Episode 37: Carisa Champion D.O. Surgical Resident

Carisa Champion is the third resident DO physician we have had on the podcast. She is currently a fourth-year surgical resident at the University of Florida Health in Jacksonville, FL.

In medical school, she not only graduated with a concomitant doctor of osteopathy degree and a jurisprudence doctorate, making her a physician and lawyer, but also a master's in public health.

Dr. Champion's resume includes acting as a White House intern, AOA Board of Trustees Student Representative, national chair of the Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents (COSGP), and member of the Board of Trustees of the Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health, to name just a few of her accolades.

On top of her duties as a surgical resident, Dr. Champion has been working as a member of the production staff for the TV show "Grey’s Anatomy" and with the FDA to find a treatment for COVID-19! We hope you enjoy the interview!

Transcript

My name is Dr. Ian Storch. I'm a board certified gastroenterologist and osteopathic physician,

and you are listening to DO or do not. If you're interested in joining our team or

have suggestions or comments, please contact us at doordonotpodcast.com. Share our link with

your friends and like us on Apple Podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We hope you

enjoy this episode. Welcome to our third episode in the resident physician series. Today we have

Dr. Carissa Champion. She is currently a fourth year surgical resident at the University of

Florida Health in Jacksonville, Florida. In medical school, amazingly, she not only did a

co-commitment doctor of osteopathy and jurisprudence doctorate, making her a physician and a lawyer,

but a master's in public health as well. Dr. Champion's resume includes White House intern,

AOA Board of Trustees student representative, National Chair of the Council of Osteopathic

Student Government Presidents, member of the Board of Trustees of the Academic Consortium

on Criminal Justice Health, to name just a few of her accolades. On top of her duties as a surgical

resident, Dr. Champion has been working as a member of production staff for Grey's Anatomy

and our podcast as well. We hope you enjoy the interview with one of our own team members.

Dr. Champion, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be on a podcast that not only entails our profession,

but also entails my favorite, I guess, lifestyle and not just the movie is Star Wars. I'm a big

Star Wars fan. So thank you so much. Awesome. We love DOs and we love DOs that love Star Wars.

That's awesome. Next to start. So let me ask you first, before we start talking,

you have the best last name I've ever heard. I have a short list of really cool last names

and yours is definitely on it. Like, do you feel blessed having the last name of Champion?

Am I saying it right? Yeah, it's Champion. I am thankful for that last name. I think it's pretty

fun. There are times where it's not so great. My brother is a Marine and he actually went to boot

camp. And you can imagine that three months of boot camp having the last name Champion kind of

targets you a little bit. So other than that, though, it's pretty great. Can't complain.

Awesome. And do you mind if I call you Carissa for the time of the interview? Of course.

Okay. Please call me Ian. Okay. All right, Carissa. So we usually start the podcast.

You're a surgical resident. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. So we usually start by asking if you

could talk a little bit about either what your day looked like today or maybe what an average day

as a surgical resident. I know it changes from rotation to rotation, but in general,

from when you wake up in the morning, what time you wake up to just tell our listeners what your

day generally looks like. Oh man. Well, I'm kind of in a weird time right now because I'm actually

in fellowship in the middle of residency. But during residency, an average day, I'd say I wake

up around 4 45 in the morning and I'm at the hospital by about five, five 30. And, you know,

looking up patients, figuring out what happened the day before rounding with my team around six ish

and then rounding, having some type of meeting or didactics with our attendings around seven and

then rounding with them shortly thereafter and then heading into the O R as well as being on the

floor. I usually don't go home probably until like, I don't know, seven, seven 30. Sometimes it's

earlier. Sometimes it's way, way later. Surgery residency is not for the faint of heart. And then

in my fellowship, I, I wake up around six ish and do various things for my fellowship. I'm working

with Grey's Anatomy and then we're in the writer's room from about 10 to four. And then after that,

I'm, you know, doing things for the show, depending on if I'm on set or if I'm helping with scripts.

And then throughout the day, I'm also working for a research company that actually just had one of

the first FDA approved COVID treatments approved last month, working with Eli Lilly. So that is also

interwoven throughout my day, which has been pretty time consuming as well, but very rewarding. So a

bunch of different types of things that I'm involved in. And that's kind of depending what my

schedule is like is depending on what I'm doing that day, I guess.

