Rewarding Moments
What was one of your most rewarding moments of your career at Brigham and Women’s Hospital?
“One of the most important and rewarding moments that I have had at BWH has been the result of the innovative spirit and collaboration that came from an understanding from our hospital leadership that interprofessional education in health care was worthy to concentrate on. Leveling hierarchies, empowering all people on the team to contribute, and allowing people not to know all things at all times will save lives and is something that I am proud that BWH is on the leading edge.”
-Charles Pozner, MD, STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation
“Having a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine is the most rewarding moment of my career at BWH so far.”
-Ying Bao, ScD, MD, Channing Division of Network Medicine
“I have had the opportunity to contribute voluntarily in a teaching outreach activity with Brigham and Women’s Hospital Student Success Jobs Program (BWH-SSJP). The mission of the program is to introduce Boston high school students to careers in health, science and medicine. It was one of my most rewarding moments at BWH when I learned that my mentees were admitted with full scholarships to prestigious undergraduate programs.”
–Hadi Shafiee, PhD, Renal Medicine
“There have been many moments. For example, seeing the Partners HealthCare Biobank go over 10,000 participants was certainly one. But probably the most rewarding moment was when we received notice from the NIH that they were funding our clinical trial to prevent asthma in children by giving vitamin D to their pregnant mothers. This trial is the culmination of over 30 years of research on asthma risk factors and, if successful, it has the potential to prevent almost 50 percent of all asthma cases. We report the results in February 2015.”
–Scott T. Weiss, MD, MS, Channing Division of Network Medicine
“Being one of the lead investigators on the nationwide Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career at BWH. The proposal for the study was literally hundreds of pages in length and included multiple pilot studies documenting our ability to recruit the study participants. Fortunately, we were selected to be one of the original 16 Vanguard sites. That was 21 years ago and we haven’t looked back since. The WHI randomized trials have produced some surprising and controversial findings, and the study certainly hasn’t been short on excitement. In addition, given its large size and racial/ethnic diversity, the WHI has provided (and continues to provide) wonderful scientific and public health opportunities for trainees and junior faculty members.”
-JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, Division of Preventive Medicine
“The first trial I did after joining the TIMI Study group was CLARITY-TIMI 28, a trial testing whether the addition of an antiplatelet drug to standard therapy in patients presenting with a large myocardial infarction could improve opening up the blocked artery. The trial was a success and we submitted the primary results manuscript to the New England Journal of Medicine. When I got back the acceptance I burst into Dr. Braunwald’s office and shared the good news with him. He smiled, put his hand on my shoulder, and simply said: ‘You did it.’”
-Marc S. Sabatine, MD, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
“My most rewarding moment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is most certainly when my daughter was born here. However, from a career perspective, I receive the greatest pleasure in seeing how our research methods are translated into clinical practice and how it benefits patients by providing a personalized medicine approach. In many ways, there is a strong parallel in helping to develop these methods and seeing them blossom to their full potential and parenthood!”
-Alexander Lin, PhD, Department of Radiology