FORT WORTH – The TCU School of Medicine collaborated with The Yale Club of Fort Worth on a discussion about medical education and the growing influence the medical school is having on health care in Fort Worth.
Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., Founding Dean of the TCU School of Medicine, was the featured guest at The Yale Club of Fort Worth‘s Music and Medicine event. The chat with Dean Flynn was followed by music from Yale’s The Society and Orpheus and Bacchus, the longest operating all-undergraduate a cappella group in the nation.
The event was held inside TCU’s Kelly Center and was sponsored by Brant Martin, a board member of the Yale Club of Fort Worth and senior partner at Wicks, Philips, Gould & Martin, LLP.
“It’s good for TCU, it’s good for Fort Worth and it’s good for Yale in terms of recruiting,” Martin said. “I brought two of my children because I want them to see there’s more out there that they can aspire too. It’s good for all parties involved.”
Martin, a Fort Worth native, added that bringing the YCFW together with TCU is a good community connection.
“Anytime we can bring more exposure to TCU and the great things they are doing in Fort Worth it’s good for everybody involved,” Martin said.
Dean Flynn, who spent 20 years of his career in medical education as a professor of pathology and surgery at Yale School of Medicine, gave the crowd insight into what it takes to create a new approach to medical education and create future physicians that are knowledgeable and empathetic to their patients.
“I found what he had to say absolutely inspiring,” said Kathleen Galloway, Yale Club of Fort Worth President. “To hear him talk about his passion for developing a medical school and how he cares about the students just makes me so excited about this medical school and his leadership of it.”
The YCFW packed about 60 people inside a ballroom at the TCU Kelly Center that included Fort Worthians, young and old. Dean Flynn talked about how important medical schools are in jump-starting medical innovation in large cities, such as Fort Worth.
“This was important because there still is a lot that the community wants to know about what’s happening (in health care),” Martin said. “He explained what it means to be in the stage that TCU and the medical school are in and I found that to be informative.”
Dean Flynn talked in great detail about The Compassionate Practice®, a innovative communication curriculum based in the disciplines of theater, narrative medicine, journalism, and population health. Community members had many questions for Dean Flynn about the importance of humanities training for future physicians.
“Going out into hospitals I can see that these patients want more from me than the diagnosis and the treatment plan,” Edwards said. “They want to feel like they’re heard and to be treated like a person and not just a medical ailment.”
After the informative discussion with Dean Flynn, the community members in attendance were treated to more than an hour of soulful renditions of popular songs from the early 1900s to today’s hits such as, Olivia Rodrigo’s, ‘Good 4 U,’ from The Society and Orpheus and Bacchus.
“Our primary mission is to be active in the Fort Worth community and create new connections,” Galloway said. “This event was a great way of connecting our Yale community in Fort Worth with TCU and their commitment to this city.”
“This gift is meaningful beyond words. For the students in this class, it is truly powerful and will have a profound effect on their future,” said Founding Dean Stuart D. Flynn, M.D. “I am honored and humbled by this tremendous gift to our students that will have a momentous impact on their lives and those they serve in the community.”
This second class of students, who started medical school in July 2020, had their second year of medical school tuition (2021-22) supported in full by an anonymous couple in 2021. This new visionary scholarship gift, announced during an in-person session on Thursday, June 16, will pay for the cohort’s third year of tuition. This gift also supports Lead On: A Campaign for TCU, the university’s most ambitious philanthropic campaign in its nearly 150-year history.
This family has provided several previous gifts to the School of Medicine, supporting partial scholarships and stipends for student research for students in all four classes, including the incoming Class of 2026.
“I am grateful for the phenomenal generosity of this donor family,” said Texas Christian University Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr. “Our students will finish medical school and go on to serve thousands of patients throughout their lives, in our community and well beyond. This gift allows them to focus on becoming the best possible physicians and Empathetic Scholars®.”
The inaugural class of students, who began medical school in July 2019, received a generous gift from Paul Dorman to fund their first year. They will graduate in May 2023.
Scholarships are a top fundraising priority for the School of Medicine. With the incoming class, enrollment will reach 240 this fall, making the need ever greater.
