Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Richard Evans, MD, FACS, of Westchester Medical Center Health Network’s Western Region and Assistant Professor at New York Medical College

Transcript

Richard Evans, MD, FACS, of Westchester Medical Center Health Network’s Western Region and Assistant Professor at New York Medical College · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by doctor
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  Richard Evans, who's a physician at Westchester Medical
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  Center Health Network Western Region, as well as
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  assistant professor at New York Medical College. Doctor
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  Evans, it's a pleasure to have you on
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  the podcast today.
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  Oh, thank you. This is so exciting, and
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  I appreciate you having me.
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  Absolutely. I'm excited to have our conversation today.
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  I know we're gonna be talking a lot
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  about the mini medical college, that you're working
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  on and and some of the cool things
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  that you're doing there in order to bring
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  high school students into the medical field and
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  profession. But before we do that, can you
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  tell us a little bit more about yourself
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  and your background?
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  Sure. As you stated, I am a urologist.
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  I am an assistant professor of urology with
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  New York Medical College
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  and a hospital administrator with Westchester Medical Center
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  Health System,
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  with multiple roles, including director of the Midi
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  Medical College,
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  administrative director of robotic surgery,
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  and the director of the Bublitz Medicine Surgery
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  Program.
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  I'm also the cofounder of the Family First
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  application,
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  the provided to family communication software solution for
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  hospital systems.
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  You know, my two roles as a practicing
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  clinician and hospital administrator give me a unique
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  vantage point
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  to see both the workflow
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  and the work flaws in care delivery.
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  More importantly, they allow me to translate those
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  insights into practical,
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  actionable
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  solutions.
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  So what became clear is that many of
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  these challenges, especially workforce shortages,
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  cannot be solved inside the hospital alone.
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  And that realization is one of several driving
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  forces
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  in order to create the Mini Medical College,
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  building a pipeline
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  by reaching students earlier and inspiring them to
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  pursue careers in health care.
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  That's amazing to hear. And, you know, such
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  a critical time right now, and I know
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  so many,
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  hospitals and systems
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  in health centers across the country are,
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  really experiencing
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  shortages
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  of clinicians as well as staff across the
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  board. And so being able to bring more
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  people into health care is so, so important.
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  Can you tell us about the Mini Medical
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  College? How did you build the program, and
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  and what are,
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  some of the ins and outs of it?
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  So the Mini Medical College is a program
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  that essentially brings
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  medical school to the high school students.
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  It's a series of 30 presentations
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  which include
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  presentation lectures, but also a lot of hands
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  on training
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  to the students.
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  And it works to
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  engage them
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  interactively
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  and to learn about the medical field.
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  And it started off with really one school
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  in one county in New York
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  and without advertising,
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  it's just really by word-of-mouth from school to
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  school, parents to parents and other students and
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  then,
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  newspaper articles, television
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  stories. Now it's built up into
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  two states, New York and New Jersey,
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  10 high schools,
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  and it's
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  really growing quite rapidly through
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  the word-of-mouth
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  pipeline.
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  Wow. That's amazing to hear. And, you know,
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  incredible growth,
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  since you you launched the program. I'm curious,
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  when you look at the presentations and lectures
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  as well as the, hands on training that
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  they're able to do, could you tell us
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  a little bit more about that?
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  How do you put that together, and what
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  do you cover in these types of programs?
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  Yeah. So
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  essentially, I've been doing this now since 2017,
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  and I've learned a lot about student interaction
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  and what today's student needs.
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  And a lot of it is a reflection
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  of the cell phone
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  background.
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  The students are used to changes and going
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  from one scene to another scene quickly. They
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  need to be engaged.
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  So when I first started off doing just
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  presentations, I noticed it really wasn't enough to
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  engage them.
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  So I brought in a lot of hands
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  on training that totally has hit a home
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  run. So some of the things are I
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  teach them how to suture,
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  how to tie surgeon's knots.
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  I bring in endoscopes
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  and I have multiple stations where I teach
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  them how to perform a cystoscopy,
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  ureteroscopy.
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  And we have baskets and they actually remove
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  stones and marbles
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  from these models that I have developed.
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  And they have so much fun at it
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  that they forget that they're actually learning.
