OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. –
Visitors to the 55th Medical Group’s Women’s Health Clinic at Offutt Air Force Base may think they’re seeing double. Doctors Vinay and Vijay Setty are identical twins who serve as OB-GYN doctors.
Vinay and Vijay were born in Massachusetts but grew up in New Hampshire. Vijay is the oldest by 12 minutes. They went to undergraduate school together at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
“We both didn’t think we'd be in medicine until our senior year of college,” said Vijay. “We were both pretty set on being high school science teachers until we had a pretty formative experience working in very, very low-income and rural setting in India.”
After undergraduate school Vijay moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and Vinay lived in New York City. They decided to attend the same medical school in Colorado and then split up again for their residencies, with Vijay in Connecticut and Vinay in Michigan.
“Being a source of positivity has been important to both of us,” said Vinay. “Getting to do that in a potentially intimidating space like medicine can go a long way and change someone's entire experience.”
They both love science and have a strong interest in agriculture so they weren’t sure which career path they would pursue after college. Although they have similar likes and dislikes, they try not to influence each other’s decisions too much.
“Our sister is four years older than us and is a neonatologist in Atlanta, Georgia, so the idea of medicine wasn't completely foreign to us, just something we didn't see ourselves doing,” said Vijay.
They decided to join the Air Force and become OB-GYNs after enjoying their clinical rotation. They requested to be stationed together and the Air Force assigned them both to Offutt.
“It's amazing having someone you trust and can so easily rely on right there is huge,” said Vinay. “We get to experience all the positive aspects of our job and life together, to us family has always been super important, so this means a lot to us that we've been able to meet back up here at Offutt. It also makes work that much better.”