DukeMed Alumni News
Summer 2007

Mentors in Medicine
Dedicated Teachers Shape Lives and Careers

by Bernadette Gillis

Seeing patients who continued to use illegal drugs during their pregnancies had a profound effect on Annie Drapkin Lyerly, MD’95, HS’95-’99, while she was a Duke medical student.

Not only did it solidify her decision to become an OB-GYN, but it also sent her down a career path that few in the field had traveled before. She says her journey into the world of bioethics would have been nearly impossible without a mentor like Charles Hammond, MD’61, HS’61-62, ’62-’64, ’66-’69.

During her OB-GYN rotation, Lyerly was especially moved by the tensions between those pregnant women and their doctors. She says she understood the indignation and anger the doctors felt, but she also knew it was not their place to berate these women. Instead, it was their place to care for the women with empathy and compassion. She thought surely there was a way to employ the tools of philosophy to help lead today’s physicians to better patient outcomes.

It didn’t take Lyerly long to realize that her decision to become a bioethicist within the field of OB-GYN was a rare choice. She would have few, if any, physicians to model her career after.

Fortunately Hammond, who at the time was chair of Duke’s Department of OB-GYN, envisioned a place for bioethics in the field. As president of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine in the mid-1980s, he created and appointed members to the organization’s first ethics committee.

“When practicing medicine you deal with all kinds of ethical questions,” Hammond says. “I don’t think we as physicians are as well-trained in this area as we should be. I thought going into bioethics could be good for (Lyerly’s) career.”

Lyerly says, “I needed someone to say there was value in what I wanted to do.”

But Hammond’s recognition of the value of bioethics wasn’t the only thing that helped push Lyerly closer to her dream. His belief in her skills and abilities was important as well.

“A big part of mentoring is recognition,” she says. “I believe people can’t realize their ambitions unless they are recognized as someone who is special and has something special to give back to the world.”

Thanks in part to Hammond’s support, after medical school Lyerly says she never lost sight of her goals. “As I was working my way through residency (at Duke), everyone else was thinking about traditional paths, such as private practice. I still wanted to go into bioethics.”

With Hammond’s help and endorsement, Lyerly applied for and was awarded a Greenwall Fellowship in Bioethics and Health Policy. She says Hammond’s letter of endorsement helped her become the first OB-GYN ever to receive the fellowship.

After the fellowship Hammond recruited Lyerly back to Duke, and today she is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology. She is also a core faculty member in the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and the History of Medicine and the national chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ Committee on Ethics.

Charles Hammond and Annie Drapkin Lyerly

High Standards

Ever since Duke medical school opened its doors 77 years ago with Dean Wilburt C. Davison, MD, at the helm, countless faculty members have taken on the role of mentor, each shaping the lives and careers of students and residents, and some even serving as mentors to fellow faculty members. Often they have an impact without even realizing it.

While mentoring is an integral part of any academic medical career, individual mentoring styles are as varied as the individuals who walk the halls of Duke Hospital and clinics.

Randy Bollinger, MD, PhD’77, HS’74-’80, B’97, Duke professor of surgery and immunology, remembers the distinctive style of his mentor, David Sabiston, Jr., MD, the legendary chairman of Duke’s Department of Surgery for 30 years.

As a surgical resident in the early 1970s, Bollinger remembers walking down the hall of Duke Hospital with a senior resident who was drinking a cup of coffee. Sabiston had made it clear to all residents that drinking coffee or soft drinks while wearing Duke Hospital scrubs was forbidden. When the senior resident saw Sabiston come around the corner, he quickly put the whole hot cup in his coat pocket.

“Dr. Sabiston had a very high standard and expected people to follow it,” Bollinger says. “But he had those standards for a reason. He didn’t want to spread infection.”

Regardless of his rigid style, Bollinger says Sabiston possessed one important quality that should be present in every successful mentor—the ability to see each student or trainee as an individual.

Bollinger experienced this personally as a research fellow in the Department of Surgery. It normally took two years to complete the fellowship, but because he was also working to complete a doctorate in immunology, he needed an additional six months. He says Sabiston gave him the extra time he needed.