That sounds very busy. I definitely want to delve into each one of those things, but just one last

question, focusing specifically on the surgical residency, which is, sounds like the least

interesting thing that you do, but when you take a call, what does call look like?

Call is depending on, again, like you said, the rotation, but we do a couple calls, probably like

once or twice a week, and we stay overnight and until the next morning. And we are a trauma center

at my residency. And my residency is pretty great. It's University of Florida, Jacksonville.

And we're at level one trauma center. So we'll have a lot of traumas that come in throughout the

night, whether they be stabbings or gunshots or car accidents, et cetera. And we even get the

occasional farm animal mauling, because we also service a lot of rural areas around us. So we're

pretty busy all night. And we're just taking care of patients in the ICU, on the hospital,

ICU, on the floors, and then any patients that come in through the ER for emergency surgery or

into the trauma bay for trauma surgery. So I'll have calls where I'm literally operating just all

night long. But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. Calls where you just sleep the whole

time are nice because you get to sleep, but I don't know that I've really ever had that. It's

usually just being busy the entire time. But when I'm in the operating room, I'm really happy,

so I can't complain. And sorry, my dog, she's on the interview with us. If you hear her snoring,

that's Princess Leia. My 65 pound thinks she's a lap dog.

We're happy to have her too. We're happy to have you. We're happy to have Princess Leia as well.

Carissa, I read a little bit online of your story and I know that your parents were nurses,

is that correct? Yeah, my mom and dad are both nurses.

And can you tell me about what it was like growing up with your parents being nurses

and if they influenced you to go to medical school?

Yeah, I mean, first off, my parents honestly are the most amazing human beings. They're just,

I don't think they realize how awesome they are because they're just so down to earth.

And they came from very, very humble beginnings. So I just respect them very much, but they were

not ever pushing me towards anything at all. They just supported me in whatever I had interests in.

But my dad, who was actually an engineer first and then switched careers later, maybe, I don't know,

maybe he had some influence over me with being interested in multiple different things.

And my mom also, I would go see patients with her when I was a little kid and growing up,

she worked in home health. So we would go see patients of hers that their family didn't visit

them and to kind of keep them company. So I just kind of developed a heart for people that were

sick. And then we went on medical mission trips together and kind of did outreaches in the

community together that revolved around the healthcare world. So I was comfortable with that

setting and interested in doing medical mission work since I was young. So I've done a lot of

medical mission trips and that definitely played a part in me pursuing, I guess, medicine, but also

played a part in me pursuing just in general things that involve social justice and giving

back to the community. Krista, can you give me an example of what a medical mission is, maybe

one that really stands out for you and what exactly the mission was doing?

Yeah, I think the one that stands out for me the most, even though there have been so many

cool ones, I've worked with, I don't know if you've heard of DoCare, it's actually an osteopathic

recognized mission organization that sends medical students and residents and physicians

all over the world and really focuses on preventative medicine as well as obviously

OMT and osteopathic medicine. So I've done some great ones with them. I think one of my favorite

was India, but I've also done one to Haiti that I actually led and it was before I was a part of

DoCare. So as a med student, I look back and I don't know how I did this, but as a med student,

me and another med student decided we really wanted to go to Haiti after the earthquake

and I had been to Haiti before, really wanted to go back, but the school wouldn't sanction it and

I don't blame them. There was a lot of political unrest at the time. So we decided we were going

to just create our own medical mission trip and we ended up going with about 20, 25 medical students,

residents, PAs, nurses, doctors, pharmacists, techs, and brought people from all over the world

kind of word of mouth and just partnered with local organizations and it was the most amazing

medical mission trip ever because we showed up and it was definitely a lot of political unrest when

we showed up, but we were embraced by the local people there and set up clinics all throughout

Haiti and rural areas and we're able to not just help them medically, but really get a glimpse into

their culture and share a little bit of our stories with them and we're able to help educate them,

which I think is the most important thing about a medical mission trip, a short-term mission trip.

