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Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better…

Jeff welcomes to the podcast pediatrician, startup founder, and people connector, Dr. Zhen Chan.

In addition to earning his medical degree, Zhen earned an MBA during the middle of his residency, which offered a unique perspective.

Zhen is most passionate about solving large pain points for the healthcare industry. One of the main ways he pursues this goal is through networking with people in healthcare - not just those in the clinical sphere, but those behind the scenes as well.

As physicians, we go through med school and residency and the education and training process is primarily focused on the clinical aspects of medicine. But practicing medicine in the modern day system requires at least a baseline knowledge of many other things (operations, informatics, management, insurance, etc.) That’s not standardized in our medical training so we need to find ways to fill those gaps in our training. One of the best ways to do that is through making connections.

What steps does Zhen suggest we take to make better connections?

• Step 1 - Reach out to one other physician. Many physicians are hesitant to do this, but quite often, the person you’re reaching out to wants to provide advice or mentorship.
• Step 2 - Make networking a part of your life. That way, the world gets a lot smaller and you’ll have better options when you’re looking for new opportunities.
• Step 3 - Reach out to another physician with similar interests and continue this process to make networking a regular part of your life.

Most importantly, PRACTICE building connections through networking!

BIO: Zhen Chan, MD MBA FAAP

Healthcare Management | Pediatrics | Physician

Dr. Zhen is a pediatrician in Washington, DC with an MD and an MBA in Health Management and Policy. He is actively developing a career that integrates his interests in healthcare strategy and emerging health technology that can make a scalable impact on patient care outcomes, access, equity, and physician well-being.

He worked for one year in a healthcare venture capital company focused on pediatric health innovation as a Venture Fellow and later a Senior Associate. During residency, he was a Co-Chair of the Housestaff Quality Council at Weill Cornell Medicine, QI Captain for the primary care center where he had his pediatric continuity clinic, and an Advocacy Co-Chair for the pediatric department. He has extensive experience leading quality improvement initiatives and advocacy projects focusing on childhood obesity, HPV vaccinations, and food insecurity.

Currently, Dr. Zhen is the founder and CEO of Grapevyne, a pioneering physician job search platform that leverages physician peer-to-peer referrals to address the physician shortage crisis and issues around physician burnout by improving how physicians choose jobs and match to communities that need them.

Certifications: Board Certification in Pediatrics, Licensed in DC, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, IHI

Open School Basic Certification in Quality & Patient Safety

Awards: Distinguished Housestaff Award, Gold Humanism Honor Society, VC University Scholarship Recipient, MD MBA Scholarship Recipient

Social Media:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn

SurgeonMasters is a physician peer community dedicated to improving the personal and professional well-being of physicians.

Join your colleagues online at SurgeonMasters.com for events, resources, and more.

PRACTICE Your Best!

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Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better…

Jeff welcomes to the podcast board-certified orthopaedic surgeon and Chief Medical Officer at Connecticut Orthopaedics, Dr. Alan Reznik.

There’s an old saying - “hire slow, fire fast” - which essentially means to take your time hiring the right candidate for the job and, if you have a bad employee, get rid of them quickly so that a single bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch. Sometimes making a good hire can boost everyone's morale, while making a bad hire can destroy the office culture you’ve built.

That all sounds good, but how do you hire a good employee?

When hiring for a position, there are certain protocols you can follow to make sure you’re doing everything within your power to make a good hire.

What steps does Alan suggest we take to hire good people?

• Step 1 - Vision - Have a well-defined job description and know what you’re looking for in the role to properly evaluate a candidate’s skill set.
• Step 2 - Evaluation - Meet with the prospective employee and get a sense of what they think the job entails to see if that matches your vision for the position.
• Step 3 - Fit - Finally, the prospective employee must be a good fit for the organization. How will they fit with the rest of the team?

Most importantly, PRACTICE a system for hiring good people!

BIO: Alan Reznik, MD, MBA

Dr. Reznik is a practicing orthopaedic surgeon and involved in medical teaching for over 30 years. He is recognized as one of “America’s Top Physicians” by Consumers Research Council of America and named “Top Doc” in Connecticut over 20 times by his orthopaedic surgeon peers, physicians, nurses and patients. He has served on many committees for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons including editorial board of AAOS Now. He has written "The Knee and Shoulder Handbook, the keys to a pain-free and active life" and "I have fallen and I can get up" on fall risks and prevention. An inventor, he holds 8 patents. He has lectured on patient safety, surgical risk reduction and AI development, liability and ethical use.

SurgeonMasters is a physician peer community dedicated to improving the personal and professional well-being of physicians.

Join your colleagues online at SurgeonMasters.com for events, resources, and more.

PRACTICE Your Best!

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Jeff welcomes to the podcast anesthesiologist and physician coach, Scott Markowitz, MD.

There’s always the potential for things to spiral out of control in the OR. When that happens, it can be helpful to be pulled back from the situation by a trusted colleague who can help you view the situation objectively and bump you back into being your best self. Sometimes it’s not feasible to do that in the OR itself. If that’s the case, there will likely be opportunities throughout the rest of the day to connect with a trusted colleague. Doing this consistently over time can help you build stronger professional relationships and make you less likely to derail when things get hectic.

In medicine, there are a lot of “villain” or “victim” narratives that we’re exposed to throughout our education and training. It’s important to recognize and move past those and move from a problem mindset to an outcome mindset. Nurturing a professional relationship with your colleagues goes a long way in recognizing the shared outcomes that we’re all striving towards.

Remember that it’s difficult to build a relationship when one or both people are activated. It’s so easy to destroy trust. In order to build trust you need to recognize when the time is right and wrong to approach a complex conversation. Address these important issues when both parties are not activated for optimal outcomes.

What steps does Scott suggest we take to build trust?

• Step 1 - Develop Professional Relationships with Colleagues. This can make you less likely to derail and more likely to “re-rail” when things go poorly.
• Step 2 - Avoid Villain and Victim Narratives. These only work to divide us and prevent us from achieving our shared goals.
• Step 3 - Explicitly State Shared Goals. This can be extremely helpful in resetting us from villain or victim stories and recognizing that we’re all pushing the same rock up the hill.

Most importantly, practice an outcome mindset!

BIO:

Scott D. Markowitz, MD, MSOL, FAAP, BCC (he, him, his) is the Chief Executive Officer of Physician Leadership, LLC, and serves as a Leadership Coach with the Chimera Leadership Group. In his clinical career, Dr. Markowitz held the position of Professor of Anesthesiology and Vice-Chair for Professional Development and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Washington University in St. Louis. There, he spearheaded the establishment of an office dedicated to measuring departmental culture, engagement, and wellbeing. Dr. Markowitz has been instrumental in producing and sponsoring programs aimed at fostering engagement, resilience, professional development, and a more diverse and inclusive leadership environment. He co-chairs the subcommittee on harassment, incivility, and disrespect for the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and serves on the advisory board for the Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Initiative of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia. In this role, he co-developed their leadership curriculum and chairs the curriculum committee.

SurgeonMasters is a physician peer community dedicated to improving the personal and professional well-being of physicians.

Join your colleagues online at SurgeonMasters.com for events, resources, and more.

PRACTICE Your Best!