A Surgical Approach to Mentorship with Dr. Thomas Varghese

Intro: 

Dr. Thomas Varghese Jr. is the Associate Chief Medical Quality Officer and Chief Value Officer at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and Chief of General Thoracic Surgery at the University of Utah. 

Dr. Varghese is a national leader in minimally invasive applications for general thoracic surgery, recognized by Castle Connolly as one of America’s “Top Docs”, and is ranked in the top 10% of the nation by Press Ganey for patient satisfaction scores. 

His research interests bridge the world of Educational Research and Health Services Research, specifically in the arena of optimizing performance at the patient, surgeon and system levels. He created the Strong for Surgery program, which is now a formal Quality Improvement program of the American College of Surgeons, and active at 331 clinical sites across the nation and 3 state surgical collaboratives.

Dr. Varghese holds national leadership positions in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, Thoracic Surgery Directors Association, American College of Surgeons, and the Society of University Surgeons. Dr. Varghese is active on social media and is the Deputy Editor of Digital Media and Digital Scholarship for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Questions We Asked: 

• Where did your passion for leadership come from? 
• Who were your mentors and what made that relationship special? 
• Have you found your mentors formally or informally? 
• How can you create a good formalized mentorship program? 
• How do mentors effectively help their mentees find their career path? 
• How do you create a good mentor/mentee relationship? 
• How can those in the majority be allies to minority groups in medicine and science? 
• How do you be comfortable saying “I don’t know”? 

Quotes & Ideas: 

• “Never stop looking for best practices” 
• You can and should have different mentors for the various areas of your life (academic, career, social, spiritual, etc.) 
• “Mentorship is someone with a particular knowledge or skills that shares them with someone else who does not have it on their own.” 
• “A mentor does not always have to be older than you.” 
• Identify OKR (objectives and key results) and set a time deadline for it 
• “An ally is someone who builds a culture of inclusion” and “A leader is someone who betters the culture of those they lead”. Leaders need to be allies. 
• “Are we better today than we were yesterday, and are we going to be better tomorrow than we were today and how do we achieve that.” 
• “Diversity doesn’t end because you hire the next diverse faculty. You have to make sure they thrive in their position.” 
• “You don’t know, doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t act.” 
• “MD means make decisions.” 
• “We are living in the greatest time in history.” 
• “Seek your tribe members” 

Books Suggestions: 

• The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Sean Covey 
• Peter Drucker 
• Start With Why by Simon Sinek 
• Adam Grant