Naji Gehchan: Hello, leaders of the world. Welcome to “Spread Love in Organizations”, a podcast for purpose-driven healthcare leaders, striving to make life better around the world by leading their teams with genuine care, servant leadership, and love.
I am Naji, your host, joined today by Samy Sidhom. Samy is a physician leader and innovator, currently serving as the Associate Chair of Specialties and Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Atrius Health, part of Optum, which is one of the largest primary care and specialty practices in Massachusetts. Samy also holds academic appointments as a Lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. With a deep focus on innovative management of chronic conditions, population health, value-based care, telehealth, and healthcare ventures, Samy has been at the forefront of advancing medical practice and healthcare delivery. He mentors aspiring entrepreneurs through participation in the MIT Sandbox Innovation Fund and has mentored at the MIT Hacking Medicine events. Prior to his tenure at Atrius, he played a pivotal role in developing pulmonary outpatient practices and services, and served as Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Holy Family Hospitals in Massachusetts where he also cofounded the Center for Advanced Thoracic and Pulmonary Care. He has also contributed to public health policy and is a former member of the Board of Respiratory Care for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Samy, so good to have you with me today!
Samy Sidhom: Thank you so much, Naji, and thank you for inviting me on this wonderful podcast.
Naji Gehchan: Our very first chat delved immediately into AI and Medecine but before we go there, I’d love to know more about your personal story and journey. What brought you to medicine and now becoming the leader you are?
Samy Sidhom: Thank you. Um, that’s a long, long story, um, but I will try to be as brief as possible. Um, this is, um, it sounds more cliche, but it’s been a lifelong dream to be a physician. And, um, I was born and raised in Egypt. Uh, I grew up in Egypt until I was 14.
And very early on, I would say maybe as early as eight years old, um, I gravitated to, uh, medicine, uh, probably because of my own personal hardship with a medical condition. Um, And I was a patient for a very long period of time during my childhood, uh, and I saw the difference a good clinician, physician can make in the life of a person and a family.
And it inspired me to care for others and to have some type of or degree of empathy that I share with people who I think we are all invariably become patients at one point or another. Uh, and it connects me to our humanity, uh, on a deeper level. And I felt that medicine really is my calling and, and something that did fit my aspiration and my personality.
Um, I kept my eye on that goal since, ever since then, and, um, everything I did was towards leading, uh, to a career in that, in that field.
Naji Gehchan: Well, thanks, Sammy, for sharing this. So really, as you said, we all can be patients. We all care for patients. Your story is so powerful from being a patient, becoming a healthcare provider and caring for patients on a daily basis. I would love to hear, as you’ve been also passionate about leadership, leading teams, treating them daily, uh, practically in, um, uh, today, uh, and being at the forefront of the pandemic.
I think you’re in one of those specialties that dealt a lot with, uh, with COVID 19 where over the pandemic somehow, but still, I’m sure you’re dealing with peaks of COVID these days. What has been your biggest leadership learning through those times and through those years of experience as you grew as a leader?
Samy Sidhom: I think the, this is a great question. And, and I think it’s not just limited to the pandemic. It’s really is a journey of a, of a clinician and physician is it’s a journey of. Adaptation and pivoting, um, and rolling with the punches and anticipating challenges and rising up to challenges that you could not anticipate and having that kind of skill set and mindset of eventually things will work out.
Eventually things will be overcome event. Eventually things will be managed. So long as that there is a kind of a growth mindset that we’re able to pull together from resources from learning experiences. and from knowledge and from science to be able to adapt to a new challenge and a new environment.
Um, for me, getting to where I wanted to, to be has been a challenge. I think anyone who has gone through medical training and, um, climbing up in terms of leadership and healthcare field, this is just nothing but a journey of challenges and, uh, obstacles. Um, whether it’s through, um, admissions and whether it’s through, uh, completing training, whether it’s through, um, internships and, and, and, and residency and fellowships and research and, uh, grants and publications and applications that get through and things that get turned down and things that, um, work out and changes that happen all the time.