“He adjusted the training program to fit the needs of individual trainees,” Bollinger says. “That’s what he would do for the many people he supported wholeheartedly. Although he was demanding and asked much, he always gave much.”

Bollinger says Sabiston also believed in leading by example. He expected all house staff to be actively involved with medical students. His own dedication to students was reflected by the four Golden Apple Teaching Awards Sabiston received from the students during his career.

“He wasn’t asking us to do anything he wasn’t willing to do himself,” Bollinger says.

Now retired, Bollinger says his own style as a mentor over his 26-year career at Duke was very different from Sabiston’s, but he did pick up some basic principles. “I didn’t make people put their hot coffee in their pockets,” he says laughing, “but like Dr. Sabiston, I encouraged my trainees to stretch beyond what they considered to be their limits.”

Randy Bollinger with a portrait of David Sabiston

A Culture of Mentoring

Though the concept of what it takes to be a mentor seems simple enough, at times faculty members need extra tools. That’s why Diana B. McNeill, T’78, MD’82, HS’87-‘88, director of the Duke Internal Medicine Residency Program, is leading a program that will help faculty members in the Department of Medicine become better advisors to residents.

Faculty advisors have always been available to help the department’s residents keep on track with meeting requirements and other practical aspects of their training. And female and minority residents can find mentors through the department’s Women’s Mentorship Committee and Minority Retention and Recruitment Committee. However, starting in July McNeill’s Educational Innovations Project (EIP) will give faculty advisors the tools they need to connect all 168 internal medicine residents with mentors in a formalized way.

“There’s a difference between being an advisor and being a mentor,” McNeill says. “A mentor can serve as a role model and help a resident identify long-term career objectives.”

Throughout her 20 years on the Duke faculty, McNeill has served as both mentor and advisor. Her relationship with Lillian F. Lien, MD’99, HS’99-’02, ’02-’05, was one that evolved over time, beginning as Lien’s medical school advisor and later as her mentor.

Lien received her undergraduate degree in engineering at Harvard University but completed all of her medical training at Duke, where she is currently an assistant professor of medicine. McNeill says seeing one of her former students go through nearly every stage of her career was especially gratifying.

Although she was influenced by several key mentors throughout her training, Lien credits McNeill with being a major influence on her decision to become an endocrinologist and helping her increase her confidence, especially during the first year of her fellowship.

“At the beginning of subspecialty training you feel like you’re supposed to be an expert, but you’re still training,” Lien says. “It was easy to go to Diana and ask questions. She helped fill in the gaps.”

Now finishing up her second year on faculty, Lien says she has discovered a love of teaching residents, thanks in part to McNeill. “She is a major reason why I have such an attachment to educating the residents.”

McNeill adds: “I teach students and residents how to be good mentors early on. Mentoring occurs over your entire career.”

Link in the Chain

Samuel L. Katz, MD, chairman emeritus of the Department of Pediatrics, has won numerous awards over the past four decades for his contributions to pediatric infectious disease research and vaccine development, but he says his most recent award, the 2007 Pollin Prize, is unlike any he has ever received. In addition to $100,000 to use as he wishes, he can award $100,000 to a young researcher working in a related area.

Katz says he had no trouble selecting Tony Moody, T’89, MD’99, HS’03-’06, an HIV vaccine researcher whom he has mentored over the past eight years.

“Aside from the fact that I think he’s very good, I really believe in his research,” Katz says.

Though he never worked directly with Moody in a lab, Katz says he has complete faith in the work he’s doing, and believes the prize money will be put to good use.

An instructor in the Department of Pediatrics, Moody says he will use the money to further his research. Since completing his fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases last year, he has been working with the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) at Duke. “We still haven’t developed any vaccine candidates that will work,” he says. “The question is why? What is the block? I’m trying to figure out what that block is.”