We could spend all night talking about that, but on short-term mission trips, I think the most

important thing is to try to create something that's sustainable. So for us, we wouldn't see

any patients until we could see that they had gone through some type of our educational training. So

like well-child visits, we wouldn't do until the mom and the child had gone through some educational

classes on child nutrition and safety education and things like that. So we were able to offer both

education and medical care. It sounds like an amazing experience. So you went on these missions

with your parents who were both nurses and then tell us a little bit about how you chose your

college and when you actually decided you want to go to medical school and how you decided on

osteopathic school specifically. Well, I knew I was interested in medicine and I think I chose

it for many reasons, but the ones that stand out are just that I was really drawn to health care

and more than anything, preventative health care, health care that centered around being healthy

instead of just treating the sick. And I knew that that was kind of the philosophy I was looking for,

but I didn't know what that was called, but I knew what I wanted and I knew what I didn't want.

So I just kept looking. When I was in college, I was an international affairs major

because I also still loved, I think something I didn't mention is that on these mission trips,

you see a lot of times the medical disparities and the health care disparities partner hand in

hand with social injustice and need. So I was really interested in international relations,

policy, different things that lent itself ultimately to good health care. So in college,

I majored in international affairs and also did pre-med. And during that time, I just couldn't

really land on what I wanted to do because nothing seemed to match up with my philosophy.

And then I learned about what public health was and I decided that that was kind of the route I

really wanted to take. And within that route, I learned what osteopathic medicine was and that it

kind of focused more on preventative medicine and the whole person, which was a big thing for me.

So I actually only applied to DO schools because I knew that's what I wanted.

And also I applied to public health schools and law schools. I guess I just wasn't able to really

tease out those different things that went hand in hand from another. So I just decided to kind

of group them all together and apply to a bunch of things. I took the LSAT and the MCAT and I just

applied to everything. I think it was just hard for me to let go of any of them. So yeah,

that's kind of a crazy journey. Yeah, that is absolutely crazy. So you sat for the LSAT

and for the MCAT. That's crazy. That's a lot of studying, right?

And did you think? It was. I mean, MCAT was crazy hard. And I think that with those tests,

it's just some of them come more natural to some people. You know, like for me, the LSAT

is more about just reasoning. It's not about memorizing. And so I actually did really well

in the LSAT, whereas the MCAT, I didn't do so well the first time. I was just a lot of memorization,

which isn't my strong suit. So I think it just depends on how your brain works best depending

on those tests. But yeah, so the LSAT, I didn't study very much because it really is just about

how you think. But the MCAT, I had to study for like a year. Tell me, how did you pick your program

and ultimately ended up doing a combined DO, MPH and a law degree all at the same time? Is that

is that what you did? Yeah, well, like I said, I applied to a bunch of DO schools and I applied to

specifically DO schools that had MPH programs. And then I applied to law schools that also had

public health programs. Because like I said, that was what was really important for me was public

health. And ultimately, there was only a few schools that kind of had something close to all of them.

And Nova Southeastern University or now it's called Karen Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine at

Nova Southeastern University was a school that had all three. And not only did they have all three,

but the law program was really well regarded in the state of Florida. At the time, they turned out

the most judges of any law school in the state of Florida. And they had a really good program and

their public health program was supposedly really good too. And of course, their DO school was

great. So I approached them. Because like I said, I was having a hard time picturing going to law

school and public health or DO school and public health because I still had so much curiosity and

interest in all three of them. So I did some research and I wanted to see if anybody had

ever done a DOJD MPH program at the same time. And there hadn't been that, but there had been

DO MPH programs and there had been two people who had done a DOJD. So I approached the university

and I asked them if they'd be willing, because they also gave me scholarships when I was accepted.

So I asked them if they'd be willing to let me try a program that I would help design.

Bless you, Leia. And they were a little hesitant as I don't blame them, but they ultimately agreed.

So we crafted a program that would be six years and that would be a full DO program and a full

JD program. I think there was like six hours of credits that would overlap, but everything else

didn't and as well as get my MPH. So it was a six-year program of endless hours and, you know,

sleepless nights. Sometimes I would be across campus at the law school and then I'd have to

run over with my backpack to the med school and back and forth. But I made it through and I'm so

glad I did it. I wouldn't change doing that program. So as far as I know, I'm the first

person to get a DO, JD, and PH simultaneously. There's definitely others that have the three

degrees, but to pursue them at the same time. I don't know that anybody's going to fall

into your footsteps on that one. I think that is totally amazing and slightly insane. Yes.

