Now, I'm going to share a little bit about, from an academic career perspective, like the things you should know and should do on your first year. Again, I'm Harold Lee, you might pronounce that he, him, his. I'm assistant professor in Baylor College of Medicine. I become faculty two years ago, so, you know, some of this is still pretty fresh in my mind that I'm doing every day. So, well, I don't have any disclosure, but one disclosure is I noticed that somebody from UNC is sitting at my table, so I feel I need to mention this. I did all my training at Duke, so I don't have a lot of good things to say about UNC basketball team today. Well, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, right? You had, I remember, this is a picture I took last day when I was at Duke. I was there for seven years for GI, liver, sorry, medicine, GI, and advanced, sorry, transplant pathology. So it was a good seven years that I'm in the institution, but I'm also ready, you know, to have, to become attending, to become independent. So this, you know, I took a picture of my badge, my pager, and this is the first day I was starting Baylor as a faculty. So there's, you know, there's some light out there, and you're, and I know a lot of you are going through that process, and you are thinking about what, you know, what is the word on the other side of the tunnel. I want to say a couple things that I've been through during my first year of academic career, and I think that will help you. First, I think it's probably the most important thing is find your niche, and then we're going to talk a little bit about that, too. And find your mentor, and I think you need to find your team, find your resources at the institution, and find your path, not your path report, but your pathway to promotion, okay? And also find yourself. I think those are important things to consider during your first year of academic career. So how do you find your niche? Well, when do you find your niche? I think you have to start early, you know? That's something I consider me asking myself, but I think I've seen fellows making a mistake that they're trying to, you know, restrict themselves too early. They're like, yeah, I want to do this, so I'm not paying attention to other stuff. You know, that's not something you, that's not something I meant when you, you know, when you, when we're talking about finding niche, I think that's not a smart strategy. I think it's okay to customize your learning. We talk about men in fellowship, we talk about customize your, maybe your third year course, or during the advanced year, but I think you need to be avoid being too narrow, because believe it or not, it depends on where you're going, you're going to see a lot of patient that's not, you know, that's not in your subspecialty, right? So I think, and you know, some of the skills that you don't think are going to help you that might actually end up helping you in your career. So I think that's important to avoid being too narrow. And how do you find your niche? I think that's a, that's a question I got asked a lot, actually. Well, first of all, it's your personal interest to be aligned with your passion. It should be aligned with the patient need, the community that you serve, or the future community that you imagine you're going to serve at. You can be coming from the conferences, you know, reaching out to societies or leadership event, your mentors. So those are the ways that you can kind of find out. And I am, and a couple of stuff that for niches, I think it's okay to have more than one. I think we discussed that a little bit earlier. Again, I think passion is more important than fashion. You know, there's a lot of, you know, in hepatology, everyone is doing NASH, now we call it a muscled now, metabolic function, metabolic dysfunction, and social liver disease, the state of the disease. Sorry. Yeah. So it's a fashion right now, right? I think it's more important is that your passion, like, you know, because the fashion can change every year, but, you know, but if it's not your passion, if you're doing it just to see it's easier for marketing to finding a job, you know, that might change one day. Also, I'm going to tell you a little bit journey on how I find my niche. So I did medical school, I did medical school in Taiwan, by the way. So I was born and raised there. So I, you know, that was very, we have a lot of chronic hepatitis B patient, you know, one of the most highest prevalence used to be in the world. So we have a lot, I saw a lot of chronic hepatitis B, I saw a lot of cirrhosis, HCC from there, that kind of really spiked my interest, and also I have family member that's suffering from chronic hepatitis B. So and then during my residency fellowship, you know, there's really not that much of hepatitis B patient in North Carolina. So you know, but I was lucky to have the interest, so I find a mentor that's, she's actually a ID physician who's very interested in hepatitis C. That's the point of time we, before we have all the DAA coming up. And she also have a very special interest in hepatitis C and HIV co-infection. So that's kind of, I kind of get connect with her. We're still doing some research. And I'm also, because my interest in hepatitis B, I also did some research with hepatitis B and HIV co-infection patient. That's how I got my research grant during my transplant fellowship. And also I have a really good mentor, Dr. Carl Burr, who used to be the UNOS president, who's very, very passionate about liver transplant. I kind of really, I get to work with her, sorry, work with him. And I remember the day I worked, one of the first days I work in to his clinic, I saw this 84-year-old lady came in to celebrate her 30 years post-liver transplant anniversary. We have a big cake and, you know, balloon for her. And that really, that really inspired me. So I really fall in love with the liver transplant during my year of GF fellowship. That's one of the reason I decided to do a dedicated year for liver transplant. And also, you know, being a gay man, you know, and I've seen patients struggling. And I think a disparity is important. So I start, you know, explore that disparity as well. And then in my third year of GF fellowship, we've been through COVID. That's the time that everything shut down. I don't know, you guys have been through that phase. You guys probably still in residency at that time. All the national meeting were not, were virtual. And that's the time that Twitter become a good academic tool to networking, to collaborate, to you know, learn actually. So you know, I developed that during the fellowship as well. So once we become faculty, you know, I decide to, again, this is probably a little bit too much to do all the things. So I decided to focus on few things. So fortunately, just with the time