Interim medicine chair making a permanent difference
by Toni Baker
There is nothing “interim” about Dr. Laura L. Mulloy.
The word was added to her title eight months ago when she agreed to oversee the Department of Medicine until a new chair was found to head the medical school’s largest department.
Her trademark pace – fast and confident – hasn’t faltered for an instant as she’s moved full speed ahead to improve the department.
“The glass is always half-full,” says the chief of the Section of Nephrology, Hypertension and Transplantation Medicine. “We have an incredible wealth of talent in the Department of Medicine. Are we the ‘Harvard of the South’? Not yet. Can we be? Absolutely.”
Her predecessor, Dr. Steve Schwab, understandably focused on recruitment to give the department needed clinical bulk. Although about a dozen recruits are still under way, her focus is building a department where the faculty wants to stay.
“The current faculty attrition rate in the Department of Medicine is 11 percent; nationally it’s 4 percent,” she says, citing the challenging workload of clinical services, teaching, research and independent professional growth.
She is developing a mentoring program to help new faculty find and keep their way and development programs that support old and new faculty alike.
A consultant from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine recommended by School of Medicine Dean D. Douglas Miller has helped the department create a program that pairs faculty hired in the past two years with more established members. Protégés pick their mentor from a pool selected by the mentoring committee; both sign a contract committing their time, a structured orientation and guidelines to facilitate the process.
“Like many academic medical centers, there hasn’t been a mentoring mindset on our campus,” says Dr. Mulloy. When she joined the faculty in 1990 after completing her fellowship, she found her own way.” She was promoted to associate professor in 1995, section chief in 1998 and professor in 2001.
“Nobody came to me saying, ‘Laura, this is what you need to do,’ or ‘This would be good for your career.’ With increasing clinical demands and more documentation and supervision of trainees, developing an academically sound career pathway is more of a challenge than ever. The mentoring program will help get folks on track from the outset and keep their momentum going so they are prepared when promotion time comes around,” says Dr. Mulloy.
“We want our junior faculty to be chief candidates in less than 10 years,” she adds, and that means ensuring time to pursue academic and/or research interests. Dr. Mulloy is hoping the School of Medicine as a whole will adopt the new program and plans to stay very involved even after the permanent chair of the Department of Medicine arrives. After all, she says, “This is my baby.”
Dr. Mulloy also has initiated a faculty development series for all faculty, covering topics such as teaching skills, handling stress and preparing a curriculum vitae for promotion review. The School of Medicine Career Development and Education Center has been a big help, says Dr. Mulloy. “Attendance is growing, and I always learn something when I go to them because you can never stop learning.”
In addition, a basic science task force is helping tear down barriers between department physicians and basic scientists as the department expands its translational research focus and meets educational requirements for residents.
The task force created a monthly series of lectures that are palatable to all and, ideally, will inspire some to pursue a translational science career. “Basic scientists and clinical researchers come to the noon conference and present their work and how it relates clinically, so we can learn the importance of a cutting-edge technology, enzyme system or methodology and the potential application or utility in diagnosis, therapy or prevention. Before, it was the basic scientists on one side of Laney Walker Boulevard and the clinicians on the other. We need to do more of this,” says Dr. Mulloy, who hopes the program will advance the university’s plans to recruit and grow more translational scientists. In October, MCG was one of 52 universities to receive a one-time National Institutes of Health planning grant to break down academic barriers, foster future scientists and help establish a certificate and master’s-level program in clinical science and translational research in the School of Graduate Studies.
“The right people, the right place. Life is good and we can make it better,” says Dr. Mulloy, who hopes she can help make others want to come and stay in Augusta.
To that end, the Sydenstricker Internal Medicine Society, named after former chair Virgil Sydenstricker, has been resurrected, offering a twice-yearly gathering of former, present and potential future Department of Medicine colleagues. The first meeting was held in January and the next is planned for April during homecoming. Contributions to the society will help fund biannual events and support resident research and travel to make presentations.