Transformational Times
Words of Hope, Character & Resilience from our Virtual Community
Friday, February 19, 2021
Director's Corner
  • Adina Kalet, MD, MPH: The Fauci Effect: An Unprecedented Rise in Applications to Medical School Provides an Opportunity, but Might We Miss It?

Perspectives/Opinions
  • Lisa Dotson, MD: Sentry Dean and Founding Dean, MCW-Central Wisconsin
  • Matthew Hunsaker, MD: Founding Dean, MCW-Green Bay
  • Bradley Zastrow, MD: How Graduating from an MCW Regional Campus Prepared Me for Residency
  • Allison McLellan, MD: Coming Home
  • Michael Braun, PhD: KNN Visits MCW's Kern Institute
  • Erin Green, MD, and David Marks, MD, MBA: 2021 Kern Scholars

Poetry Corner
  • Ted Kooser: Abandoned Farmhouse

Transformational Snaps
  • Tammy Hosch
  • Kate Dielentheis, MD

Your Turn
  • See how readers answered last week's prompt: What is your favorite takeout food, and what restaurant do like to order it from?
  • Respond to this week's prompt: What is your favorite way to get exercise during the winter?
  • Respond to this week's character question: What's your favorite way to be creative?

Announcements & Resources
  • Register for Kern's Upcoming Virtual Events
  • Kern National Network News & Events
Director's Corner
The Fauci Effect: An Unprecedented Rise in Applications to Medical School Provides an Opportunity, but Might We Miss It?



by Adina Kalet, MD, MPH

Applications to medical school are at an all-time high. In this week’s issue focusing on Rural Health and Medical Education, Dr. Kalet considers the opportunities this may afford us to address the significant geographic and specialty maldistribution among the physician workforce and, thus, address health disparities. Or not …

When I entered medical training in 1978 at the Sophie Davis School for Biomedical Education at the City College of New York (now the City University School of Medicine), I signed a contract committing me to practice medicine in a medically underserved urban community. I thought I wanted to be a physician (What did I know? I was 17 years old!) and, compared to what I had heard about the competitive grind of the typical pre-medical pathway, the social mission of the six-year accelerated BS/MD program I was entering appealed to me. My classmates were typical inner city public college folks, over 30% of us were Black and Latino, most were from lower middle class and working poor families, and many were immigrants or first-generation Americans. As I discovered later in my training, ours was not the typical make up of a medical school class.
A few Questions for...

Lisa Grill Dotson, MD
Sentry Dean and Founding Dean, MCW-Central Wisconsin


Rural hospitals have long faced tight funding, declining resources, challenging recruitment/retention issues, and low volumes/reimbursements, yet they are expected to be ready to care for the full range of health issues including opioid / methamphetamine addiction, COVID-19, refractory mental health issues, farm machinery accidents, and high-speed vehicular trauma. Dr. Bruce Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of the Transformational Times, spoke with Lisa Dodson, MD, Sentry Dean and Founding Dean, MCW-Central Wisconsin located in Wausau, Wisconsin about the challenges facing her campus and the future of rural healthcare, asking her the following questions:


  1. How does a regional campus help address some of the challenges of rural health care?
  2. What can you tell us about students that are drawn to regional campuses?
  3. What challenges do you see in the rural health care workforce and in rural health care in the coming decade?
  4. What challenges do you see in your accelerated curriculum, and in medical school curricula, in general?
  5. What has surprised you most in your position?
A few Questions for...

Matthew Hunsaker, MD
Founding Dean, MCW-Green Bay



Dr. Hunsaker, Founding Dean of MCW-Green Bay, spoke with Dr. Bruce Campbell, Editor-in-Chief of the Transformational Times, about the Green Bay campus and how its mission will improve the health of Wisconsin’s smaller towns and cities. During their conversation, he shared his perspectives on the following questions:


  1. How does a regional campus help address some of these challenges of rural health care?
  2. What challenges do you see in the rural health care workforce and in rural health care in the coming decade? 
  3. As a Dean, what have you discovered?
  4. Any other advice?
Perspective/Opinion
How Graduating from an MCW Regional Campus Prepared Me for Residency

by Bradley Zastrow, MD


Dr. Zastrow, a current resident in MCW’s psychiatry residency program, explains how attending medical school at MCW-Green Bay provided him with several unique experiences that better prepared him for his journey…


Prior to attending medical school at MCW–Green Bay, I lived in Milwaukee for six years. While applying to medical schools, I knew I wanted to work with underserved populations outside of the relatively resource-rich city during medical school. Access to mental health treatment in rural Wisconsin is currently one of the most pressing issues facing our state. My experience training in a rural location was the first necessary step in preparing to help try to remedy this issue.
Perspective/Opinion
Coming Home

by Allison McLellan, MD


Dr. McLellan, a current Pediatrics resident at MCW, describes connecting her past and future through an instant and deep love of rural Alaska...


