Partnerships, storytelling, and support teams
I spent most of this past Friday at the Seattle VA where I got to attend the annual VA/UW affiliation partnership meeting, aka VA Day!
My favorite part of the day was getting to meet the DOM VA faculty and staff - many thanks to Rudy Rodriguez for hosting me and setting this up! In thinking of phrases to explain the vibe there, these words come to mind: high morale, very chill, so much camaraderie. We started talking about ways that we could collaborate and integrate more across campuses, and I look forward to continuing these conversations with individual faculty members and VA leadership.
I trained at a VA during residency, ran a fellowship for a decade that had a VA site, and attended in the VA ICU for several years as a junior attending. The VA is simply a special place and it's clear that our UW DOM faculty love working there and taking care of our Veterans. It's probably no coincidence that two of my best friends in the world are VA-based physician leaders who also happen to be very chill, high morale individuals.
At VA Day, chief of staff Dr. Jesse Markman started with an icebreaker that involved every meeting attendee telling patient stories (funny or touching) with bonus points if they happened at the VA. The stories were fun and inspiring, and it reminded me that my favorite DOM grand rounds at UCLA was something we called "Story Slam" where faculty members or trainees would engage in live storytelling. Much like The Moth (which I also love) but the academic healthcare version of it.
Our thoughtful Vice Chair for Education, Ken Steinberg, is in the process of reinvigorating and revamping our grand rounds, and we are working on reengaging in-person attendees for this venue. I'm personally going to kick off the re-start of Medicine Grand Rounds on September 11 - save the date! I'll tell the story of the rare lung disease I've been studying from the standpoint of the clinical and research advances, with a focus on the patient community. I promise it will involve some good storytelling!
We will then be changing the timing and cadence of Medicine Grand Rounds in early 2027 and I vote that we start with a story slam (and maybe a little DOM swag) to kick it off right!
On the home front, I had a great week because my former colleague Amy Chen was visiting. She and I started working together over 12 years ago at UCLA and like me, Amy comes from a multi-mission background.
She began her career in academic medicine 15 years ago in pulmonary research, later transitioning into medical education where she supported multiple fellowship programs.
She then shifted her focus to clinical operations, from coordinating ICU schedules during the pandemic to serving as a clinical affairs project manager.
In every leadership transition I made, Amy came with me and grew with me. Most recently, when I transitioned from the pulmonary division to the DOM Executive Leadership team at UCLA in 2022, she again joined our team and has become quite the expert in clinical operations, working on compensation plans, data analytics, process improvement, and clinical contracting.
I was ecstatic when Amy recently decided to take the plunge and move to Seattle to work alongside me, despite living in California her whole life! She just accepted a job as the Associate Director of the Office of Clinical Transformation (OCT) for UW Medicine starting September 1.
In that role, she will start by partnering with the DOM clinical programs team! We have already started brainstorming about the role of this new office. Our goal is not to encroach on any of the existing leadership in the clinical mission (ambulatory leaders, chief medical officers, hospital leadership, SOM, department chairs, etc.) but rather to be the connector between these groups to be able to catalyze the efforts going into clinical efficiency and infrastructure. We can't wait to get started. 🙂
My support teams at work have always been my secret weapon
In 2021 when I made an emotional speech that I was leaving the fellowship program director position after 10 years, I thanked Amy publicly and privately and I'll never forget what she said, which was "I love being the Robin to your Batman." My support teams at work have always been my secret weapon, and that trend has continued here with the amazing and dedicated talent that quite literally surrounds me every day.
Over time, these relationships also have come to reflect my philosophy on work-life blend over work-life balance, i.e. it does not have to be separate and I very much care about my co-workers and team. When I was a young clinician educator, I was invited to write a piece on work-life balance in academic medicine. It was such a long time ago, but I still mostly agree with what I wrote, especially the work-life blend part.
I hope everyone has been able to enjoy some aspects of both work and life during this beautiful Seattle summer. 🙂