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  And what I do is I'll have one
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  surgeon, one co surgeon
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  and so that it's nice to see the
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  students talking to each other because in school,
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  teachers will tell you students just do not
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  talk to each other.
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  But by making one surgeon a co surgeon,
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  they're actually talking to each other. They're planning,
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  hey, can do you think that stone will
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  fit in the basket? I don't know. And
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  they and they plan together. And when and
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  they celebrate together when they do get the
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  stone out. And I let them keep the
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  stones.
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  It may seem like a small memento, but
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  students have come up to me a year
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  or two later saying, you know, I still
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  have that in my drawer. And I look
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  at it,
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  and it's a a big source
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  of enthusiasm and accomplishment for me. So while
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  we may consider these little things, they consider
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  it really major milestones.
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  That's so cool to hear, and I love
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  how you have adapted the program as time
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  goes on based on what the students' needs
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  and really meeting them in a place where
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  they can have fun and enjoy that learning
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  process and develop that passion for health care
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  that I know is so important.
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  I'm curious, you know, could you tell us
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  a little bit more about the results from
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  the program? What have you seen,
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  not only anecdotally, but anything you can share
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  about the students who then go on to,
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  medical school, and how are you continuing to
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  scale this program across different regions?
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  Well, that's you brought up a lot of
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  good points. And
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  the
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  it's nice to see that many of the
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  students
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  are not interested in becoming a physician or
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  nurse. And the point of the Midi Medical
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  College is not just about an MD or
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  RN degree.
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  They have no knowledge what is a respiratory
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  therapist, what is a physical therapist, what's a
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  phlebotomist.
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  So I bring all of these to the
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  class and I bring them up repeatedly and
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  it really piques their interest about what these
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  specialties are.
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  And so I do have students who get
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  in touch with me, email, and they'll let
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  me know, hey,
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  I went into this field, but I never
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  would have thought about healthcare. I just thought
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  you had to be a doctor or a
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  nurse.
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  So
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  if we don't at least expose the students
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  to all the options that await them in
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  the health care field,
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  how can we expect them to go into
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  a graduate program or to a college program
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  knowing what they want to do if we
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  don't bring it to them in high school?
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  And a lot of this I like, and,
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  actually, this is March Madness.
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  So March Madness has done this quite well
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  for many years, and I think we need
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  to learn from them where the colleges go
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  into the high schools. They look at what
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  what students have potential or have interest in
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  playing basketball, and they cultivate them. They bring
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  them up through the ranks and
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  that's how they get talent. Well, this is
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  something we haven't been doing in medicine, but
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  we really should be doing more on a
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  larger scale
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  and learn from the success of college basketball.
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  Absolutely. That makes so much sense. You know,
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  it's such a a timely analogy when you
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  think about how much talent then comes through
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  the college teams and, you know, it's been
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  just so cool to to watch and see
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  every year. And from the healthcare perspective, when
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  you're going into these schools and,
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  you know, sharing this knowledge in programs,
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  you know, is is it something that you're
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  doing weekly,
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  daily? How does that kind of the cadence
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  of that work? And then, you know, secondly,
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  how do you get the resources to put
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  all this together and and then be able
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  to devote that to,
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  you know, working with the students?
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  So as far as going to this this
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  is a this is a unique program in
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  that I go into the schools and I'm
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  in I'm in the school classroom and it's
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  incorporated into the school's curriculum.
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  So what that does, it takes away any
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  application process. It also takes away from any
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  preselection
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  basis.
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  So any of the students that are in
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  the classroom that never even thought about healthcare
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  and if you don't think about healthcare, how
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  do you know about filling out an application?
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  Why would I apply to a program if
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  I don't know what I want?
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  So the beauty behind it is that I
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  take it to them, to any student who's
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  interested, and so that's why sometimes I'll do
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  multiple teachers
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  and classrooms in one school so that they
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  all can be exposed to it.
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  It allows them to, again, open up their
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  horizons
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  to think about fields that ordinarily they never
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  would have.
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  So for the most part, for the majority
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  of the startup time up until,
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  recently, I've I've been self funded. I've been
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  doing everything myself.
