Name: Joel Michalski, M.D., Ph.D.
Medical school you attended/year you graduated: UNMC 2013
Residency/fellowship at UNMC: Internal Medicine 2016; Hematology and Oncology 2016-present
Program director: Greg Bociek, M.D.
How long is your training program and how long have you been at UNMC:
The Hematology and Oncology Fellowship is a three-year program. All told, I have been at UNMC continuously since 2005. I think I am starting the 29th grade in July.
What do you like the most about your training program:
My favorite part of our fellowship is our continuity clinic at the VA. First and foremost, it is an honor to serve those who have served us. Secondly, the VA has a remarkably integrated oncology department that helps to provide excellent care for our veterans. As oncology has transitioned into a primarily outpatient specialty over the last few decades, our time at the VA is our best opportunity for us to get practical oncology training and experience. This is a valuable aspect to our program.
What challenges do you foresee in graduate medical education in the future:
It is a tumultuous time in health care. Any number of the politically charged issues in the daily news cycle has direct and indirect effects on graduate medical education. I think we could have a very lengthy discussion regarding how these unique challenges can affect our ability to get good, high-quality training.
However, an observation that is particularly worrisome, and often overlooked, is the proliferation of the administrative aspect of health care. With an administratively-centric system, there comes an inherent inefficiency with both navigating that system and enacting substantive change to that system. This has a detrimental, trickle-down effect on resident education in the form of reduced time residents spend learning how to treat a patient’s medical issue secondary to a proportional increase in time and effort spent learning how to use that system to provide care.
List some accomplishments that you are proud of:
-Convincing my beautiful, brilliant and perfect wife that I am worthy of her companionship
-Completion of both the M.D./Ph.D. and internal medicine training programs here at UNMC. During my time I have met some amazing people and am very proud to call many of them my friends.
-When I was in my early 20s, I swapped a Chevy 350 V8 engine into a 1986 Nissan 300zx. At the time, I was the first person to attempt such a swap and was featured in a car magazine. I still own the car. It is in our garage and functions as a very expensive shelf.
-Becoming a father of perfect twin boys, they are a blast!
Tell us three things about you that others may not know:
1. In high school, I never intended on going to college. I was originally planning on being a machinist. I then briefly considered restaurant management, roofing and engineering before pulling the trigger on medicine.
2. I have been robbed at gunpoint. Twice. Fast food management is not without its risks.
3. I love estate sales
Joel, great story. Your mature views on the current state of GME are very prescient and need to be acknowledged if we want to make learning fun again and safe gaurd our profession.
Keep up the great work that you do for the GME community.
Chandra Are
Joel as always you have hit the essence of the topic with remarkable perspective and insight. We are incredibly blessed to have you in our program. You are also the reason that program directors (like me) still have a little fuel left to keep the fire burning.
Congratulations Joel! Well deserved. Great job.
Impressive young man. Love the Chevy into a 300Z.
Medicine as an art and science is built on the foundation of humanity. He appears to appreciate the wide breadth of our common humanity.
Mark Hutchins
Don't know how but ran across your name and since my maiden name is Michalski, had to respond. You sound and look like a humorous talented soul, and I found it interesting that my dad (Harry) was also born a twin in 1921 since then, there have been no more twins in our family, I see that you were blessed 2 little boys as well. My dad grew up in Ord Nebraska which is where I was raised. I now live in Lincoln. Just thought I would share….Kathy (Michalski) Brhel