• LecturehallLeadership: Making A Difference
  • Lecture Transcript
  • TAPE STARTS – [00:00]


    Male Speaker: Okay. So moving along, our next track, I like to welcome Dr. Rebecca Moellmer and Dr. Sydney Yau. Dr. Moellmer graduated from NYCPM with a three-year residency in Sports Medicine Fellowship at Southern California. She is board-certified by the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery and American Board of Podiatric Medicine, and is a fellow with the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine.

    She also, interestingly, was an integral portion of CPMA, California Podiatric Medicine Association in expanding the scope of practice for fellow DPMs. She’s currently an assistant professor at CPM, clinical instructor and lecturer with special interest in biomechanics.

    Dr. Sydney Yau graduated from TUSPM and did his residency at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Philadelphia, followed by fellowship specializing in foot and ankle reconstruction in sports medicine with University of Foot and Ankle Institute in Los Angeles. Currently, an assistant professor at School Podiatric Medicine and also teaches applied biomechanics in North Chicago, Illinois, board-certified by ABPS and American Board of Podiatric Medicine.

    They – we’re going to kind of open up the next, let’s say, 45 minutes for them. They are going to lecture concomitantly and universally on leadership, making a difference, and accommodative path and just trapping both the lecture and the workshops. So let’s welcome Dr. Moellmer and Dr. Yau.

    Rebecca Moellmer: Hi, guys. Let me get acclimated with this. Okay. So we’re actually going to do leadership with just me and then Sydney will join me and we’ll go ahead and hit the workshop, lecture, and hands-on.

    [2:07]

    This will not be 30 minutes. It’ll be less which is great because we need the time for the workshop, more hands-on experience.

    I would like to thank Presents for inviting me and I chose to speak regarding leadership, making a difference because it’s really important. And I’ll get into why I think that, obviously, I think you can tell being past president that I’m going to be a little bit biased. But at this point, we can exchange leadership for just getting involved. I think it’s really important, especially at a resident level, that you get involved now. You’re going to be so busy later and you’re not going to think that you have the time to do so. No conflict of interest. And leadership is kind of a big deal.

    So let’s go ahead and exchange that again with just getting involved. A lot of times, I’ve heard that if you don’t like how something is working, that you should get involved, you can change it better from the inside and that’s not why I got involved. I’ll tell you my story a little bit later, but that’s really important to understand. You can’t get much done if you’re not in there already, making the context.

    So I understand that there’s a lot of different things vying for your time and like I said, it’s going to be even more when you are out in practice or fellowship even. But what you need to do now is decide what’s important to you and which ways you want to spend your time, specifically, which professional specialty organization you think is worth your time and worth your energy because they all want you. You don’t realize that every single organization wants new blood and new energy and new ideas and that’s you. You may think that you’re not that important or what you have to give, but you have a lot. And every time there’s new blood, the standard that has been working for an organization, maybe it’s not anymore.

    [4:01]

    I know there’s a lot of discussion about millennials and, you know, how to figure them out and there’s really not a lot of research behind it because, really, how can you just group one whole, what, 1980 to 2000, that’s a little bit challenging. So there’s a lot of theory, but not a lot of answers. So I guess I’m asking what professional organization does something that you believe in and is valuable and worth your time.

    So this is from multiple business blogs. There are some medicine blogs, but ultimately, this is mostly business. And these are the reasons why people used to get involved and maybe they do now as well. So let’s go ahead and talk about those.

    You brought in your knowledge when you’re involved in another entity or another association. It’s not just your attendings or your co-residents or even your colleagues that you work with and you see them on a day-to-day basis. These societies usually offer meetings like this. They offer meetings in which it doesn’t have to be as big and nice as this. That could be something much smaller in one of the side-workshop rooms and you’ll just be getting together with like-minded individuals, maybe somebody that knows a little bit more than you. You’re going to learn your niche. You may not realize what you’re good at right now, but you’re going to figure it out because you’re going to be introduced to more things and you’re going to realize what it’s important to you and what you actually can help with.