Um, I think this really, um, allowed us and allowed me. To be able to deal with the challenges of COVID 19, despite the immense pressure and the immense, um, problems that we faced during those years, especially early on, um, being able to pivot, for example, into, um, our practices and change, uh, make changes necessary in the workforce.
Um, to go from, um, almost no virtual, uh, uh, medicine, uh, medical practice to a full telemedicine, uh, platform to dealing with the challenges of patients with long haul COVID. And 1 of the things that may have mentioned to you in our conversations before, you know, we had, um, established a multidisciplinary long call COVID clinic atrius.
Health where I work now, and that was dealt with a lot of the very complex and complicated long haul covid patients. And we ran that practice for quite some time until. Demand had weighed. Um, but this kind of, um, um, journey and setbacks and overcoming challenges is not going to just stop at COVID. It will be for the next, uh, pandemic.
And unfortunately, as history tells us, there will be more. Um, but I think us as medical professionals, we are very well equipped with that mindset to be able to adapt and pivot. And this is something that I really feel that Um, is very unique and valuable, um, for leaders who with, uh, medical training and healthcare training, um, we, we can, um, really go through some significant challenges and obstacles, but we are very resilient.
Naji Gehchan: And Sammy, I loved how you framed it on leadership, rising up to challenges you didn’t even anticipate. And I think you’re talking to that. So if I want to go more specifically about you, your journey, you came from Egypt, as you said. You had several challenges, you said, as you were getting into med school, growing in med school, and now leading a large organization and being an associate chair.
What is the biggest challenge you felt as a person going through this and any advice you would, you would give a potential med student or someone who’s looking to become a physician like you?
Samy Sidhom: Thank you. And I, um, I, I like that question. Um, I think it can be answered in many ways, and maybe I would have answered it differently in earlier years than in my latter years now in my career.
Uh, my answer now would be finding a balance. Um, finding a balance where you can
not just be a leader in the office or in the practice or for your coworkers, but also to be a leader among your peers and being. A leader in your home environment, and I’m not talking in terms of leader being a tyrant or being a dictator, uh, but just being that best person that the people around you want to look up to, look for, for guidance, depend on, rely on, collaborate with, share with.
Um, and be vulnerable with, um, and that spans not just the work environment, just having that balance at home with family, with children, with a spouse, um, with friends. With community. Um, not just not just the office, and I think finding that balance as an aspiring physician or an aspiring, uh, health care professional is very is very difficult.
Because you get pulled in different prior in different directions, you have to reprioritize things frequently. You have to always land on what your core values are, and what you feel is important for you that cannot be negotiated. For example, for me. My family is a non negotiable, they will always be priority and I always have to look at them and look at, at their needs and their, and, and their companionship and their support.
Because just as much as they rely on me, I rely on them. And they will always be there. There will always be different jobs. There will always be different careers. There will always be different schools and training and experiences. But the family is what holds, um, my core together. And that’s what I challenge any student, any trainee, any person going through the process.
is to try to identify the score value and to make sure that that stays sacred and protected and to be able to Develop those leadership skills in different aspects, not just professionally.
Naji Gehchan: That’s such a great advice, Sammy. Finding this harmony, this balance, as you’re saying, is really key for us as humans, right?
And several times, you know, with many leaders I discussed, it’s something we realized later on in our life and career. So as early as you just take it and embrace it and believe that those who are saying it like you is, is really true. I think it’s. is, would be super beneficial as we grow and, and develop our careers and our lives.
If we look forward now, um, thinking really about innovation in healthcare, it’s something you’re passionate about to touch us through your work. You, as we said, you work a lot with MIT sandbox startups, entrepreneurship. What are you most excited about when you look forward and things that you think will really improve population health?
Samy Sidhom: This is a very exciting time in medicine and in health care, and I’m, I’m really excited about this future. Um, and I’m very lucky and fortunate to be able to see it from the lens of one of the most innovative places and academic places on on the planet at MIT, and also through the lens of One of the most population health and value based care, um, centered and patient centric organizations, uh, atrius health, um, as physicians, we’re always looking for new tools.