My entire class just received free tuition for next year from an anonymous donor! Thank you @TCUMedSchool#blessed#grateful
“It feels like the community, the City of Fort Worth and the area really believes in us as students and believes in the program here at TCU and that’s huge,” said Thomas Redman, a second-year medical student at TCU School of Medicine.
The average medical school student graduates with more than $250,000 in loan debt. This can significantly influence their choice in which area of medicine they would like to pursue through their residency. It also weighs heavily on a student who has already attended approximately 20 years of schooling.
“When I got into medical school, my parents were so worried about the financial aspect. But I had to pursue my passion and I’m so grateful. I called my parents and they were so happy,” said Hanna Makk, a second-year medical student at TCU School of Medicine. “It frees me to be able to pursue whatever specialty I want and to be able to serve the underserved.”
About the TCU School of Medicine
The TCU School of Medicine, Fort Worth’s M.D. school, opened with a class of 60 students in July 2019. The new allopathic medical school was formed in 2015. The School of Medicine’s focus on communication, a first-of-its-kind curriculum and the development of Empathetic Scholars® uniquely positions the organization to radically transform medical education, improving care for future generations. To make this new school possible, the greater North Texas community stepped up to help, providing philanthropic support. The school’s current Founding Donors include Alcon, Amon G. Carter Foundation, Anita and Kelly Cox, Baylor Scott & White, The Burnett Foundation, Cook Children’s,Texas Health Resources, Mr. H. Paul Dorman, Mr. Arnold and Mrs. Harriette Gachman, Dr. John and Mrs. Priscilla Geesbreght, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, Rebecca and Jon Brumley, The Morris Foundation, Martha Sue Parr Trust, Tartaglino Richards Family Foundation, and Thomas M., Helen McKee, John P. Ryan Foundation and several Anonymous Donors.
About Lead On: A Campaign for TCU
In October 2019, TCU launched the community phase of Lead On: A Campaign for TCU. The $1 billion goal of this campaign will strengthen TCU’s people, programs and endowment. To date, more than 51,000 donors have contributed over $831 million. For more information, please visit the Lead On: A Campaign for TCU website.
FORT WORTH – The TCU School of Medicine collaborated with community partners in Como, Northside/Diamond Hill and Eastside/Stop Six neighborhoods in Fort Worth for the Community Impact Project Challenge.
The inaugural class of medical students at the School of Medicine, known as the Dorman Scholars, presented their projects at TCU Neeley School of Business with representatives from each community in attendance.
The students gave brief presentations of their posters that outlined the details of each project. The challenge gave the medical students the opportunity to utilize themes from the Preparation for Practice curriculum at the School of Medicine, according to Jo Anna Leuck, M.D., Assistant Dean of Curriculum at the TCU School of Medicine.
“This started a couple years ago when our inaugural class of medical students began class and were paired with local communities,” Dr. Leuck said. “This project really took time out of the curriculum so they could stop and really work on resources and gathering those and really set a foundation for these projects to carry on for years to come.”
The students were tasked with using principles of human-centered design to address challenges relevant to societal problems in three neighborhoods: Como, Northside/Diamond Hill and Eastside/Stop Six. The team-based project had the six learning communities paired into groups of two. Each group was given one of the neighborhoods. Their task was to create a plan based on the the community’s needs. The goal was to create something that would have a tangible outcome to improve health and well-being in some of Fort Worth’s most historic neighborhoods.
“For this first go around, we really focused on laying a foundation and gathering all the resources into one place in ways that would make them accessible for the communities,” Dr. Leuck said.
The three projects had outcomes that included educational materials (written, visual, audio), planning of preventative medicine events, tools for improved access to care or advertisement and advancement of community resources.
COMO
TCU School of Medicine THRIVE Learning community members of Timu and Virtud houses present their poster for the COMO community at the first annual P4P: Community Impact Project Celebration. The members pictured above are (from left to right): Meaghan Rousett, Grace Newell, Kyle Schneider, Ruthvik Allala, Nathalie Scherer, Charna Kinard, Samantha Evans, Kevin Rivera, Mallory Thompson, Kavneet Kaur, Mei Mei Edwards and Ivette Ivila.
