Pump the brakes on your week and take 10 minutes to make your life as a surgeon just a little better…
Jeff welcomes to the podcast pediatrician, startup founder, and people connector, Dr. Zhen Chan.
After earning his medical degree, Zhen earned an MBA during the middle of his residency, which offered a unique perspective.
Zhen is most passionate about solving large pain points for the healthcare industry. One of the main ways he pursues this goal is through networking with people in healthcare – not just those in the clinical sphere, but those behind the scenes as well.
As physicians, we go through med school and residency and the education and training process is primarily focused on the clinical aspects of medicine. But practicing medicine in the modern day system requires at least a baseline knowledge of many other things (operations, informatics, management, insurance, etc.) That’s not standardized in our medical training so we need to find ways to fill those gaps in our training. One of the best ways to do that is through making connections.
What steps does Zhen suggest we take to make better connections?
- Step 1 – Reach out to one other physician. Many physicians are hesitant to do this, but quite often, the person you’re reaching out to wants to provide advice or mentorship.
- Step 2 – Make networking a part of your life. That way, the world gets a lot smaller and you’ll have better options when you’re looking for new opportunities.
- Step 3 – Reach out to another physician with similar interests and continue this process to make networking a regular part of your life.
Most importantly, PRACTICE building connections through networking!
Zhen Chan, MD MBA FAAP
Healthcare Management | Pediatrics | Physician
Dr. Zhen is a pediatrician in Washington, DC with an MD and an MBA in Health Management and Policy. He is actively developing a career that integrates his interests in healthcare strategy and emerging health technology that can make a scalable impact on patient care outcomes, access, equity, and physician well-being.
Currently, Dr. Zhen is the founder and CEO of Grapevyne, a pioneering physician job search platform that leverages physician peer-to-peer referrals to address the physician shortage crisis and issues around physician burnout by improving how physicians choose jobs and match to communities that need them.