    Career resources, scholarships, and internships, I have not found any of these because I started after my fellowship, but perhaps from a student perspective or from a resident perspective that would work.

    [05:58]

    I know when I was the CPMA president, I try to get students and residents involved a lot more because I think it’s important that they understand what we do for them in any organization, not just mine.

    You build your resume, I think that’s all important for all the residents who are out trying to get a job right now, but I also tell my students that when they come in their first year and they want to know how to make their application look the best, I explained to them at first year that there are four main things they can do. They need to get involved with community outreach, they need to be published or be involved in research, they need to have good grades, and they need to have leadership or club activities. It just shows that they are well-rounded person. And I think we’ve heard that a few times today. These are the things that make you look not just like you have great grades or you’re really well-trained, you’re a good person that people want to work with and patients want to come to.

    Enhancing your network. Who likes networking? I think when you seek out networking for that purpose, it’s not that fun but when you’re doing a job and you’re meeting other people, it’s really, really easy and you’re working for one common goal and you may know this person because of this committee that you’re on but ultimately, they’re going to be a contact for you in the future.

    Developing leadership skills. How many feel they are prepared for leadership currently in their residencies? Chief residence, I would assume, but I don’t think there’s a lot of opportunity in residency. I feel you’re just scrambling to get your numbers and to do really – provide really good care and there’s so many more opportunities for you.

    And next, mentor and support systems. Somebody’s going to see you when you’re out in a specialty organization. They’re going to see you, they’re going to see your potential and they are going to help you. There’s always one lack of a better term, older person who’s been doing something amazing and they’re really, really good at it in a specialty organization, and they decide suddenly that – or maybe not so suddenly but they don’t want to do that anymore.

    [8:06:]

    They need somebody to pass the baton to. You could be that person if that’s something that you’re interested in and then you could be the go to.

    Making new friends or networking. I know I’ve made a lot of friends. I have been involved with California Podiatric Medical Associations since I – one year out of fellowship, so it was pretty quick for me. I made a lot of friends and – via the networking.

    Giving back. There’s a lot of theory and not a lot of research as to what the “Millennial generation” wants, but ultimately, it’s to be fulfilled and you obviously want to make money, but this isn’t about making money. This will come with your contacts, with your good jobs, and with the people that you make, or with the friendships that you make. So giving back is something that you can do and also it goes back to what I tell my students, being involved in community outreach.

    Strength in numbers. So this actually can help you, can help your organization and it can help your specialty of medicine. It helps you because you get discounts. It helps the specialty organization because now they have these discounts that people maybe want. And more importantly, they have grassroots effort. So we’re pretty small, but we’re pretty powerful podiatrists and when we ask of something of our constituents from a political standpoint, from the CPMA standpoint, we need to be able to talk to them and ask them what they want from this bill or what they want from this legislation and how they can get in contact with their legislators. And if they don’t know that something is coming up because we’re busy, then it’s our job to notify them. So strength in numbers is an organization’s job to basically rally the troops and get them to go and speak to the legislators.

    [10:07]

    Staying inspired and motivated. I don’t know about you but just two days here and I’ve already got a new research idea. So I don’t know, anybody else?

    Developing standards and best practices. I certainly did not start my first year at a fellowship thinking I am going to change California and with a really good team and with a lot of hard work, we did just that.

    So personal benefits. This used to be the way that it was, that you would only do things for yourself. This supposedly is what the research was saying, but ultimately, you’re going to be meeting new people, networking, and you’re not going to have to try to do it. It’s just going to happen. You’re going to have new future opportunities, new perspectives when you go to these conferences, or when you go to meetings or when you even meet up with maybe a fellow resident from a different program, you learn something new and you are educated, and you make better decisions.