that the disparity become really, really important issue in GI liver. So I've been focused a lot on the LGBTQ related disparity, also some Hispanic population about liver transplant, liver disease, and some GI disease as well. And you know, one of the other things I'm always passionate about is hepatitis B and viral hepatitis. And that's the biggest reason I moved to Houston, because we have a really big Asian population there. And you know, because I speak Mandarin Chinese, so you know that I get to talk in Chinese TV station, radio station in Houston, to try to and outreach to the group, the Asian immigrants there. Also, continue to do my social media thing. So what did I do for my first year? For the disparity, I was, I start the group with some of my colleagues, started a group called Rainbow Singestro. So we are a LGBTQ affinity group for GI and liver providers. I joined the LGBTQ task force of ASOD. And then I recently got selected to ideal committee of American Society of Transmen, that's their diversity committee. And I was giving lectures, grand rounds, webinar, conferences about this topic, given this is rising topic. But I didn't do this because it's become a hot topic as a fashion right now, it's really aligned my personal interest and my personal story, and the things I think it's important to me and my patients. Also, you know, we're doing, you guys probably saw the joint committee with all the GI liver society including SGE, HGA, ACG, ASOD, and that's back in about this big LGBTQ survey, that's what I was the lead, I was the PI on that project as well. And we'll start doing some more study around this avenue. But this is because I'm passionate about it. And via hepatitis, you know, I was able to round the Hepatitis B ECHO program. So it's a, I don't know if you guys heard about the ECHO program that's become a fashion during the hepatitis C treatment period. So a lot of place they don't have the hepatologist, so they will, we have like a virtual conference they can present the patient, we can give them our advice about how to treat it. And we, in our program we have hepatitis C ECHO, but when I joined I was able to start a hepatitis B ECHO as well, because many of you guys know, in my opinion, hepatitis B is a little bit more complicated than hepatitis C. So, you know, a lot of them really need help. I think that's pretty well received. I was, again, I was giving talk about hepatitis B as well, especially in the, to the local Asian community in Houston, become the regional director of the Hep B Task Force as well, and start to build my own patient cohort, because, you know, a lot of hepatitis B new drug is coming in the future. So for clinical trials and stuff like that. Also for the social media, I was, I joined, I was, I joined the ASLD communication tech committee, I think the first year during my faculty as well, because, you know, the presence that on social media and the stuff we're trying to do on social media. And also I'm running the ASD for the liver transplant social media subcommittee. And I was on the advisory board for Epic for, from hepatology. So, you know, so this is kind of, I kind of, well, any of this thing, you know, I'm really passionate about all these three domains, so I think that I, again, I do it not because it's a thing now, it's because my passion, and, you know, so I, that's really wake me up every day going to work. So the other things that I think you should do, find your mentor. And I think we're going to have a dedicated session, so I'm going to be pretty brief on this one. I think you just need to start searching early. I do think even, you know, I joined Baylor, one of the bigger reasons, Dr. Fosia Conwell, who used to be the chief editor of CGH, and of course, Dr. Al-Sarraq, who's the president of AGA, that, you know, and I saw really strong leadership in the GI liver in Baylor. And also, you know, even during the interview, I was asking them, you know, if I come here, who will be my mentor, what, you know, what kind of career you guys will imagine, what can you guys help me with my career, and stuff like that. And also talk about your mentor, so who will be my mentor if I come here. I think you do start searching early. For clinical mentor, I think, and I think you do need clinical mentor, research mentor, career mentor, okay? So for clinical, you need somebody that's experienced and have, very approachable. For research, you preferably need somebody that's had good funding, had a good support, have their own research team that you can kind of help you with that. And for career mentor, I think it's best to have somebody that's recently go through the promotion process and kind of tell you what's needed, you know, what's the institution want to see, and with similar background if possible. I do think, I do want to mention about external mentors. I think it's extremely important that have external mentors for somebody. If you're like me, change institution after become attending, I think you can, it's important to maintain your connection with your home institution mentors. Also I want to really point out there's a lot of mentorship program out there for fellows and for junior faculty as well. Like I was joined the AST mentorship program and I got paired with Dr. Scott Beggins in the University of Washington, who's their transplant medical director, who has been extremely helpful for my career. And he was able, given his connection in the UNOS, we were able to do the, I was part of the male 3.0 when they talk about transgender sex and all that. So, you know, and then he's helping me with my survey project and, you know, he's really, he, you know, being outside of my institution, he can be more objectively tell me like what should I do to really push my career. So I think those are, and also the social media, I think it's important for finding mentors and also networking in the society and community that you're interested in. So I think mentors are important. And here is just the slide about all my mentors that I have currently, internal and external. And then I have some peer mentors. And I do want to mention peer mentors are very important too. I think you have somebody that's similar background, maybe, you know, within three, four years in your training years, I think it's really extremely important to have those people. You can bouncing ideas, they can, and then, you know, you can vent to them, you can tell them what's happening. Because given the similar stage of the career, you guys have a lot of common stuff that you can share. So I think it's extremely important. And also in the interest group, I think it's important to have your peer mentor. Like for me, it's rainbows and gastro and the task force of LGBTQ, you know, SLD. All right. So I think we talked a lot about finding your team. I