Katz—who will use his portion of the Pollin Prize to help establish a global child health fellowship in honor of his wife, international pediatric AIDS researcher and child health advocate, Catherine Wilfert, MD—understands how great an impact the discovery of an HIV vaccine could have on the world. He was part of the team of scientists who with Nobel laureate John Enders, MD, developed the measles vaccine.

Though finding an HIV vaccine is a tremendous challenge, Moody says he’s grateful to have support from mentors like Katz. “My relationship with him provides the ability to gain access to things you might not be able to get otherwise.”

Moody says he also considers Katz a friend and enjoys the fact that he can consult with him on just about anything. He is honored to have a special connection to Katz’s mentors, such as Enders, even though he never met them.

“There’s a great chain of mentors,” Moody says. “Through Dr. Katz I can feel connected to Dr. Enders, and the students I mentor are connected to Dr. Katz and so on.”

Since first coming to Duke in 1968, Katz says he’s probably mentored
thousands of people, faculty included. He can’t say to what extent he’s changed all of those lives, but he says it does feel good when he gets letters of thanks from his “professional children.”

“As a teacher I still love to hear about the influence I’ve had on them,” Katz says. “You teach because you love to nurture.”

A Path That Fits

Stephen Odaibo doesn’t mind admitting he was intimidated when he first arrived on Duke’s campus as an MD/PhD student in 2002. Though proud of the math degrees he received from the University of Alabama, he wasn’t sure how he would measure up against classmates who had graduated from Ivy League schools.

“It felt like everyone was from Harvard and Yale,” he remembers. “For me, coming to Duke was an experience in and of itself.”

But now, one year away from defending his PhD, Odaibo says he has met and exceeded many of his goals, thanks to encouragement from mentors like Joanne A. P. Wilson, MD’73, professor of gastroenterology.

Soon after meeting Wilson, he realized she was a faculty member he could look up to and emulate. She was the second African American female to obtain a medical degree at Duke and later became Duke Medicine’s first female African American faculty member.

Now Odaibo looks forward to claiming his own “Duke first.” When the native Nigerian completes his MD/PhD, he says he will be the first African American to graduate from Duke with a PhD in computer science. “And I don’t want to be the last,” he adds.

Odaibo has followed in Wilson’s footsteps in other ways as well. During his third year of medical school he served as a co-president of Duke’s chapter of the Student National Medical Association, just as Wilson did as a student.

He says he has been most impressed that such an accomplished educator and physician could be so approachable and welcoming. “Her humility inspired me,” Odaibo says. “I feel like I could tell her anything.”

Wilson also played a key role in Odaibo’s decision to change his PhD department from biochemistry to computer science.

“She never explicitly told me, ‘Don’t do this’ or ‘Don’t do that,’” he explains. “But she did say, ‘Whatever you want to do has to have a purpose.’”

After some soul searching Odaibo decided that studying computer science fit more closely with his purpose in life. He hopes he can use his knowledge of computer science, math, and medicine to come up with better medical technology and treatments for people all over the world.

Although Wilson’s career path is very different from Odaibo’s, she still was able to help by sharing stories about the experiences of other MD/PhD students she worked with. She also helped him connect with other faculty members who had made similar career moves.

“I often help put students in touch with people who have the expertise to guide them,” she says.

Serving on various committees such as the university’s Academic Council and Duke Medicine’s Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure Committee has given Wilson a good perspective on the various career paths available at Duke and other institutions.

“I have an idea of how things (at Duke) work officially and unofficially,” she says, “and I try to pass that information along.”

Wilson knows firsthand how important it is for students like Odaibo to have role models they can look up to. When she first stepped on Duke’s campus as a medical student in the late 1960s, she says she encountered several great teachers, but very few looked like her.

“When I was coming along, I had to take my mentorship from a varied group,” she says. She says several women positively influenced her life: her grandmother, who was a sharecropper; her mother, who went back to college later in life and graduated when Wilson was in the seventh grade; and the nuns who taught her at the mission school she attended in Raleigh.

Regardless of who her students and residents seek as mentors, Wilson reminds them to map their own career paths. “The trail you may have to take may be different than your mentor’s. Find the trail that fits who you are,” she says.