens and adults struggling with depression. She believes immersive technology may one day become part of standard mental health practice—not as a replacement for physicians or therapists, but as an additional tool to care for their patients.
In fact, Dr. Van Duyn has partnered with VCOM on IRB-approved research studying the effectiveness of virtual reality in treating depression. The collaboration reflects the very intersection that first inspired her at Mayo: research informed by real patient need.
In 2025, Dr. Van Duyn was recognized as an emerging leader in osteopathic medicine by the American Osteopathic Association and the American Osteopathic Foundation, in part because of her work on this type of innovative therapy. She won the award for her state of Iowa, but was also honored as the National Emerging Leader. “I’m thankful that the AOA/AOF took the time to acknowledge those of us that are spending our time and using our talents so freely without seeking the recognition,” she says. “The peers I met at the ceremony were truly inspirational with their work in medicine.”
A Foundation That Endures
Dr. Van Duyn credits VCOM with building the strong academic and clinical foundation that prepared her for every chapter of her career. The rigor of her education, success on board examinations, and early opportunities to lead equipped her to adapt when life changed direction.
More than anything, she remains grateful—to VCOM, her mentors, and her classmates.