A little bit. I mean, I'm jealous. I think that's spectacular, but I don't know if I would be able

to. Yeah, I'm a really hard worker. I don't know if I'd be able to do that. That's pretty impressive.

Well, for me, and you know, I think it is crazy, but if you think about it, we all do things,

we all have 24 hours in the day and we all do things for work. And then we have things that we

do when we're not working, you know, for fun or whatever, you know, out of obligation, whatever it

is. And for me, I don't know that I could say it was fun, but for me, med school, law school,

and the public health program were things I enjoyed. You know, like I enjoyed studying. I

enjoyed learning. I really had a lot of curiosity and passion about learning and it was really cool.

So I didn't mind spending the extra hours. I mean, I hated tests, but I think that that made it a

little bit more doable that I wasn't like, Oh my God, I hate this. You know, there were definitely,

there are definitely times where I said that, but for the most part, it was just a lot of passion

and curiosity. So I hope people will follow in my footsteps. I think we need more people to be

involved in public health and health policy that are also physicians. Before I went to med school

and law school and all of that, I worked in DC. I worked as a intern in DC and I learned that

there's a lot of people there that are making decisions about healthcare that honestly are in

college or just graduated college and they're aides to, you know, congressmen or what have you.

And they're the ones that are helping make these decisions. They're not healthcare workers. They're

not people with a background in healthcare. They're a lot of political people. So if we

don't get involved in those decisions, then people who have no idea more than a theoretical

perspective are going to be making those decisions for us and for our patients. So it was a hard road,

but if there is anyone who's listening to this that's interested in that realm, I can't recommend

it enough. It's really cool. So again, I think that's super amazing. And now you have these three

degrees and you have to decide what direction you want your life to go in. And I would think

that the options are almost limitless. And even just from my limited understanding, I know there

are a lot of DO or MDJDs that do things like patent law or as you said, do advocacy work.

How did you decide which part of your degree to use and that you wanted to do a residency

and then what residency? Well, gosh, that's a multifactorial answer, but I guess a common

thread through everything we've already talked about is just, I feel like a lot of people

have, at least when I was going through college and such, were told, oh, you want to be a doctor,

you need to be pre-med. There's a certain way to get in. There's a certain way to get to the

destination you want. And for me, it didn't make sense, but I kind of took leaps of faith that

I think that this is what I want to do, but the path that I want to take to get there doesn't

necessarily make sense. But it's what I'm passionate about. It's what I think that I'm

going to have the most enjoyment of life out of. So I'm going to do it this way and just kind of

take a leap of faith. So I followed that passion. For example, in college, I did an international

affairs major, even though I was thinking I probably was interested in going to medical school.

And at that time, it's a lot more common now, but at that time it wasn't common to have a

non-traditional major. So after going through med school and law school for a couple of years,

I started rotations, which was a whole experience in itself because I was still a part of these

other degree programs. And I'm in rotations and I'm really frustrated because I had friends that

were like, oh, I love this one specialty and I hate everything else. And I really wanted that.

I was envious because every rotation I did, I was like, oh, that's fine. But it's not something that

I'm excited to do. And for me, I don't know why, but I really have this thing where I just,

I want to love what I'm doing. I want to be passionate about what I'm doing because it's

like, you only live once. So what's the point of doing something you're not passionate about?

I don't know if that's the right philosophy, but that's been mine. So I was bummed out that

nothing was really sparking. I had ideas of what I thought I'd like and it's kind of boring.

And then I did my surgery rotation and I actually approached my dean and I told him, I said, listen,

I know I don't want to do surgery. So can I just switch out my surgery rotation with a different

rotation so that I can get experience in other things that I might be interested? And he's like,

no, it's required. You got to do it. So then I go into it with this kind of begrudged attitude

and lo and behold, I ended up loving it. And I was actually pretty upset because surgery is not the

ideal lifestyle. It's hard, it's grueling. And I prayed, I'm like, please don't let me like surgery.

I really don't want to like surgery. But ultimately, like I said, it was kind of what I loved. So

at the end of the day, I had to go with that. And it really made sense after I thought about it.

I'm interested in not necessarily my rest of my life, but I'm interested in doing medical missions.

