The mentoring family we build

Last Friday we were honored to host a graduate of our training programs and a former faculty colleague, both within our Cardiovascular Medicine division as well as at the Iowa City VA Health System. Dr. Kevin Dellsperger distinguished himself both at Iowa as a resident, a Chief Resident, a cardiology fellow, then as faculty. Then he went on to impressive leadership roles elsewhere, including within ACGME, where he got to see and evaluate firsthand how other institutions approached education, this critical component of academic medicine. And those institutions got to see what Iowa training produces, a level of excellence that every Iowa alum demonstrates when we leave the Corridor. It was thrilling to meet with Dr. Dellsperger on his too-brief visit “back home,” as he shared stories about life in the department and in UI Health Care in decades past. Names like AAMC President David Skorton casually dropped into stories were just another reminder of the national and international leaders of academic medicine who helped make and continue to make this place such an attractive destination.

You can read about Dr. Dellsperger’s time with our residents at noon conference here. One of the many things he talked about that stuck with me over the next few days was how important it is to find and a mentor. I have written before, and even solicited some comments from faculty, about how important mentors are, whether it is in direct instruction for, say, building clinical skills, or more indirectly in talking through career options or just modeling leadership. The culture of our department has always been one that places a primacy on not just being available for these kinds of relationships but actively interested in identifying chances to give trainees and students and even junior faculty the mentoring that makes such a difference. Dr. Dellsperger went on to advise the residents in attendance that they should also be mentors, to find their own chances to give a hand up to interns or medical students and even peers. Trust that your unique experience and wisdom can make a difference right now.

Photo for reflection
Dr. Dellsperger is seen here with three of our five Chief Residents, a role he has often spoken of as one of the highlights of his time at Iowa. There is no greater example of the many forms that mentoring can take than in our Chiefs. The traditional kind of mentor I often think of is the bird’s-eye view, flying above someone, say, walking through a field of crops obscuring their view of the long-range. A good mentor can see the path ahead and offer advice on dangers or roadblocks ahead that the mentee cannot see. A Chief Resident may not fly as high or see as far as a more senior attending faculty member might, but they have a much more immediate memory of the challenges the residents face, having just been through it all themselves. It is really a special kind of role, leaders and at times enforcers of policy and procedure by necessity, but also empathetic counselors and keen-eyed observers for when a trainee needs an extra ounce of concern. Isn’t empathy, the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, at the heart of the most effective mentoring? The Chief Residents are excellent modelers of this.

Upi’s “Oh, WOW” moment
A recent story about a publication in the Journal of the American Heart Association is also an excellent model of the more traditional kind of mentoring. Hem-Onc researcher and professors Dr. Sanjana Dayal is senior author on an article that looked at more than 2.6 million adults diagnosed with Long COVID in the TriNetX database. She and her team looked for trends in long-term complications for patients’ cardiovascular, renal, and pulmonary systems. Dr. Dayal brought together a multidisciplinary team from her own lab along with faculty in our Pulmonary and Infectious Diseases divisions. I was happy to contribute to this work, which built on work I’ve been doing since I was at Stanford. But the biggest lift here came in Dr. Dayal’s mentoring of the paper’s first author, a medical student named Akash Pradeep, who has been working with her since he was an undergraduate. You can read more about that collaboration and the contributions of many others from our department here.

Finally, a big thank-you to all the faculty mentors who worked with our residents on their clinical vignettes, prepared for the competition a couple weeks ago. We are all excited to hear about the results as the four finalists face off at today’s noon conference. May the best resident win and do us all proud at next week’s Progress conference!

And, in late-breaking news, a hearty congratulations to Dr. Amal Shibli-Rahhal on her win of the Endocrine Society’s 2027 Outstanding Educator Award!