Mr. H and the Value of Mentorship
My family moved from the Town of Cicero, Illinois to the Village of Riverside, Illinois in West Suburban Cook County when I was in the fifth grade. While I only had a few good friends at that time, the move came as a shock. I had my routines down, knew short cuts to school, crossing busy streets and knowing which 8th graders to avoid that were the class bullies. Nonetheless, I started at a new school that Fall and while neither district would have been held in high regard for its academic achievements, for a suburban Cook County school, my new school was tough. I struggled with the class work, my ongoing speech impediment and inability to make new friends. I was the “new kid” for a whole year. After bombing several quizzes and tests, my teacher sat me down on some steps and told me I had what it took to go medical school, if I wanted. I had never thought about it. Fireman, sanitation worker, retailer, perhaps a paramedic, maybe. Not a doctor. I applied myself, practiced my speech drills and worked hard to show Mr. H what I could do. I did a book report on the human heart. I made detailed drawings of the heart and circulatory system and discussed historical references to the anatomy and physiology of the heart. I made an “A-“, because in my zest, I confused the direction of blood flow in the arteries and veins (outside of the pulmonary vasculature). I recounted this story on my essay for medical school years later, single spaced with an electric typewriter and lots of liquid paper to cover up my typing errors.
At the end of the school year the school made a list of what we would most likely become when we grew up. The jocks of course would be professional athletes, the real smart kids would become astronauts, professors, and engineers and so forth. It was listed I would become an “encyclopedia salesman”.
Fortunately, Mr. H saw something else entirely. Outside of my parents and grandparents, he was my first mentor. I didn’t appreciate this of course until years later. Aside from teaching me right from wrong in the classroom and encouraging me to spend as much time on my studies as I did reading box scores, watching trains and playing street hockey, he dared me to do something that I thought was completely out of reach.
Since then, of course I have had many mentors and role models to emulate which I have tried to do. Not only for what they said and did, but perhaps for recognizing their weaknesses and flaws as well.
In pathology and in particular, in pathology informatics and digital pathology, there have been many mentors and peers who have encouraged me to do what I thought would be out of reach. Much like people have taught me to ride a bike, fish, shoot a rifle, handle a boat or read a slide, over the past 25 years I have come to better appreciate the early pioneers in this field even more. The inventors, engineers, clinicians and industry folks who have in some cases, made digital pathology their sole focus of their respective domains.
And I am concerned that we have not done the same as they have. I think healthcare struggles from a leadership vacuum and perhaps worse, a mentorship vacuum. Many of us can point to a Mr. H or a surgeon or a pathologist or professor or company or industry leader and recount tales of a moment someone sat them down in a stairwell and told them something that changed their lives forever.
Residents from 10 or 20 years ago tell me things I told them then, and while I don’t recall saying them, they recall hearing them and it changed at least their careers. Perhaps they did a fellowship, or not, and took a job without it. Perhaps they approach a stomach biopsy in the same way I do or gross a Whipple specimen in the manner in which I was taught and passed down.
But I think much has changed over these decades. We don’t seem to value mentorship as we once did, communicating with trainees is much different now than it was then. Perhaps it was no different, but it feels that way.
Digital pathology is at an inflection point in its progression with regards to technical and professional issues, particularly with regard to regulatory issues and reimbursement. We are at a moment many have worked for decades on. We are at a critical point for adoption and use, a “killer app” we have been waiting for with a need due to fewer pathologists, increasing workloads and the lessons learned from the recent worldwide public health crisis.
Mentorship will be a key component to continuing to move forward and uphill. It will take likeminded individuals to continue to “push the envelope” and improve on technology and use. And it will take strong mentorship to pass on lessons learned and mistakes not to be repeated to future generations.
It is time we all spent more time taking someone aside on the steps and helping them see what is possible.