The SOM Learning communities Timu and Virtud worked with the Como community, which spans one-square mile. The team initially wanted to create a resource guide, but soon learned that necessary resources were not there, according to Samantha Evans, a third-year medical student at the TCU School of Medicine.
“Some of the unique challenges are that some of the resources that are accessible to them are actually outside of the community and are not in a walkable distance,” Evans said.
For example, businesses such as fitness centers and gyms that would normally share health related information have membership fees of $100 or more per month. That coupled with transportation issues of getting to those businesses forced the medical students to think of simpler ways to get the much-needed health information closer to residents in Como.
“We needed to figure out what would be helpful and what we could put in the Como community center, which is the hub for the community,” Evans said. “Through discussions with leaders in the community, we were able to identify diabetes and high-blood pressure as the most needed health information in the community.”
The search to find the best way to reach people in Como with that information led them to Mervil Johnson, Workforce Collaboration Director at Workforce Solutions at Tarrant County and Chairman of Fatherhood Coalition of Tarrant County. Johnson helped them devise a plan to create health inserts that could go into the already existing “Dad’s Pocket Resource Guide” that is shared with the Como Community Center.
The Fatherhood Coalition of Tarrant County has been distributing the resource guide in Como since 2005, Johnson added.
“Having these medical students come into the community was great because they were able to find an already existing resource in the community and that led them to me,” Johnson said.
Once the idea was solidified an action plan had to be designed. This is where the IdeaFactory at Texas Christian University, a center within the TCU School of Interdisciplinary Studies, came in to help the medical students think through innovative ways to add more value to existing resources.
The health insert has information about diabetes and high-blood pressure, but the team of students took it a step further. They also included health information and tips that residents could use all year long such as fitness smart goals, blood pressure, colorectal cancer, stroke prevention, men’s health, child safety and much more.
“The goal in the future is to keep building and be able to put devices like a blood pressure monitor somewhere in the community that is accessible,” Evans said.
NORTHSIDE/DIAMOND HILL
: TCU School of Medicine THRIVE Learning community members of Honris and Empatheia houses present their poster for the Northside/Diamond Hill community at the first annual P4P: Community Impact Project Celebration. The members pictured above are (from left to right): Sarah Cheema, Edmundo Esparza, Briana Collins, Juhi Shah, Sarah Lyon, Thomas Roser and Quinn Losefsky.
The SOM Learning communities Honoris and Empatheia worked on different health resources the Northside/Diamond Hill community could use. Through discussions with community leaders, they were able to focus on food access, drug and alcohol abuse, mental health, transportation and elderly services.
The groups decided to develop physical and virtual distribution methods of getting the information out to the community.
“It is a largely Hispanic community or low socioeconomic status so not a lot of people have access to technology,” Edmundo Esparza, a third-year medical student at the TCU School of Medicine. “So, the physical brochures will be the most important to get started.”
They created brochures and put the most pertinent information about area in the brochure. They plan to distribute the brochures to 10 different locations within the community in English and Spanish.
In the future, they also plan to create a website that will have in-depth information on each identified issue.
“That way, we could keep the brochures from being overwhelming,” Esparza said.
The ground work being laid by the inaugural class will be continued by subsequent classes of medical students in each of the SOM Learning Communities. This is huge for creating long-lasting relationships with the medical school and these communities, Grau added.
“What happens a lot of times in communities and especially low resource communities is groups come in they do a project and they leave,” Grau said. “What we’re trying to do is establish a foundation and long-term relationship with the communities. You will see next years medical students are going to come in and they are going to look at what’s going on.”
The subsequent classes of medical students will also do their own research on problems within all of the communities. They will also be able to develop a several different initiatives, along with these, that will be useful for the communities.
Eastside/Stop 6
TCU School of Medicine THRIVE Learning community members of Resilire and Inovasi houses present their poster for the Eastside/Stop 6 community at the first annual P4P: Community Impact Project Celebration. The members pictured above are (from left to right): Sophie Wix, Vandana Garg, Krithi Narimetla, Rachel Rice, Kathryn Biddle, Adam Rosencrans and Karena Fassett.
The Resilire and Inovasi SOM Learning communities focused on children in the Eastside/Stop 6 community. Their original plan was to create a health resource guide, but that already existed.