mean, again, the work family is very important. And I do think that including for academic career person, that including your society and your community as well. All right. So a couple of tips here. I think first impression is important, academic as well. And you need to be available, reliable. But one thing I want to mention out is it's important to learn. So you need to learn when and how to say no as a junior attending. Because once you start your junior attending, a lot of, you will gather a lot of people approach you and want to you join their program or do some specific thing for them. But you, you know, it I think it's really an article can pop in another hour of, you know, lecture about this. Like when and how to say no and how, you know, how to know this is a true opportunity or this is something that's not good for your career. But again, I think mentor is important to help you understand in that early stage of your career. And we could talk about communicating with your referring physician too. Also I think understand the culture, especially if you're like me, change institution during your first year when you become attending. It's really important and know every, know your work family, knowing them by, you know, calling their names and knowing their, and respect their different cultural background. And ask for feedback early and regularly, I think. And also I think it's extremely important as a first year attending is really find out who can you call for emergency when you're in trouble, who's the person you can call. And that including logistics that we have an MA that I have to call if they screw my schedule, I have to call her too. She can do all the last minute scheduling for me. You need a clinical person, like for me, that's our medical director. You have a tough, tough case, you know, if I have a bad, tough rejection I need to deal with or a patient that's, I'm not really sure, it's a candidate, kind of borderline cases that I'll run by her, I'll call her and run by her. Also you need someone to give you for mental emergency as well. You know, as a first year attending there's, you're being through a lot of, you know, highs and lows and then you need somebody that you can talk to about all this. So I think it's important to identify those people as well. All right, so and then again, find your resources for, from the clinical part, it's understand the protocol, it's, it might be different in different institutions, again, especially if you change institution. And also understand, for those interested in medical education, understand there's, if there is any resources available to you, a lot of institution, I was at Duke, part of Duke AHEAD, that's Educator Academy there, and we have similar things in Baylor as well. So those might be, that might be available for you or any teaching workshop. For those interested in research, research training opportunities and some of the academic program will, will fund you if you're interested in advanced degree like Masters of Science, MPH or even MBA. So that's something you can also part of your, you know, job searching interview, that question you can ask. Also the, I do again want to mention like the professional society like SG have this very nice course and I wish I'd attend when I was a second, third year fellow. Maybe I will not stay in academic if I attend the course. But no, no, I'm very happy every day actually. But so, so professional society, ASG, AGA, you know, all the professional society, I think they have a lot of resources for you, even, again, even for junior faculty. So I think continued involvement is important and that, that can help you. Well, the other thing is really finding your path. I think we have, we heard this a little bit about previous talk, you know, understand the tenure and non-tenure. Does that matter in, you know, how does it difference in your institution? Understand which track you're on. I'm, I'm a clinical educator track, so, you know, I, you know, I know that what, you know, my division chief was Dr. Conwell was very clear to me that what should I, what I need to achieve to promote to associate professor from my clinical perspective and educator perspective as well. And also, if you're a research, that's a different ball game that, you know, if you're on, if you're on the K award, R award game, that's, that's, that's also a lot different. So finding your path and, you know, thinking about which pathway you're going through, I think it's important for your first year, definitely. Also for, you need to start log your, as an academic physician, I think you need to start log all your activities starting day one. Now, that's going to help you down the road if you're, if you're needing for promotions. And, you know, I think, I think that's also an important thing to do. All right. So this is just a quick diagram about how to promote and tenure. And this, again, this is a different, different institution. So lastly, I think you really need to find yourself, you know, you've been hardworking and now it's a time that I have for normal life. Again, I think passion is most important. Like every day, my fellow sitting out there can attest that, you know, even on my busy inpatient service, I wake up, I feel really good. I'm ready to see my, you know, consult patient that I'm really needing my help with. I'm ready to find out who have a liver offer today, who may potentially go to the OR. So I'm passionate about what I'm doing. I think, I think that's the most important thing. And also, you really need to find a good work-life balance. And, you know, first year of attending, I think, you know, after all the hard work, sometimes it's a little bit hard to imagine what's a normal life. Oh, I got to go home before five o'clock, you know, have a full weekend, all month, this month, you know. It can be a little bit hard to imagine, but, you know, thinking about what would you like to do, I do think being academic, but if you're taking an academic job, one thing I recommend is taking a long vacation, if you can. Again, you probably need to plan your insurance, your income, if it's allowed, because it's a little bit harder to take longer vacation once you start your attending job, that's something I would definitely recommend. I took two and a half month off, but that's also during the COVID time, so I was able to go home. I haven't been home since COVID in Taiwan. So, you know, so I think that's, that's really something you can consider. And that's about it. And here is my, oh, here's my email and my Twitter, or now called Axe account. So please follow me. And also there's a QR code, you can take a picture and give me some feedback on my slide today. Thank you.

Assistant Professor

academic career perspectives

finding one's niche

mentorship

building a team

utilizing resources