Eric Biondi
1. You have accomplished a lot at a young age. What do you think has been the secret to your rapid success in the field?
I think there’d be plenty of people who would argue that I’m not young. My son, for instance, is often enamored by the fact that his preschool class “can’t even count up to how old” I am. Aaaaanyway, I think this field, probably more than others in medicine, allows for rapid personal and professional growth. It’s not effortless, I guess I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that I was probably working 100 hours a week or so for a couple years after residency trying to maintain a hefty clinical load while also developing some research and quality improvement acumen, but the bottom line really seems to be that because PHM is so new and innovative, there is room for those who desire the ability to make change to learn their way fairly quickly. I’ve found no shortage of mentors within this community and if you’re someone who would like one, shoot me an email, or simply respond to any post on the SOHM listserv. It’s amazed me how many people in this field are in positions of influence at their institutions and at the national level, yet they’re always more than happy to sit down at a conference to have a drink or coffee with a trainee or junior faculty member looking for advice. There are many reasons to love PHM, but my love for this field stems from its “pay it forward” mentorship quality. Seriously, if you don’t believe me, try it. Just pick someone whose name you recognize and email them with a question.
2. At PHM 2016, you participated in the lecture about pediatric dogmas. In the lecture, you used the quote, “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or economic status, is that deep down, we all believe we are above average drivers.” Two part question – do you believe that you are an above average driver and what pediatric dogma/bias do you find most frustrating?
I can’t say whether I’m an above average driver, but I AM an above average parallel parker. NBD. Along the lines of pediatric dogma, I’m not one who has a particular axe to grind about individual dogmas. I don’t generally fall into a “don’t do this” or “definitely do this” camp. You want to try steroids in a certain patient with bronchiolitis for a certain reason? That’s probably defensible by the literature. Confidence intervals exist for a reason and there’s a big difference between the statistical significance of a p-value and the clinical significance of a wide confidence interval.
I think I tend to get most frustrated by those on both sides of any given argument who become so invested in only seeing their side that they aren’t open to discussion. Confirmation bias is HUGE. Here’s what’ll happen after a heated debate – be it medicine, politics, religion, or my most recent argument, whether a dog year = 7 people years or one people year = 7 dog years. I’ll get into a heated debate that I won’t win because nobody wins heated debates. Walking very quickly, I’ll go to my computer, I’ll rev up Google and I’ll find the first link that supports my position. I might click that link just to make sure it looks like a serious webpage, if it’s a paper I’ve found, I won’t read more than the abstract, which I will happily copy and paste into an email. I’ll smile while preparing for this magnificent gotcha moment. I’ll draft an email to the person I was just debating, probably with a few typos because expediency here is important as I know they’re doing the same thing. I’ll click send and sit back confidently. When I receive their response email, likely with a link or abstract that they probably didn’t read fully, supporting their opposing view, I will become a super sleuth. I will read every word, if it’s a paper I will, of course, pour over the methodology looking for flaws and then I’ll skip to the limitations section. If I can’t argue away the data presented, I will not worry. I will find someone who agrees with me and together we will reassure each other that we are definitely right.
3. Congratulations on your 2014 APA Young Investigator Award. What advice do you have for others out there in the field of hospital medicine looking to get more involved in clinical research?
I think the first question you should ask when thinking about getting involved in clinical research is, “why do I want to do this?” For me, it was because I wanted to answer a couple questions that I had during rounds. That kind of person is likely to perform unfunded clinical research and I think that’s possible to do on your own if you’re willing to ask for help as you go and read a book or two about it (obviously what I actually mean is watch some youtube videos on performing clinical research). Same goes for a junior faculty member or trainee who just wants to see what clinical research is about, who wants to have a cursory understanding so that they are able throughout their career to participate in projects, etc… On the other hand, if your answer to the question is that you want to become a funded researcher, you want a K-award, you want 75% protected time for research, you want to become a true “researcher”, then you need to find a mentor ASAP who can help you build a potential path. My first few years out of residency I spent a lot of time stumbling my way through clinical research – doing work that I felt was answering questions and it was getting published – but I didn’t have someone over my shoulder who was helping to teach me how to write a grant, how to tie my projects together into a research focus, prioritize certain things, etc… I had people I could ask questions to, people I would consider mentors, but I didn’t have someone was involved in the week-to-week of developing my research career. Ultimately, after a few years of what I might describe as success in terms of publishing research projects, I realized that I was still years away from obtaining a large grant because I hadn’t been thinking correctly about developing a research career. Ultimately I was not successful in becoming independently funded. For me it was for the best, because I became more interested in QI, healthcare costs and hospital finance than in straight clinical research, but if I’m honest with myself, without a true mentorship team, large-scale funding was unlikely to happen anyway.
