People Profile – Dr. Olivia Perez de Acha

Olivia Perez de Acha, MD, (PGY 4; Internal Medicine) says it was the TV medical drama “House” and a desire to help others that inspired her to pursue a career in medicine. (Luckily, she also discovered a love for anatomy and biology.)

Real life in the hospital may not play out exactly like it does on screen, but Dr. Perez de Acha likes that internal medicine is never repetitive and allows her to encounter cases—from cellulitis in the foot to heart failure to leukemias and glomerulonephritis—that touch every subspecialty in medicine.

Dr. Perez de Acha was born in Madrid, Spain, but she’s a Coloradan by marriage (Go, Broncos!). And, after four years in D.C., she also considers the District home. This summer, she’ll complete her residency, but she won’t be going far. In July, Dr. Perez de Acha will begin a fellowship in hematology oncology at Johns Hopkins Medicine. As she continues her studies, she’s hopeful about the future of this field.

“I am particularly excited about the new possibilities of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy being applied not only in malignant hematology but also in solid oncology and even in non-malignant diseases like Myasthenia Gravis or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE),” she says.

Dr. Perez de Acha is one of four chief residents for internal medicine at MedStar Health Georgetown—Washington Hospital Center, and she also serves on the House Staff Diversity Council Committee.

Reflecting on her time at MedStar Health GME, Dr. Perez de Acha acknowledges how important her relationships with mentors and friends have been during her residency. “Enjoy your training years,” she tells colleagues. “They allow you to build relationships that last forever.”

As the founder of the MedStar Health GME Running Club, her close colleagues likely know about her love for the outdoors and her dedication to “crazy outdoor adventures,” as she describes them. They may not know that she also loves spending time indoors scrapbooking and has been building an album of treasured Polaroids for more than 15 years.