And as a surgeon, I can go anywhere and not only provide medical care and health education,

I can also provide surgery. So when I was on the mission field, dentists would be delivering babies

and they would take anybody. So they need a lot of help from a lot of different specialties. And if

I can bring more than just medicine, which is very important, but bringing surgery is a whole

another level. So it made sense when I thought about it. So then I decided to go to surgery.

And I decided I would also be involved with law by at least during residency, consulting on the

side, being involved in advocacy. So I've been doing that. I've been involved with a, I'm the

president of a lobbyist group that is made up of lawyers and doctors that advocate on behalf of

patients. So I'm doing that on the side and I'm loving it. And then residency also wasn't super

easy. I decided I wanted to do a DO program before the single gradation system was finished.

And so I only applied to DO residencies for surgery and I got into one and then two years

into my residency, they closed. So then I had to go back into that whole process and find a new

residency. And I now in Florida, like I said, but it was definitely not easy.

Chris, that whole thing is unbelievable. I mean, the fact that you're doing all these things at one

time. And I, again, I really want to delve into a few of them, but before we go further, I was

hoping that you could comment on a few things. The first is what was it like being a woman and

applying to surgery? Was that difficult? It's classically is thought of as a male dominated

specialty. What was it like as a woman applying and then going into a surgical residency?

Yeah. I mean, I think that's a great question. And it's a question, honestly, I get asked a lot by

women who are interested in surgery. And honestly, when I was a, when I was a med student,

it was, it was really hard because when you're in rotations and you're trying to make a good

impression and you're working really hard and doing your best, it's very obvious that the

attendings there at some residencies, and I don't want to say that this is all of them because it's

definitely not, but some residencies, it's very much a man's world and there's almost no women in

the program. And the things that they talk about can seem really demeaning in other programs.

I mean, it's sometimes even more women than men now, but when I was a med student, it was less so.

So it's definitely something that's noticeable. I think that we're making progress. We're definitely

making progress, but it's still very much palpable that especially with like the Me Too movement and

all these things that some, some attendings are just kind of begrudging to the idea, but I don't

want to downplay that there's still really awesome attendings out there who really come along women

and understand that it's, it's not an easy road for them. So I think that the more that we advocate

for women mentors and women in surgery, the better. There's actually a lot of cool studies

out there that show that women can either be as good or better in surgery than men,

which is interesting. I think there's a lot of like attention to detail sometimes that show up

in these studies, but yeah, in general, I'm just, I'm thankful for women mentors who have

really come alongside of women and just built us up.

Karissa, I'm jumping a little bit, but if a female medical student was thinking about

surgery as career, what are the pros and the cons specifically as a woman that you would

present them with in helping them make a decision? Yeah. I mean, that's a totally fair question.

It's definitely hard with work life balance. I see women in other specialties and not that any

specialty is easy because that's definitely not the case, but with surgery, the hours are undeniably

more and the intensity can be a lot. So traditionally it's been almost like women will whisper to you

during mentorship type discussions. If you're thinking about having kids, don't tell anybody

because they're not going to hire you or that kind of stuff. And I think that's so sad and I

think it's changing, but it is a reality that there's a lot of women who are hesitant to have

a family during residency for surgery, during residency in general, but especially for surgery.

So I tell women, I'm not married, I don't have any kids, but I want to have a family.

And I tell women, if you want to have a family, do it because this is your life.

So I think that if it's something you want to do, it's not something you should be talked

out of for logistical reasons. I guess it kind of goes back to what I said before. If it's something

you're passionate about, then that's something you should pay attention to. And what I tell

women and men who are interested in medicine in general, I tell them, I'm like, listen, it's

amazing. There's nothing else like it in the world, but if there's anything else that you can do and

be satisfied and happy, do that because it is really hard. And I say the same thing for surgery

to both women and men, that if there's anything else you can do and be happy specialty wise,

do that. But if surgery is your thing, that's your thing. I think that's great advice. I have a few

other questions that relate to some of the other things that you said and that I've been asked and

I don't know the answer to. So I'd love for you to answer them. The first one is I once had a student

ask me, as DOs in some countries don't have the same practice rights as we have in the United