They decided to partner with the Fatherhood Coalition of Tarrant County to create “Free Little Libraries” using existing boxes at the local community center that are used like P.O. boxes at a Post Office.
“They are cute little mailbox things that you can put little books into,” Kathryn Biddle, a third-year medical student at the TCU School of Medicine said. “You can take a book and you can keep it or you can bring it back or you can donate books.”
The group plans to begin with children’s books and then expand it to adult books. Inside each book will be a small pamphlet with information about additional resources available in the community. The little libraries will be identifiable in the community center and other locations because the boxes will be painted with a distinct design.
“We wanted to give the community members the chance to put their own spin on the design and color of the box,” Biddle said. “And each box will have a TCU School of Medicine logo on it so people can know it’s a part of the Free Little Library.”
The beauty of the community impact projects are how they give the medical students a chance to think through things that they see as challenges within the healthcare system and act on it, Dr. Leuck added.
“The hope is that they got tools and practice that they can use when they become physicians when they get in hospitals and face challenges,” Dr. Leuck said.
The Tom and Joan Rogers Endowment in Support of Academic Excellence for the School of Medicine will provide for the greatest needs and opportunities annually in medical education and physician training.
“I am incredibly grateful for this generous gift, which will empower current and future generations of innovative and talented students,” said Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., Dean of the TCU School of Medicine. “Two of the first people I met upon arriving in Fort Worth were Mrs. and Dr. Rogers and they welcomed me in such a gracious and warm fashion. Their generosity is emblematic of their character as they support our efforts to create physicians who are highly skilled and knowledgeable yet compassionate care givers. Our students are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Rogers, a luminary in caring for our children in Fort Worth, as a role model to emulate on the delivery of care with empathy, passion, and love.”
Tom Rogers, M.D., retired after a 50-year career as a pediatrician, has been referred to as “Fort Worth’s original Empathetic Scholar.” Mrs. Rogers is a longtime member of the TCU Board of Trustees. Their generous gift to create this endowment also supports Lead On: A Campaign for TCU, the university’s most ambitious philanthropic campaign in its nearly 150-year history.
Dr. and Mrs. Rogers, their daughter Kelly, and three grandchildren are TCU graduates.
“Supporting the School of Medicine is pretty much a ‘no-brainer’ for us,” the couple said. “So, when TCU helped establish the M.D. School, we were eager to support it in any way we could.”
“Getting acquainted with many of the faculty and staff and meeting some of the truly amazing students only increased our eagerness to be involved,” they said. “Texas is desperate for more doctors, and hopefully some of these graduates will also choose to stay in Fort Worth to practice. In establishing this endowed program fund for academic excellence, we are supporting medical education while investing in these deserving students through the tough years of becoming a doctor.”
HOW TO GIVE
Gifts of any size may be made to The Tom and Joan Rogers Endowment in Support of Academic Excellence for the School of Medicine by contacting University Advancement at 817-257-7800 or TCU Box 297044, Fort Worth, TX 76129.
FORT WORTH – As we continue to move further away from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinations have become the dominant conversation about COVID.
“Powerful and emotional are the words that come to my mind after watching the performances,” said Mohanakrishnan Sathyamoorthy, M.D., FACC, Chair of Internal Medicine at the TCU School of Medicine.
“It was important to hear her perspective because it wasn’t only her as a student trying to be there and understand her role,” Mary Suzanne Whitworth, M.D., Cook Children’s Hospital, Director of Infectious Diseases Department said. “It was also her as a medical provider trying to be there for her patients.”
The Stethoscope Stage play festival, founded by Ayvaunn Penn BA, MA, MFA, an instructor at the TCU Department of Theatre, aims to build the essential bridge of empathy between patients and medical professionals that leads to enriched health care experiences. The national play festival uses art to facilitate open, honest, factual conversation between health care providers and members of the public on COVID-19 and vaccinations.
Following the performances, a community discussion with the audience was led by Dr. Sathyamoorthy; Dr. Whitworth; Claudia Perez, M.D., assistant professor at TCU School of Medicine and a Neurocritical Care physician at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital; and Glenda Daniels, Ph.D., RN, CNS, CGRN, associate professor at TCU Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences.