4. You have an MSBA from the Simon School of Business. What inspired you to go back to school to obtain this degree and how has it benefited you in your everyday practice?
I have a Master of Science in Business Administration with a focus in Healthcare Management. It’s similar, although maybe has a bit more general business coursework, to the MMM (Masters in Medical Management) degree or the MHA (Masters in Healthcare Administration). I can’t recommend one of those degrees highly enough. When I was in 5th grade I was sort of obsessed with those posters that had all the little dots on them. You know the ones where you’d stare at it and it would just look like a blob of indistinct colors and then all of a sudden a 3D image would pop out? That’s how I feel about the healthcare system now. It would take way too much space here to describe all the ways I find the degree to be beneficial on a daily basis, particularly given how much space I used above to describe an unnecessarily long hypothetical debate scenario, but I’d be happy to talk to anyone considering this path.
5. Jack Percelay often ends his listserve commentary with the phrase “that’s just my 2 pennies.” What are your two cents?
PHM is a fantastic field and the people in it truly care about one another. Some of my best friends in this field are people who I simply emailed one day to introduce myself and to ask for help or advice. If you want to get involved, don’t be shy or intimidated about contacting someone whose name you might know, but who doesn’t know you, because you’ll find more often than not they’ll take a personal interest in your career. One of the great strengths of our field is its mentorship, and I’d highly recommend that those hospitalists seeking to grow in the field avail themselves of it.
I think there’d be plenty of people who would argue that I’m not young. My son, for instance, is often enamored by the fact that his preschool class “can’t even count up to how old” I am. Aaaaanyway, I think this field, probably more than others in medicine, allows for rapid personal and professional growth. It’s not effortless, I guess I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that I was probably working 100 hours a week or so for a couple years after residency trying to maintain a hefty clinical load while also developing some research and quality improvement acumen, but the bottom line really seems to be that because PHM is so new and innovative, there is room for those who desire the ability to make change to learn their way fairly quickly. I’ve found no shortage of mentors within this community and if you’re someone who would like one, shoot me an email, or simply respond to any post on the SOHM listserv. It’s amazed me how many people in this field are in positions of influence at their institutions and at the national level, yet they’re always more than happy to sit down at a conference to have a drink or coffee with a trainee or junior faculty member looking for advice. There are many reasons to love PHM, but my love for this field stems from its “pay it forward” mentorship quality. Seriously, if you don’t believe me, try it. Just pick someone whose name you recognize and email them with a question.
2. At PHM 2016, you participated in the lecture about pediatric dogmas. In the lecture, you used the quote, “The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion or economic status, is that deep down, we all believe we are above average drivers.” Two part question – do you believe that you are an above average driver and what pediatric dogma/bias do you find most frustrating?
I can’t say whether I’m an above average driver, but I AM an above average parallel parker. NBD. Along the lines of pediatric dogma, I’m not one who has a particular axe to grind about individual dogmas. I don’t generally fall into a “don’t do this” or “definitely do this” camp. You want to try steroids in a certain patient with bronchiolitis for a certain reason? That’s probably defensible by the literature. Confidence intervals exist for a reason and there’s a big difference between the statistical significance of a p-value and the clinical significance of a wide confidence interval.