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  But recently now I've merged
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  with Westchester Medical Center where they see the
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  importance of this and they see the results
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  of what's happening. So now we are pulling
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  resources and they
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  have become a full team member for me,
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  so that is going to allow me to
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  take the program
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  to the next level.
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  I have a lot of plans of bringing
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  in artificial intelligence, more hands on training, teaching
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  them how to do laparoscopy,
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  robotic surgery. And this is where I feel
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  our partnership will be quite productive and fruitful
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  together.
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  I love that. Wow. Really bringing that into
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  the current modern day with the new technology
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  and inability to
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  scale smartly.
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  Where do you see the program growing and
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  heading over the next couple years?
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  So I've I've been contacted by hospital associations
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  throughout the country.
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  In fact, I'm I am presenting I was
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  asked to present the program at the VISTA
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  twenty twenty six meeting in Minneapolis.
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  Once the systems hear about it and I'm
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  getting all the contact or the interest,
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  I see this program being scaled nationally, one
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  region at a time,
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  because there's very little cost behind it. It's
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  just a matter of having motivated
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  professors, physicians, nurses who want to partake in
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  in teaching,
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  and then we take it right to the
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  schools where you don't have to build new
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  schools. You don't have to build classrooms. We're
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  doing everything on the school grounds.
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  So I think it's very scalable and at
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  at a very relatively conservative budget, which makes
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  it ripe for scaling nationwide.
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  Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. And,
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  you know, it's really cool and exciting to
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  see some of those opportunities come to fruition.
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  Before we wrap up here, I wanted to
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  ask you about some of the things you've
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  learned over the years and, you know, what
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  other health systems should know about building similar
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  programs or or striking out and trying to,
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  get into the high schools. You know, love
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  to just gather your thoughts on and any
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  experience that you'd be able to share, and
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  advice that you have for leaders who are
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  trying to do something similar.
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  So I've learned that we need, at least
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  I need constant feedback from the students and
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  from the teachers.
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  I learn so much by talking to the
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  teachers
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  about the classrooms, what the changes they have
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  seen. Because if I just go in with
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  a plan of my own in a silo,
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  it's not going to work. I need to
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  get the experience and the guidance from teachers
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  and also I ask that the teachers send
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  out surveys after each class.
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  I encourage the students, it's always anonymous,
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  so that when I get the feedback from
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  the students, they have some very positive encouraging
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  remarks and building points, and I will always
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  look to change my presentation.
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  So the presentation that is perhaps in my
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  curriculum now, it will look very different in
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  six months. I don't look to be still.
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  I have to keep up and change with
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  the students' interest
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  and also current events.
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  When there's a new story that's on, I
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  convert that
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  into my presentation as fast as possible because
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  that's what the students hear. When they're going
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  through and scrolling through their phones and they
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  pick up on the news,
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  it's best for them to be able to
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  for me to correlate it to something in
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  medicine so that they have it's more tangible
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  for them to understand.
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  So I think it's very important to
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  remain
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  like a rolling stone, always changing, going with
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  the flow, and not to have a set
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  lecture that you say, alright. I'm gonna put
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  that away, and I'm gonna use it over
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  and over because that won't work with the
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  students.
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  I love that. Doctor Evans, thank you so
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  much for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been such a a great and
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  fun conversation.
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  I'm curious,
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  is there a website that others can visit,
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  in order to obtain more information about the
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  Mini Medical College?
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  Oh, sure.
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  The website is www.minimedicalcollege.com.
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  And if hopefully, it'll help everyone,
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  build that pipeline to the workforce, which I
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  think is crucial.
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  And one thing, if I can add, I've
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  recently been talking to local colleges that have
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  healthcare programs,
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  and I think it's important that we, I
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  can bring them into the loop so that
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  you have the hospital institution, you have the
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  high schools and you have college healthcare programs
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  that we can all work together. The colleges
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  need the students,
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  The hospitals need future pipeline workers so we
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  can all work together to make this work.
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  Doctor Evans, thank you so much again. The
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  website again is www.minimedicalcollege.com.
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  Visit it to learn more, and I I
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  know you're always open to connecting with, other
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  leaders who are wanna talk through this. So,
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  doctor Evans, thank you so much for your
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  time today, and we'll look forward to working
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  with you again soon.
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  Thank you so much for your time, and
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  I really appreciate everything.