We are always looking for new tools. This has always been the, um, driver for, um, therapies and, um, uh, algorithms and quality, uh, measures. Um, we’re trying to find new tools, uh, and innovate with new things. Uh, and it sounds redundant, innovate with new things, but we’re always looking for something new to use to improve patient care.
And now we have this very amazing, uh, tools of machine learning, deep learning and, and generative AI that promises to potentially continuously improve on processes that it had learned and continues to learn. And to be able to scale tasks. And to be able to scale
interventions, uh, not necessarily interventions that AI is going to be suddenly, uh, doing surgeries, uh, or, um, managing, uh, patients, uh, autonomously, but more so aiding clinicians, uh, to be able to deliver the care that they want to deliver with more efficiency, less burnout. And hopefully better therapeutic accuracy.
Naji Gehchan: So if we double click on artificial intelligence and all the hype around it, is there a use case I’m always kind of, you know, because we used to buy a buzz word, but I’m sure you like me when we discuss, it’s all about the use cases. Like how are you actually using AI to improve something very specific?
So you talked about processes, but is there a use case? That you’re really excited about or you implemented within your groups or you’re looking and a startup that is trying to do it to help improve patient care.
Samy Sidhom: Yes, sir. I have, um, one of the things that we are actually looking at right now and open to pilot soon.
Uh, and this is through, um, work from Optum as documentation, um, for physicians and in the electronic medical record. And I’ve been previously. Exposed to, um, an earlier version of that through our collaboration, uh, with IBM Watson, um, where, um, there was some effort to be able to summarize clinical, um, uh, cases, um, and, and, uh, generate some evidence based, uh, recommendations for managing management of patients with certain chronic conditions, uh, through, um, learning the patient’s chart and record.
But, um, currently we’re looking into documentation to improve physician, um, workflow and reduce documentation burden and burnout, which is a significant problem for physicians. Um, this is just a very simple and very benign case scenario, um, in terms of generative AI and language models. I think, uh, a lot similar to many practitioners nowadays, we are leveraging, um, generative AI to be able to compose, uh, messages and, uh, emails and communications, um, without, uh, of course disclosing any private information, uh, for patients.
Composing emails, composing messages, composing, um, certain algorithms. Um, those are, have been very useful. And I think that’s not just for medicine. This is just more of a business, uh, office, um, uh, case use in terms of entrepreneur, entrepreneurship and, and startups, um, there are certainly, you know, we’ve seen an implosion, uh, of many different startups, uh, using AI techniques and.
Uh, and methods, um, whether it’s from, uh, learning, um, certain patterns about patients, uh, conditions and suggesting, uh, treatments, for example, uh, learning about patients, um, vital signs and use of certain medications and pattern of using inhalers to predict, um, exacerbations of chronic lung conditions like asthma and COPD, um, have certainly come across a number of startups in that, in that space.
Um, and in addition to that, there’s also, um, the models for physical rehab, for example, and, um, patients, uh, analyzing patient’s movements and analyzing their, uh, posture, uh, to predict falls, uh, or to improve their, uh, uh, physical conditioning and gait, um, and so on and so forth. There is a numerous, uh, numerous, uh, Case uses, and I think it will be, it will take us much more than this podcast to go through.
Um, fortunately, actually, I’ll be hosting a panel of, um, uh, healthcare leaders shortly at MIT is through the Sloan Healthcare and Bioinnovation Conference, and we’ll be discussing exactly those. Um, cases and, uh, similar scenarios and the outlook and the vision for different leaders in the industry, uh, from care delivery leaders to, uh, tech companies, um, and such as Amazon Health, uh, Sciences, um, and, uh, that will be coming up soon in a couple of weeks.