The fact that I was sobbing as the plane landed in Anchorage didn’t make sense. I was a fourth-year medical student about to interview for a residency spot; the crying would have made sense if it was due to nerves but that wasn’t the reason for my tears. I was treated to a monochrome view from my window- ice, sky, trees and snow, all grey. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I was struck by the feeling that I was going home again, which is odd, since I’d never been there before.
Help us Celebrate "Thank a Resident Day" next Friday, February 26!

What words of thanks do you have for the residents that work at any of our MCWAH sites? 
Thank a Resident Day is sponsored by the Gold Humanism Honor Society
Perspective/Opinion
The Kern National Network for Caring & Character in Medicine Visits MCW's Kern Institute

by Michael T. Braun, PhD

Dr. Braun summarizes a recent visit by the Kern National Network…

This past January, the MCW Kern Institute was pleased to host colleagues from the Kern National Network for Caring & Character in Medicine (KNN) for a virtual site visit. The visit was led by KNN Director Cheryl Maurana, PhD, along with Bonnie Miller, MD, and Kimara Ellefson, and highlighted the Kern Institute’s work here at MCW including our growth since the 2017 founding and opportunities for continued growth and partnership. Adina Kalet, MD, Director of the MCW Kern Institute, began the site visit by highlighting the structure of the Kern Institute, especially the founding and expansion of three labs which knit together the founding pillars. After this initial presentation, the team welcomed representatives from all of the Kern Institute’s major initiatives to share with the KNN site visit team their innovative, impactful work.
Announcement
The Kern Institute Announces the 2021 Kern Scholars

Please join us in welcoming Erin Green, MD, and David S. Marks, MD, MBA, to the Kern Institute’s 2021 Scholars Program.

These leaders will be growing the Kern Institute’s capacity in medical education scholarship and character education efforts. We look forward to them sharing their learnings with the MCW community. Please join us in extending a thank you to the Kern Family Foundation for their generous support in growing our influence and impact through this Kern Scholars Program.
Does living in the far north of Norway sound even worse than the far north of the United States? No direct sunlight, lots of snow and cold? Think again. Just a small mindset change can make all the difference. The gorgeous photos in this article are the clincher.
by Laura Vanderkam
Fast Company | November, 2015
This weekend, take a trip to our own Lake Michigan to see the "ice-canoes" along the shore, or try snow-shoeing in at Lapham Peak State Park. Then curl up with a book and a cup of hot chocolate. We can have koselig right here in Wisconsin!
In Abandoned Farmhouse by Ted Kooser, we hear a description so vivid that we can imagine walking slowly through the scene. We feel nostalgia for something that we are only imagining. Where did this family go and why? Is this way of life also disappearing?


Abandoned Farmhouse
by Ted Kooser

He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.

A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.

Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm—a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.

Pizza from Balistreri's on Bluemound can't be beat!

It's worth picking up for takeout regardless of what the weather throws at us!


– Tammy Hosch, MCW Staff


I love the Gobi Manchurian from Tandoor Restaurant!


– Corey McKenzie, MCW Medical Student

Points East Wings - the 12 count. You already know!

– Daniel Bor, MCW Medical Student
Ramen! Tanpopo's is my favorite place for takeout ramen. Their tonkotsu is the best!

Get it when you're feeling sick, when you need something comforting, or to warm up from the Wisconsin winter. It's so much better than the store bought stuff!

– Nicole Dixon, MCW Staff


I love the Spicy Crab Pasta from Goodkind!

– Anonymous


I love the egg rolls from Singha Thai!


– Marty Muntz, MCW Faculty

Respond to next week's reflection prompt:


What is your favorite way to get exercise during the winter?
Call for Transformational Ideas!

How would you innovate medical education?

The Kern Institute's Transformational Ideas Initiative is a seed grant program to develop and test ideas, creating opportunities for students, staff, residents, fellows, and faculty to innovate the educational experience at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
This year, we are looking for proposals that address one of the many changes we are currently experiencing - whether with curriculum revision, inclusion and diversity initiatives, or adapting to a more virtual environment - while focusing on ensuring that the voices of those most affected (students, staff, faculty, residents, fellows) are part of the creative process.

Teams will be guided through the development of their idea with a series of summer workshops led by trained professionals from the Kern Institute's Human-Centered Design Lab. Funding and deployment of each project will span the 2021-22 academic year, and budgets for each project will be individually granted based on the needs of the project.

For more information on the program, please see our website or contact Dr. Chris Decker or Julia Schmitt.
Well-Being Summit
Improving Institutional Culture to Optimize Well-Being in Academic Medicine


Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register by February 21, 2021
February 25, 2021
Live Virtual Presentation
8:00 am - 12:00 noon CT
MCW COVID-19 Resource Center
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