The opening monologue for the show was an up-tempo jazz-inspired song that focused on misinformation about the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Fighting against misinformation has been one of the most difficult challenges health care provers have faced on the frontlines, according to Dr. Whitworth.
“It is disheartening because it is like we’re in a storm trying to hold up the umbrella and getting soaking wet and there are people on the other side of the street laughing at us because they are not getting wet,” Dr. Whitworth said. “If you’re not experiencing it you can get that sense that there is not really much going on but we are getting drenched.”
Many people in the audience shared stories with the panelists about the pros and cons they’ve experienced with the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
“The best vaccine is the one that you and your physician talk about,” Dr. Perez said. “They can look at what are the side effects. Which is the right medication for you and I think that is the most important part so you understand what the risks are.”
“The misinformation spreads so fast that people believe it will mutate your DNA and it’s been so tear provoking for us.” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “It can’t do any of that stuff. But it is a lifesaving vaccine that can protect you, your friends and family and others.”
“If we communicate to them top down it really feels like a sliding mountain coming towards that individual,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said. “As we talk to every last one of our patients over the last two years, we took out a lot of extra time and conversation because we felt it was our responsibility to be the voice of reason and voice of truth. And the feedback for us has largely been positive.”
It all goes back to building a relationship of trust with your patient, according to Dr. Sathyamoorthy.
“We have to step up and say I’m going to spend that extra 10 minutes which I really don’t have but I’m going to do it because it’s the right thing to do in a pandemic,” Dr. Sathyamoorthy said.
Stethoscope Stage Official Selections
The following monologues and short plays were performed at Stethoscope Stage 2022.
Not Another One by Sarah Cheema, MS-3 at TCU School of Medicine
Field of Screams by Phil Darg
Vaccines by Hanna Douglas
To Be The Exception by Kyla Kachmarik
Getting the Booster by Michele Markarian
My Decision by William Niles
COVID-19 Vaccine by Chapin Pfeifle
Breaking Free by Noah Tennant
My Vaccination Story by Jazmine Velasquez
For My Grandma by Jessi White
Scripts Chosen for HuMed Journal Publication
The following scripts were chosen by the editors of TCU School of Medicine’s HuMed Journal for publication.
Not Another One by Sarah Cheema, MS-3 at TCU School of Medicine
Another ‘Q’ Word Day in the Boondocks by Kavneet Kaur, MS-3 at TCU School of Medicine
Feel by Shelby Wildish, MS-3 at TCU School of Medicine
FORT WORTH – TCU School of Medicine’s Founding Dean Stuart D. Flynn, M.D., was selected as one of Fort Worth Inc.’s Top 400 for 2022.
Since 2018, Fort Worth Inc. has compiled a list of 400 of the most influential people in Fort Worth. The individuals selected span arts and leisure, banking and finance, economic development, education, government, health care and life sciences, industry nonprofits and foundations, philanthropy, professional services, real estate, religion, sports and transportation.
Fort Worth Inc. named Fort Worth icon Opal Lee as the Person of the Year at an event on May 19 at the Fort Worth Club. Lee has been a guest on TCU School of Medicine’s award-winning FWMD Live Chat.
Other leaders at TCU and TCU School of Medicine were also recognized as members of the Fort Worth Inc.’s Top 400 of 2022:
Victor J. Boschini, Jr., TCU Chancellor
Daniel Pullin, Dean, TCU Neeley School of Business
Michael Sherrod, TCU Neeley School of Business, William M. Dickey Entrepreneur in Residence
Rodney D’Souza, TCU Neeley School of Business, Managing Director Neeley Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Richard Johnston, CEO, Chief Physician Officer USMD Health System and Professor at the TCU School of Medicine
FORT WORTH – Many medical students and physicians have ideas about innovative ways to improve care for patients. However, how to communicate that idea to spark interest in patients, potential investors in health care or other medical education stakeholders requires finesse.
You have to be fully present, according to Sheila Scott, MBA, a contract and budget analyst at TCU School of Medicine.
“A lot of people don’t understand that it’s not just your mind that you bring to a pitch conversation but it is also your body language,” Scott said. “When you’re fully present, you can communicate and the person that’s receiving the message will be able to trust you more.”
The presentation was designed to help medical students learn persuasive speaking techniques and how to communicate concisely to their audience.
