Class of 2026 graduate profile: The Weiss brothers

Twin brothers Simon and Solomon Weiss had the unusual experience of attending medical school together. Now, they will do their residency together. Born in Vietnam, they were adopted at the age of two and raised in northeast Ohio, south of Youngstown. The brothers both earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering from The Ohio State University and matched in family medicine at St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital, their top-ranked program, just minutes from where they grew up.

What are you most excited about as you take your next step in your career?

As we take our next step in our career, we are most excited about being able to return to where we grew up to serve and care for the communities that helped us get to where we are today. We are also excited to continue working together, but now as fellow family medicine residents. Practicing medicine, and learning itself, is a lifelong pursuit, and we have been taught an extraordinary amount of medicine already and are thrilled that family medicine is the best specialty to maintain and further develop it. We love that family physicians can provide comprehensive, continuous and coordinated care that is proactive rather than reactive for the broadest scope of conditions in patients of any age while incorporating lifestyle and preventive medicine.

If you could go back in time and give yourself advice, what would it be?

We would tell ourselves that we are more capable than we gave ourselves credit for and that everything will be all right. We would remind ourselves of the fulfillment and meaning that come with spending time with family and prioritizing personal health and that there is more to us than our academics and career.

What led you to a career in medicine?

Our mother is a nurse practitioner, and our late father was a general surgeon; however, our parents have always been supportive of us finding and following our own path and doing anything that made us happy. None of our older siblings are in the medical field, but seeing how our parents were able to help and care for the community resonated with us. Even though our father passed away when we were in third grade, we learned of the principles and training that set osteopathic medicine apart from allopathic medicine as we grew older. It became important for us to become a D.O., especially considering our father was one.

How would you describe your time at HCOM?

Our time at HCOM has been a joy and privilege. We were interested in staying in Ohio and, even though we kept an open mind, family medicine was always our top specialty, so HCOM — whose mission is training osteopathic primary care physicians to serve Ohio — was our number one medical school choice. During the past four years, we trained beside, learned from and worked with some of the most caring, passionate and talented peers, faculty and physicians. We were pleasantly surprised by our ability to reconnect with our late father Paul Weiss, D.O., through our time at HCOM and the many stories we heard from people who knew him, including Athens Dean Tracy Shaub, D.O., when he was the chief of surgery and director of medical education at Youngstown Osteopathic Hospital. Among numerous accomplishments and acts of leadership in the osteopathic profession and medical education, our father was also an HCOM clinical professor of surgery, one of the college’s first after its founding. Though we never had the chance to ask or learn about medicine from our father, HCOM has brought us closer to him.

What was it like going through medical school together?

We have always been supportive of each other doing whatever either of us truly desired, even if it was different; however, we have naturally developed and pursued the same interests and been immensely grateful for the rare and unique opportunity to go through medical school together as identical twin brothers. In doing so, we always had someone to study with or quiz us, to practice our clinical skills with, bounce ideas off, keep us accountable, and support us through each challenge. Over the years, we have learned how much we stand out or how people seem to remember us because we are identical Vietnamese twins, and this has allowed us to connect with countless people, develop many meaningful relationships and nurture long-lasting friendships from HCOM.

Looking back on medical school, what were your most important experiences?

While we have had countless significant medical school experiences, we agree that having the honor of serving our fellow student doctors as a part of the Athens Class Officers (Simon as secretary and Solomon as treasurer) is one of the most important when we consider how much we were able to learn about everyone, advocate for the class, host events and organize fundraisers, including those with custom apparel we personally designed. We are also exceptionally proud of the work we did over our two preclinical years with fellow student Jasan Sandhu in organizing and coordinating work from roughly 110 Athens students to create and maintain a campus class study guide for quizzes and exams that is still used today by students across all campuses in the classes that have come after us. Lastly, having the opportunities to be Academic Peer Support Leader (APSL) tutors and osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) teaching assistants in HCOM’s only honors course were incredibly meaningful as they helped to enhance both our medical knowledge and hand-on skills while developing our ability to communicate complex topics to others and nurturing our love for teaching.

Tell us about your inspirations in life.

One of our most notable inspirations in life is trying to make the most of all the opportunities afforded to us and achieving our fullest potential. We recognize how fortunate we are to have been adopted from a developing country and become citizens of the United States, a country of practically unlimited possibilities. We believe to whom much is given, much is expected, and as physicians, there will be countless ways for us to give back and pay it forward.

Were you involved in research? If so, could you share more about what you worked on?

With our passion for improving health outcomes for all people, including marginalized and underserved populations, we engaged in public health research that focused on addressing breast cancer health disparities in Amish and Mennonite women and assessing the efficacy of a culturally sensitive breast cancer education program for them. Working with our mentor Melissa Thomas, Ph.D., we gained invaluable experience in cultural humility, health literacy and patient-centered care.

Who has helped you along the way? Is there anyone you want to recognize?

We would like to thank our mother for all the tremendous support she provided throughout our lives and education, especially as a single parent. We are also grateful to our family, friends and godparents who have helped us succeed in the face of adversity.

What hobbies do you have?

With a background in engineering, one of our major interests is unsurprisingly in technology, especially learning about the latest and greatest innovations in software and hardware. We find it rewarding and enjoyable being able to help family and friends with their electronics, whether it be troubleshooting a program issue or purchasing a new device. We even built our own computer before medical school. Some other hobbies of ours include cooking, reading, traveling, watching anime, gaming and going on walks. We love experiencing new things, whether it be trying a new recipe, learning about a different culture or visiting a new place.