Residency: Yale School of Medicine
MD: Cornell University Medical College
BA: Cornell University
What does your promotion/appointment mean to you?
It’s certainly an honor, and as others have said, it is a kind of validation.
I don’t think of myself as having had a traditional academic career, and so the validation is less of a recognition of a visible body of research or science; rather, it’s recognition that clinical leadership, which is sometimes less tangible, can have important impacts.
A high-functioning leadership team in the right health care system, like the VA, can be a great place to innovate, share work, and share success. The bonus is that, beyond academics, you can also see improvements in patient care as a primary product.
What was the first thing you did when you found out you were promoted to/appointed as professor?
Like any good internist, I didn’t act too quickly! Instead, I first did a lot of thinking. Of course, I shared the news with my family, but I had to think about what it meant.
Twenty-five years have gone by quickly. A moment like this gives you pause. In that pause, it’s nice to think about all the people you’ve met, different projects you’ve worked on, as well as varying roles, phases of your career, and the many patients that you’ve treated and some that you’ve lost, but don’t forget. Promotion is just a moment, but so much is rolled up into it.
What are you proud of most thus far in your career?
The COVID-19 pandemic was a dark period for the country and an unprecedented time in health care. I think for many of us, it will be formative for decades to come.
I was proud to be a part of a rational health care system and a talented leadership team in VACT Primary Care and Yale General Internal Medicine, where we were able to innovate in days and weeks, not years. We made rapid leaps from creative ideas to operational changes that saved lives, and we shared these ideas regionally and nationally in the VA and beyond. It brought out the best in our team and, in many ways, proved that health care systems themselves have a role in promoting equity.
Having the Secretary of the VA personally visit us and hand out “coins” (military awards) in recognition of our success is something that I will always remember.
What is your favorite part of academia?
I love solving problems as part of a team. This concept is well-known in traditional academia and science – translating a series of basic science solutions towards some greater goal, treatment, or cure of a disease, but in clinical leadership, it may be less obvious.
When we look at challenges in quality or population health, we’re often starting with small problems, like concrete workflow issues that start at patient check-in or stem from challenges in informatics or staffing. A creative team innovates to solve these small problems and then scales up to large programs, like mailed FIT (fecal immunochemical tests) for colorectal cancer screening, affecting whole populations of patients. When done well, this work gets shared with others at academic medical centers. It’s exciting to think about this ripple and how many patients’ lives can be impacted.
Tell us a fun fact about you—something people may find surprising.
While it’s not completely surprising that Dr. Susan Kashaf agreed to marry me (though I am still figuring that one out 25 years later!), it is surprising that she agreed to a date even after our first-year medical school show when I danced with her in a full chicken suit!