States. When it comes to medical missions in other countries, does that potentially limit where you

would be able to go? That's a really great question. So DOs are having more and more practice

rights every day. We just most recently were recognized by Australia thanks to a lot of the

work done by the NVME and the AOA. And basically when a person wants to do a medical mission trip

in another country, if it's not a country where we already have practice rights, where if you look

at them, there's quite a few that we have practice rights in. It's not that many countries that we

don't. But if there is a doctor that wants to go to another country that doesn't currently have

practice rights, then the AOA can help with that. And basically there's a couple things that go

into it. Did you train in a DO program? Did you train before the single-creditation system? Did

you train in an MD program? Traditionally ACGME versus AOA. And if you train in an ACGME residency,

it's a lot easier because the ACGME is recognized all over the world. Not in every country, but

all over the world. So they'll look at your residency, they'll look at your credentials,

but the AOA can pretty much help with getting DOs into any country for at least a temporary mission.

And then that kind of creates a bridge to getting practice rights there.

Pretty much the countries that we don't have practice rights in, it's not because we weren't

able to get them more than it's just that DOs hadn't expressed interest in going to that country.

So yeah, the AOA is pretty great about working with people to help them. So it's definitely an

important organization to be a member of because they're kind of the only ones that really advocate

for our practice rights in general. Okay, Carissa, that's super helpful. I'm going to kind of switch

gears. First of all, the fact that you went to law school and did an MPH is amazing. The fact that

you're a surgical resident is amazing. But the original reason that I was given your name and

told you have to interview this woman is because of the Gray's Anatomy Fellowship. So can you tell

us a little bit about, first of all, how you even got involved in that and then what it entails? And

you talked a little bit about it earlier in our discussion. Maybe you can tell us a little more

about what you do with that fellowship? Sure. Yeah. Branching off of the public health

interest, I think that a lot of people as physicians, we do studies, right? We publish

research and we publish articles, but patients don't really read those things. So they get their

medical care education from Google, WebMD, and TV. So for me, it was something I was kind of

interested in as far as just getting medically accurate information to the public. And also,

backing way up in my life is, I think before I was interested in going to medical school,

my natural, I guess, bend was always artistic. So the artistic side of my brain, I think,

was more my natural side. And I was involved in photography and ceramics and acting and all these

different things when I was younger and a little bit growing up. I did a lot of photography and

things growing up and acting and whatnot for fun. And I remember watching an episode of a show,

not Grey's Anatomy, but another show that really frustrated me because I was like,

man, nothing about that is accurate. And so I actually reached out to this show and asked them,

do you have residents for your show that maybe can help be consultants? And that show didn't

end up working out, but down the line, I kind of got word that Grey's Anatomy has a fellowship for

surgery residents, more surgical residents can come and do this fellowship in surgical communications

and basically help work on the show and make sure that it's medically accurate. So I was really

interested in it. I wasn't sure how it was going to work with timing wise, but I kind of reached

out to them. And then my program was awesome enough to give me their blessing to do a fellowship

in the middle of my residency with them. So Grey's Anatomy told me the months they were looking for

in my program gave me those months as the months that they would be okay with me being gone. And

it kind of worked out perfectly. So yeah, I applied to this fellowship. I got it and moved out to LA

and was immersed in kind of a whole new world. So the fellowship really entails just a lot of

different things, but obviously it's a medical show. So we just touch a lot of different medical

aspects, whether it be set, writing, pronunciation of words, what different diseases are so that the

special effects people can understand what they're going to be doing, all types of things.

Now, Carissa, when you applied or when you're on the set, did anybody ever ask you about the fact

you're a DO or what a DO is? Or is there ever a question?

Yeah, actually. So something I've been trying to do is to get a DO to be a character on the show.

And I'm still, I'm still trying. And I've gotten questions throughout the process of me trying to

get that to happen, which I guess serendipitously happened along the same lines of when the whole

debacle of President Trump and Joe Biden have DOs as physicians, and then the whole FIGS campaign,

like those things all happened within the last few months. And the questions about what a DO was,

were circulating around the same time that I kept pitching, you know, we should have a DO on the

show. We need to have a DO character. So we haven't done it yet, but I'm still trying to

show them that it's important to represent all physicians and not just, not just MDs.

Carissa, there's so much to talk to you about. It's unbelievable that at this point in your life

that we can go on for an hour, but you mentioned that you're doing some work with Eli Lilly.