    Like I said, the personal fulfillment is something that I – I’m a Generation X and I want personal fulfillment. I don’t know who wouldn’t. But apparently, that’s one of the big takeaways from the Millennials, and giving back to our profession is just a good thing. Obviously, it’s got to be something that you believe in, otherwise it’s just going to be work.

    Completing goals as a team, it’s going to make a connection, and you’re going to be improving the competence of your current job. So I was in a private practice before working at Western University. And when I went to a few meetings, we had a lawyer there and they would tell us things that were coming up to watch out for. And I went back to my group, and I told my group and we didn’t participate in the thing that was probably getting some people and some hot water.

    [12:02]

    Competence of my current job, I learned new teaching methods and tried to implement them and see if they work researches out there. And I just need to talk to people in different groups who have different – or who have similar interests.

    So where do you begin? You’re just a small fish in a big pond, you think, right? So, locally, you can be on your hospital board, you could be on committees on your hospital, you could start really, really small. Regionally, you can be involved to have a couple of friends and act fast who started in regional positions, state positions. Usually, you don’t start there, but every once in a while there’s committee openings. Like I said, I tried to involve the residents and the students in the committees on the state level so that they would make connections and be able to get a job when they get out, showing what great workers they are, what great team workers they are. And nationally, there are also national committees with a bunch of different special organizations – specialty organizations.

    So these are just some of the things that I like. This doesn’t mean you have to like it. My big question, I guess, for networking is when I was a fellow, it was affiliated with the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine, and the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine is affiliated with Special Olympics. So right off the bat, 2005, I started serving as a Fit Feet director for Special Olympics Southern California. And I haven’t gone outside of Special – excuse me, of Southern California, I’ve just stayed right there. But what that did is a staffer, who I saw regularly, put me in contact with my very first group, and that was my first job. It’s a really small world and it’s really easy to network when you’re not trying. So put yourself out there.

    You may not be interested in politics and that’s okay. And you may be interested in specialty boards or licensing boards, questions, or maybe you like residency site visits, or maybe you like something completely different than this, and that’s okay.

    [14:06]

    But what I’ve learned is that everything is a puzzle piece and it fits together. And all of us working together in all of these different organizations, we all help promote our specialty of medicine. So, what organizations are usually looking for is organization. So maybe you’re not the best, maybe you’ll get better.

    Communication and listening. Listening is really important, especially when you’re new, you don’t know what you don’t know yet. So it’s really important to listen, and you’ll learn fast.

    Conflict resolution, maybe that’s something you learned as a chief resident or as a resident in a big group, big program.

    Friendly, reliable. If somebody asks you to do something, it’s good to follow through and that’s good in life. Team player and on top skill set. You don’t realize that you have a skill, maybe you do, but somebody’s going to notice and somebody’s going to mentor you, and help you along the way to get better at it.

    So I put this data entry as my favorite because it’s nobody’s. And that’s how I, kind of, got into this. [Chuckles] So I was attending my first state meeting in California and I was a – what I thought a lowly society president, when you’re out of fellowship. And the board members were talking about ways that we can reach podiatric constituents of various legislatures.

    So when a bill, I mentioned, when a bill would come up, how would we tell Doctor X that he needed to contact legislature Q? He might not know. So, rather than send out a blanket email, which I know we all love those, we were talking about ways that we could get this information out. And so, I timidly raised my hand and I said, “Why don’t we have an excel worksheet?”

    [16:02]

    So I happen to be a little bit organized.

    So little did I realize, I had volunteered myself to data entry 1,600 podiatrist in the State of California. Their names, their home addresses, and then filing all of their congress and senate for state and national, and it’s still used today. It’s updated every election. It’s been over 10 years and California has a really, really good grassroots effort because we contact Doctor X and we tell him that Congress Person Q needs to hear from them before this date and this is their contact information and this is the bill and this is why we think you should call. It doesn’t mean they have to, but they’re alerted to something that is going to affect their practice.