Naji Gehchan: That’s great. And we’re partners of, uh, as you know, of the healthcare conference, uh, Spread Love and organizations. So we’ll certainly talk more about it, uh, with you and the panelists. Uh, as you talk about MIT, I feel it’s a big part of your story, your life. It certainly is for me too. Uh, you are graduating soon.
So congrats in advance. I would love to hear from you your key takeaways as a physician going through the program from a leadership lens.
Samy Sidhom: Thank you. Um, yes, we’ve, we’ve sat through the same classes, uh, and you’re ahead of me in the game. So I would be, uh, rehashing what you’ve learned. Uh, but MIT has kind of taken on a life of its own for me now.
Uh, the last two years have been transformational. I look at things very differently nowadays, uh, and I owe that to, um, the recalibration that we’ve gone through. Over the past, um, many months or the past couple of years, um, uh, I see things in a, in a different lens and I apply, um, uh, the, uh, operation processes, uh, lenses, uh, culturally, politically as well.
Um, so everything is, is, uh, is looked at with a different, uh, discernment and, uh, different, uh, I different vision and, uh, I look things a lot more deeper than just superficially. Um, Just a normal, uh, trip to the grocery store is, is different now, uh, looking at the pricing and the shelving and, uh, the
Naji Gehchan: workflow.
Don’t tell me you, you do also like all the flow once you get on the, uh, on the payments and Exactly, exactly. And, uh, looking to see
Samy Sidhom: Trying to But from a physician perspective, it did open up my eyes to the fact that, um, you know, we, as physicians, it’s not just about patient care, like, in terms of prescribing, um, medication X for condition Y, um, it’s more about, um, There is a bigger picture and, and this picture, I’m glad to learn it because I’m so keen and interested in population health management and value based care, meaning, you know, giving the, the most value, um, and highest quality care, not at a, at an exuberant, exuberant cost, uh, to the patients and to the healthcare system, but reasonable.
Um, and that’s through efficiency through knowing what, uh, what to prioritize, what to, uh, implement and how to manage populations, not just one person. Um, and I think we were very narrow, you know, as a lot of my, uh, my physician colleagues in the, uh, in the program, we enter very narrow minded as physicians.
Um, but we graduate this program as innovators, as people who can see a bigger picture, people who can involve. Uh, so many different facets of management into health care, and in that way, I feel like this is just going to be such a tremendous tool for improvement of health care. Uh, in this country, um, the business, the, this, the goal of be obtaining an MBA after an MD should not just because of making more money or getting higher positions and, and, and glamour or, um, improving the bottom line, but it’s more so to really improve the care for patients.
Because they care for the patients. It’s not just clinical knowledge, and we have to really understand that that’s the case. And this is something I encourage many of my physician colleagues to consider and that it’s not just the microcosm of science. Uh, it’s healthcare lives within a bigger ecosystem.
Naji Gehchan: Certainly, this system dynamic approach for us to be able to improve healthcare globally and increase our impact as, as leaders in the health industry. I would love now for you to give me your first thought when I give you a word. And the first one is leadership. Um,
Samy Sidhom: servant leadership.
Um, leadership is, is being a servant leader, uh, is for me is that that word service comes before leadership. And because leaders are elected or chosen or rise to the top to serve a purpose and to serve a population and to serve others. Um, otherwise, there’s, in my opinion, there’s no, um, need for leadership.
Naji Gehchan: What about value based care?
Samy Sidhom: Inclusivity. Um, and you have to be inclusive to provide high value. And I’m not talking about just socioeconomic. I’m talking about orphan conditions. Um, is just just as important as common conditions. Um, being able to afford quality care. Um, everybody should be able to be afforded quality, high quality care.
Um, the care that you receive should not be based on your color of your skin, where you come from, what zip code you’re at, what your title at work is, uh, who pays your rent. It should be based on you as a human. Um, and that’s the common denominator.
Naji Gehchan: The third word is entrepreneurship.
Samy Sidhom: Um, I was just reading the other day that entrepreneurship is an act of rebellion. And, um, yes, and, um, you’re basically are, um, driven, uh, out of necessity or out of the, um, uh, dissatisfaction with the status quo to innovate and to create a new product. and to be able to get that product off the ground and make it successful and afford it to people who need it.