“She really walked us through how to put together a really solid pitch,” said Mei Mei Edwards, a third-year medical student at TCU School of Medicine. “I have away rotations coming up at hospitals for four weeks to kind of audition for future residency spots working with people I have never met before. In order to make it through all this, I will need a strong pitch to really make myself memorable.”
Scott began the presentation explaining the importance of making a connection using persuasive speech. For example, during an encounter with a patient, she expressed the importance of using terminology that patients can understand to make a better connection.
“Addressing them by their name. Knowing a little bit of their history,” Scott said. “Start the persuasive speech with saying how can I serve you today? As a patient, when my doctor did that, I was willing to hear whatever they had to say.”
Understanding your audience whether it is one person or a room of individuals begins with storytelling, according to Scott. She pushed the medical students to link their ideas or medical information to things their audience can relate too.
“Using stories from the outside world can help you better illustrate your pitch to your audience,” Scott said.
During the presentation, the medical students were asked to give a two-minute pitch based on a topic randomly selected by their peers.
“It was a little nerve wracking at first,” Gutierrez said. “It was eye opening because I am going to have to learn to do that as a student and also as a future provider.”
As her classmates listened and observed, Gutierrez began to pull from her own personal experiences to help ease her patient. She empathized with them as she gave the details of the health condition.
“This technique of trying to relate to your audience is something that can be useful as I move into more clinical encounters,” Gutierrez said. “Telling a story is a really good thing I’m going to use in my future conversations.”
Each student was asked to write down feedback on each impromptu pitch and share it with each other. This was an exercise to help the students practice thinking quickly, but also a practice of learning how to keep their thoughts concise.
“This method is called ‘tabletop’ in Toastmasters lingo,” Scott said.
Edwards was asked to give a short pitch to news reporter about the School of Medicine Brand Ambassadors program. She felt the nervousness of being put on the spot, but was pleasantly surprised by the feedback she received from her classmates.
“It was helpful to get positive feedback to know I’m on the right path and when there was constructive feedback it was something that was actionable,” Edwards said.
Making a perfect pitch is about being fully present, presenting your message clearly and concisely and giving your audience a reason to trust you, Scott added.
“It makes a difference in whether someone trusts you with their life in this instance for the medical students,” Scott said. “I hope they recognize the importance of it with their patients.”
FORT WORTH – How can you make other people successful? It is a question that many businesses and organizations continuously work to find a solution for in the medical field and beyond.
It is also a question that the TCU School of Medicine plans to explore in depth in a new lecture and panel discussion series being led by Jacqueline Chadwick, M.D., Vice Dean for Educational Affairs at the TCU School of Medicine.
As the leader of any group, one way to help the members of your group find success is to embrace the role becoming a servant leader, according to Dr. Chadwick.
“When it (servant leader) was originally developed the primary idea was to be a servant first,” Dr. Chadwick said. “A lot of people put it the other way around that if you’re a leader you act like a servant but that was not how it was intended.”
The TCU School of Medicine held the inaugural Jacqueline Ann Chadwick, MD, Servant Leadership Keynote Lecture and Panel at the TCU in late March. The series is being funded by the Jacqueline Ann Chadwick, MD Servant Leadership endowment, which was created to provide faculty development in servant leadership.
“The way it was really intended was to identify people who have a servant’s heart and choose to lead,” Dr. Chadwick said. “The purpose is to lead another group of people to be successful. If they are all successful then you feel successful and the organization is definitely successful.”
Dr. Chadwick served as the first featured speaker in the series named after her. Students, faculty and staff attended the lecture.
Dr. Chadwick opened with a talk about the meaning of servant leadership and how her family helped her acquire those skills long before she became a physician. She gave an analogy her mother told her as a child.
“It’s easier to catch flies with honey rather than vinegar,” Dr. Chadwick said. “Once I figured it out, I understood what she meant and it’s to be kind and nice to people. You win them over when you are kind to them. It’s been something that has been built into my character and nature since I was a child.”
Servant leadership is at the core of the School of Medicine’s mission to transform health care by inspiring Empathetic Scholars®. At the school’s inception, Dr. Chadwick joined TCU as a critical leader in the schools’ design, creating partnerships and leading the school to receive preliminary accreditation in 2018, among many other roles.