I think I tend to get most frustrated by those on both sides of any given argument who become so invested in only seeing their side that they aren’t open to discussion. Confirmation bias is HUGE. Here’s what’ll happen after a heated debate – be it medicine, politics, religion, or my most recent argument, whether a dog year = 7 people years or one people year = 7 dog years. I’ll get into a heated debate that I won’t win because nobody wins heated debates. Walking very quickly, I’ll go to my computer, I’ll rev up Google and I’ll find the first link that supports my position. I might click that link just to make sure it looks like a serious webpage, if it’s a paper I’ve found, I won’t read more than the abstract, which I will happily copy and paste into an email. I’ll smile while preparing for this magnificent gotcha moment. I’ll draft an email to the person I was just debating, probably with a few typos because expediency here is important as I know they’re doing the same thing. I’ll click send and sit back confidently. When I receive their response email, likely with a link or abstract that they probably didn’t read fully, supporting their opposing view, I will become a super sleuth. I will read every word, if it’s a paper I will, of course, pour over the methodology looking for flaws and then I’ll skip to the limitations section. If I can’t argue away the data presented, I will not worry. I will find someone who agrees with me and together we will reassure each other that we are definitely right.
3. Congratulations on your 2014 APA Young Investigator Award. What advice do you have for others out there in the field of hospital medicine looking to get more involved in clinical research?
I think the first question you should ask when thinking about getting involved in clinical research is, “why do I want to do this?” For me, it was because I wanted to answer a couple questions that I had during rounds. That kind of person is likely to perform unfunded clinical research and I think that’s possible to do on your own if you’re willing to ask for help as you go and read a book or two about it (obviously what I actually mean is watch some youtube videos on performing clinical research). Same goes for a junior faculty member or trainee who just wants to see what clinical research is about, who wants to have a cursory understanding so that they are able throughout their career to participate in projects, etc… On the other hand, if your answer to the question is that you want to become a funded researcher, you want a K-award, you want 75% protected time for research, you want to become a true “researcher”, then you need to find a mentor ASAP who can help you build a potential path. My first few years out of residency I spent a lot of time stumbling my way through clinical research – doing work that I felt was answering questions and it was getting published – but I didn’t have someone over my shoulder who was helping to teach me how to write a grant, how to tie my projects together into a research focus, prioritize certain things, etc… I had people I could ask questions to, people I would consider mentors, but I didn’t have someone was involved in the week-to-week of developing my research career. Ultimately, after a few years of what I might describe as success in terms of publishing research projects, I realized that I was still years away from obtaining a large grant because I hadn’t been thinking correctly about developing a research career. Ultimately I was not successful in becoming independently funded. For me it was for the best, because I became more interested in QI, healthcare costs and hospital finance than in straight clinical research, but if I’m honest with myself, without a true mentorship team, large-scale funding was unlikely to happen anyway.
4. You have an MSBA from the Simon School of Business. What inspired you to go back to school to obtain this degree and how has it benefited you in your everyday practice?
I have a Master of Science in Business Administration with a focus in Healthcare Management. It’s similar, although maybe has a bit more general business coursework, to the MMM (Masters in Medical Management) degree or the MHA (Masters in Healthcare Administration). I can’t recommend one of those degrees highly enough. When I was in 5th grade I was sort of obsessed with those posters that had all the little dots on them. You know the ones where you’d stare at it and it would just look like a blob of indistinct colors and then all of a sudden a 3D image would pop out? That’s how I feel about the healthcare system now. It would take way too much space here to describe all the ways I find the degree to be beneficial on a daily basis, particularly given how much space I used above to describe an unnecessarily long hypothetical debate scenario, but I’d be happy to talk to anyone considering this path.
5. Jack Percelay often ends his listserve commentary with the phrase “that’s just my 2 pennies.” What are your two cents?
PHM is a fantastic field and the people in it truly care about one another. Some of my best friends in this field are people who I simply emailed one day to introduce myself and to ask for help or advice. If you want to get involved, don’t be shy or intimidated about contacting someone whose name you might know, but who doesn’t know you, because you’ll find more often than not they’ll take a personal interest in your career. One of the great strengths of our field is its mentorship, and I’d highly recommend that those hospitalists seeking to grow in the field avail themselves of it.