Um,
Naji Gehchan: and the last one is spread love and organizations,
Samy Sidhom: with transparency and honesty. Um, and I think this is, um,
one criticism I, I had once Uh, from a colleague is that I lead with my heart and, um, I took it as a compliment. Actually, initially it bugged me, but eventually it became more of a calling and, uh, more of a, uh, rallying cry. Um, yes, I will lead with my heart and I would lead, uh, with empathy and with transparency and with honesty, uh, because that’s what the world needs.
We don’t need behind closed door. Um, deals. We don’t need, um, bait and switch and leadership. We don’t need, um, deception and lip service. Um, and if we follow that concept of servant leadership, we really have to serve the people that we are with and the people that we serve. We cannot serve without honesty.
We cannot serve without transparency. Yes, of course. Organizational secrets and trade secrets. Intellectual property, uh, are important. Uh, and it’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking more about, um, having a mission that’s clear and apparent and transparent, um, having intentions that are transparent, having goals that are clear and, um, and delivering it, uh, with all honesty.
And I think that’s when you have buy in. That’s when you have people believing in your mission and their mission and, uh, will enable you to become a leader, an effective leader.
Naji Gehchan: This is so powerful, Sami. What you said is really, is powerful. You said, I will lead with my heart, transparently and honestly. I might borrow this from you.
I love it.
Samy Sidhom: Thank you.
Naji Gehchan: Any final word of wisdom for health care leaders around the world?
Samy Sidhom: Um, We need more leaders, and, um, I know this has been somewhat controversial in, in healthcare as many people are looking into administrative positions, uh, and less clinical positions. And, but at the same time, it’s really important that each physician and health care person, um, is a leader, even on their own small scale and leadership.
As I met, as I mentioned earlier, my view on it is a servant leadership and, uh, I don’t have, I don’t need to have, you know, 50 or 100 or 1000 people directly reporting to me to become a leader. Um, I can be a leader within my own patient panel. Um, and my own small office. Um, but we need better leaders who are able to cross cultural and ideological and political barriers because when we are guarded in our own little, um, uh, ecosystems, um, then we don’t have growth.
We don’t have collaboration. We don’t have, uh, this cross federalization and, and my calling would be to be able to Have many of us that are able to overcome to become more of the dominant population of leaders are the leaders who are able to collaborate and be able to cross barriers, um, because unfortunately, many leaders rise up to the top, um, but don’t don’t have, um, that view and don’t have that, um, um.
Spreading love with leadership view. Um, it’s more of a very hierarchical and, um, uh, and more of a power of view, uh, of, of leadership. And, um, I challenge everyone really to be transparent, to be honest, to be inclusive, to have empathy, to have compassion. And to be a servant leader.
Naji Gehchan: Those are great words of wisdom for all of us.
You said something that is really powerful, especially during these days. I think it has always been, but in days where we’re seeing more and more polarization, more and more, unfortunately, hate more than love. Having leaders, as you said, who can overcome cultural, political thoughts, personal beliefs and barriers for us to be able to collaborate and make the world a better place is so crucial.
Thank you so much, Sammy. Um, I know you’re doing it on a daily basis, impacting several patients and impacting your organization and beyond. So thank you for all that you’re doing and for being with me today.
Samy Sidhom: Thank you so much, Nadia. I greatly enjoyed our conversation and, uh, I’ve been really looking forward to be here and, um, um, your questions are insightful and wonderful and they did not disappoint.
And thank you. I look forward to hearing more episodes with you and other wonderful guests.
Naji Gehchan: Thank you all for listening to SpreadLove in Organizations podcast. Drop us a review on your preferred podcast platform
Follow us on LinkedIn and connect with us on spreadloveio.com. We’re eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. Most importantly, spread love in your organizations and spread the word around you to inspire others and amplify this movement, our world so desperately needs