Leaving the Door Open
Dr. Kazi’s dedication to medical education is rooted in his acknowledgment of the rapidly changing nature of scientific knowledge. “It’s been very humbling, as residency program director, to recognize from year to year how much work is entailed in redefining our mental models of how we understand things,” he says.
Directing the residency program has informed Dr. Kazi’s input with the ABIM Rheumatology Board. Even though physicians develop expertise in one area, they need to “leave the doors open,” he says, for learning outside their specialty area and staying aware of health system science and societal principles.
“We physicians are connected with the social determinants of health, so we need to have a very broad mental model of all the factors that impact medicine,” he says.
Dr. Kazi believes the interdependent learning model that works in residency training can work for future physicians in independent practice. The interdependent relationship between the ABIM, the ACR and sole practitioners, as well as patients, can create a more robust system.
He has served on the ABIM Rheumatology Board for four years and praises the board’s efforts to create the Community Insight Network, with more than 4,000 diplomates participating in user testing of recertification programs. He has seen first-hand that ABIM does not develop test content in a vacuum. He intends to be a part of creating a process at ABIM that opens a pathway to lifelong learning and future proofing.
“While the river is the same, the water that’s flowing through it is perpetually renewed,” Dr. Kazi notes.
Gretchen Henkel is a health and medical journalist based in California.