Prior to that, she was the dean of the University of Arizona’s branch clinical campus in Phoenix, then was the vice dean of education as that campus became a fully accredited separate four-year medical school.
At the launch of the speaker series, some of the TCU medical students had a chance to meet Dr. Chadwick for the first time.
Following the lecture, Dr. Chadwick was joined by David Capper, M.D., Chair of Clinical Sciences at TCU School of Medicine, and Ric Bonnell, M.D., Director of Service Learning at the TCU School of Medicine, for a panel discussion about servant leadership in the medical community.
The panelists discussed the importance of leading a medical team, or organization, with care and compassion and how that type of care would filter down into the communities that are being served. That is a different approach to training future physicians and practicing medicine, according to Richard Neville, M.D., assistant professor at TCU School of Medicine, who attended the lecture.
“This was important for the medical students to hear because the way the school is set up they are teaching this to their students early,” Dr. Neville said. “This way they can go out and be leaders of this type of (way of practicing) medicine. It is a much different way of learning to practice medicine from the way I was taught where all we cared about was knowing what to do and how to do it.”
The message resonated with Nathalie Scherer, a third-year medical student at the School of Medicine. She is currently spending a lot of time working alongside Dr. Capper at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
Dr. Capper is Scherer’s mentor for her four-year Scholarly, Pursuit and Thesis project at the medical school. The way he leads his medical team as they treat patients is something she one day hopes to emulate as a future physician.
“It really takes a leader to act as a servant leader to get the team to follow them and be the best they can be,” Scherer said. “That is a fascinating take away that I’ve had.”
Fully grasping what servant leadership is and how that can lead to better outcomes in medicine and beyond is what Dr. Chadwick hopes students and leaders in Fort Worth will take away from the series.
“Then the next step is developing the skill of how you can incorporate that into your own style of leadership,” Dr. Chadwick said. “We’re all leaders in some fashion. We need to keep in mind that we need to treat others with dignity. Listen and communicate with them in an honest and transparent way and really hearing what makes them tick.”
The ElevateMeD Scholars Program is a multifaceted program designed to develop the next generation of physician leaders from African-American/Black, Latinx, and Native American backgrounds. Each Scholar will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship for each year remaining in their medical degree in addition to physician mentorship, access to peer network support, leadership development opportunities, and financial management education.
“Our 2022-23 cohort is composed of dynamic future physician leaders, and we are delighted to be a part of their journey”, shares the organization’s Scholarship Chair Dr. Tiffany Hardaway. This year’s applicant pool was highly competitive with nearly 40 students who were nominated from ElevateMeD’s 19 partnering medical schools.
In September 2021, the AAMC’s OSR board held an election to select five current OSR delegates from medical schools across the nation to be a part of the OSR Administrative Committee. The five medical students selected will represent the OSR nationally and serve on high level decision-making committees.
“It was really an empowering moment for me being selected by my peers,” Kinard said. “I think so highly of my fellow OSRs. For them to feel that I would accurately and efficiently represent them on some of these large committees has been a great feeling.”
In 2021, Kinard joined the AAMC’s OSR Advancing Holistic Principles Advisory Committee (HRPAC) as a liaison for the school of medicine. The OSR collectively looks at ways to address disparities in the pre-medical, medical and graduate medical application process. She provides input to the AAMC on behalf of the students at the TCU School of Medicine and medical students at other institutions in the Southern U.S.
“After the election we got to work right away and elected student representatives to be on the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) committee,” said Kinard. “The LCME is over medical school accreditations so the nominees that we put forth will be the students that will accompany the rest of the LCME committee on site visits and help weigh in on major decisions. This was a serious role that all five of us had to weigh in on and put forth the best candidates.”
The AAMC leads and serves the academic medicine community to improve the health of people everywhere. Founded in 1876 and based in Washington, D.C., the AAMC is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health through medical education, health care, medical research, and community collaborations, according to the AAMC website.
The AAMC also houses the American Medical College Application Service® (AMCAS®), which is a centralized medical school application processing service. Most U.S. medical schools use AMCAS as the primary application method for their first-year entering classes.