    So, I’m in. Now I’m a board member on the California Podiatric Medical Association, but I don’t know anything, I think. So my suggestion is you just sit and you listen. You get assigned to all these different committees and it may not be the one thing that you really want to do.

    I remember I was assigned to a committee on the APMA and I thought, like, I don’t really have anything to contribute to this. So I just sat there and I listened and every once in a while I would make some suggestions or help in some way. But ultimately it was me learning, how the puzzle pieces fit together.

    At one point I was thinking that I just wanted to be the man behind the curtain. I didn’t need to be the great and powerful laws. And then I realized it’s pretty fun being the great and powerful laws because you can now help a really good team. I just happened to have a really good team. Do something that is going to go down in history. At that point though, I didn’t know it was going to be changing our scope of practice.

    So with convincing, I was told that I would be – I should consider being the president. And I thought, “Well, gosh that sounds – that sounds really serious.

    [18:02]

    I should probably figure out how I’m going to do this, what my goals are and more importantly what’s my leadership style.” So how many of you have had people like all of these? I’ve had people like of these explain to me what I’m going to do or ask me what I’m going to do, but they’re the leader.

    So I decided I was going to look back on my – about 8 years of board experience and look at the leadership styles that I really liked. And I tried to emulate those, that doesn’t mean I did, but I tried. And I tried to look at what would get the most out of people that they wanted to do, not forcing them to do things, but what do they enjoy doing and what were they good at doing? So that’s what I tried to do.

    So there’s not a lot of research. There is a psychology paper that actually talks about shared leadership which sounds a little hanky to me. But it actually shows that if you are not the direct or vertical boss over other people, that you get more things done. And again, I can’t say enough about the board that I was on if you don’t have a good board that’s going to help or people that are coming up, that have a lot of interest and a lot of insight, then you’re not going to be successful. You can only motivate so far. I had a really good team.

    And so what happened is at the first meeting in April of 2016, we had a meeting and we discussed what are the goals? What are my goals? And I told them what my goals were. And what are the board’s goals? So all of the board members are from various members of – or various locations in California and of course, they speak to their local society members, and they brought those concerns to the table.

    And then the staff also mentioned the concerns of overall California members’ goals, because they get to interact with them the most.

    [20:01]

    They get the calls. And we had a really, really long list and I wanted to get something good done in one year.

    And so we decided that we were going to push for legislation to change our scope of practice, because in the State of California at that time, podiatric medical surgeons, medicine specialists couldn’t do venous stasis leg ulcers. Crazy, right? I teach at Western but I can’t treat it?

    So, not only are we trained, but there’s a lack of specialists, at least in my area. I don’t know about yours, but not a lot of people want to deal with venous stasis ulcers because, well, they’re a bummer, and if you heal them, they’re great. So, we ended up going for that.

    So then we started thinking, “Well, do we need to get a big war chest of money? Do we need to start getting the pack involved?” No, because we have the education and training, and we just had to communicate with people.

    So, I ended up putting all the people that are great at talking to different people together. And I had somebody go out and speak with the orthopedists, who were terrified that California Podiatric Medical Specialists were going to start wanting to do knee scopes or arthroplasties, we don’t want to do that. I don’t know about you, I don’t want to do that.

    So had a few beers with them, and then I spoke with the dermatologist about our education and training. Spoke with the MDs and the DOs who were pretty much on board because they already know our education and training, and then the vascular surgeons, they were already onboard. We just had to, like, shake our hand and say hi, because they know that there’s a problem and there’s a lack of access.

    So, we were successful. In April of 2016, we talked about what our plan was.

    [22:05]

    And in October of 2017, the Bill was signed, and it was put into law of January of 2018. So now, in the State of California, we have and expanded scope, which includes venous stasis ulcers below the knee for a podiatric medical specialist.

    So, now I ask you again, what specialty organization are you going to get involved with? What’s important to you and how can you make a difference? That’s it. Thanks.


    TAPE ENDS [0:22:43]