Academic medicine has to develop a new generation of strong leaders, and to get there we need dynamic coaches who can inspire. Given the challenges faced by medicine today—falling reimbursements, stagnant research funding, and burdensome regulations—smart, tough, and brave leaders at the helm are more essential than ever.
Indeed, we need the academic equivalents of University of Memphis basketball star Joey Dorsey: bruisers and beasts, big people to take up space in the middle, who can intimidate with sharp elbows and know how to defend and how to score. Would Joey Dorsey have played better with a mentoring committee on the sidelines instead of fulminating presence of John Calipari, the men’s basketball coach at Memphis? What if the committee had said to Calipari to lay off Dorsey for not playing hard enough? After all, weren’t 10 rebounds enough, especially since the Memphis team was cruising into the NCAA final?
Just like in sports, success in medicine demands passion and competitive fire. A coach can instill those traits. Do you think a committee can?
I know what I think. I want to know what you think.
Dr. Pisetsky is physician editor of The Rheumatologist and professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C.
