Austin Krohn, MD
Riverwood Healthcare Center is pleased to welcome Austin Krohn, M.D., a family physician who will begin seeing patients in Aitkin in September.
“We are pleased to welcome Austin to our medical staff and some may remember him from his RPAP medical student experience here five years ago,” says Dr. Mark Heggem, Riverwood chief medical officer. “The sports medicine expertise he brings is a huge asset, plus his passion for this community and enthusiasm for practicing rural family medicine.”
Krohn will specialize in general family medicine, pediatrics, adolescent health, and sports medicine (including concussion management, musculoskeletal ultrasound, injections, pre-participation physicals, and sideline/mass event coverage).
During his undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris, Krohn played baseball for four years and graduated with distinction with degrees in biology and chemistry. He then attended the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, and received the Rural Physician Associate Program (RPAP) student achievement award while doing clinical work at Riverwood in 2008-09. After completing his medical degree, he went on to complete a three-year family medicine residency at the University of Minnesota, North Memorial Medical Center.
In 2013, he spent one year in the University of Minnesota Sports Medicine Fellowship program. During this time, he served as a team physician for the University of Minnesota Gopher football, women’s hockey, men’s basketball, and women’s softball teams.
“I have had the unique opportunity to travel to Lima, Peru as a team physician for the Junior USA weight lifting team at the 2014 Pan-American games,” Krohn explains. “Concussion management has also been a special interest of mine, and I have been fortunate to continue to serve as a team physician for the Minnesota Vikings, performing pre-camp concussion assessments.”
Regarding his philosophy of medical care, Krohn says: “I have always been a believer that prevention has the largest impact on healthy living. I try to promote wellness through active lifestyles and building close relationships with my patients. In family medicine, we are in a unique position to impact the lives of our patients at each of life’s stages and I love building those relationships across multiple generations.”
With a particular interest in sports medicine research as well, Krohn has co-authored a paper on football injuries published in 2011 as well as a chapter on thoracic and lumbar spine injuries in “Pediatric Sports Medicine – Essentials for Office Evaluation.” The American Medical Society for Sports Medicine hosts a national conference each year during which he has presented cases related to concussion and neck injuries as well as his research on heat illness in pre-season football.
Growing up in Pierz, Minn., Krohn is well acquainted with northern Minnesota and the Aitkin area community, where he and his wife, Colleen, bought a home in 2010. They have two young children, Ella (4) and Abby (2) with a third child due in October. A sports enthusiast, Krohn loves playing many different sports as a way to stay healthy. He also enjoys fishing and spending time outdoors with his yellow lab, Hrbek.
Krohn adds: “I’m looking forward to building my family medicine practice here and getting back to my small town roots. In addition to general family medicine, I hope to be a resource for our community at athletic events and in our clinic as a specialist in sports medicine.”
For an appointment with Dr. Austin Krohn, call Riverwood’s appointment line at (218) 927-2157 or toll-free at (888) 270-1882.