Is that right? Yeah. So that's industries. Now, on top of the fact that, again, you have all these

degrees, you're doing advocacy, you're doing medical missions, you have this fellowship on

Greece Anatomy, you're doing a super hard surgery residency, you're also working in industry. So

you're also working in industry. So can you tell me how you got involved with Eli Lilly and,

and what role you play with them at this point? Yeah. So I work for a company called Care Access

Research and it wasn't something I sought out kind of like a lot of things that work out really well

in life. They're kind of the things that fall in your lap. I don't know if you've ever had an

experience like that where it's, it's not necessarily that you something you were striving for, but it

just kind of happened. When I was, you know, first in LA, I reconnected with a friend of mine who I

had done a lot of leadership things with when I was in med school. I was involved in a lot of

different leadership type organizations and I didn't really know many people in LA at all.

And so this person was somebody that I had had known. And the night that we talked, they were

like, Oh, I just got off the phone with an old friend of mine. They're part of this company.

They're looking for people to help with COVID treatment research. And they were like, I just

had to tell them, no, cause I'm so busy, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, Oh man, well, you know,

the next two weeks are not going to be as busy for me. I can help out. It'd be an honor. You know,

I was in the hospitals during March through the end of June when COVID first hit. So, and like I

said, my parents are nurses, they're in nursing homes, home health care, long-term care facilities.

So the patients that are the most vulnerable were the patients that this research company was

doing trials for to help with. It's roughly 43% of those who've died from COVID are linked to

a nursing home outbreak in the United States. So randomly, I think it was literally two days later,

I'm on a plane to Chicago to help out with this research. And the cool thing about this research

is that they do research in a way that's never been done before ever. And they do it by bringing

research to people who generally aren't getting research opportunities. So usually when you have

research, you're going to an office or a clinic or a hospital or a facility or a lab of some kind.

And the way that we did our research was we literally traveled around the country to different

nursing home facilities. And anytime there was an outbreak, within seven days we were there. We had

mobile van units and basically RVs that we had changed over into labs. And we would set up labs

in these nursing homes for a week where we would do infusions of monoclonal antibodies made by

Eli Lilly. That was part of their study. And anybody that was interested at the facility

was able to get these infusions for free. And they were part of the trial. So I only intended

to do it for two weeks. And then they asked me at the end of, I think it was like my third day,

second or third day, they asked me if I would want a job. And they were like, you know,

we understand you have this full-time fellowship that you're doing and you're really busy, but

would you head up our national patient education team for this study? And it's something that's

hard to say no to, right? I mean, it's kind of like cutting edge, never been done before research

during a pandemic to try to cure COVID. And so I couldn't say no.

So I became the patient education lead working with Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody that was

FDA approved about, I guess, two months ago now. And it's all over the country in different

hospitals. I've actually had several friends who've reached out to me and they're like,

oh my gosh, you know, my family member got the monoclonal antibody that you were working on and

they're out of the ICU and they're fine. So it's been pretty cool, really humbling and awesome to

be able to be a part of that. So yeah, I've been blessed. I've gotten to have a lot of different

experiences in the last few months that have been really stressful, but I wouldn't trade them.

Carissa, the one thing that I would say, and I really appreciate it from you, but

you're very humble and obviously you're super intelligent. You are the most educated person

I think I've ever met. Your resume is spectacular. And I absolutely do not believe that these

experiences fall in your lap. I totally understand showing up to play and putting 110% in and then

opportunities opening themselves up. I certainly believe that, but I think you're awesome. And I

think it's no accident that people are offering you these positions. Thank you. No doubt, no doubt.

So now you are going to finish your surgical residency. You told us about all of these things

you're doing and obviously I'm not asking for you to commit, but do you have an idea what direction

you want your life to go in? Like it can go in infinite directions from here. Do you have any

idea what you want to do when you're done? That is a great question that I ask myself all the time.

And I guess the simplest answer is along the same lines of what has brought me thus far. It's just,

it sounds really lame when I say it, but following your heart and your passion and your

faith and taking a leap of faith and going with the things that speak to you and that make you

feel alive, I guess. So for me, I have applied to a couple of things already that I'm still waiting

to hear back on, but ultimately I'm not exactly sure. It's not like I'm like, I want to be this,

but, and I want to have this by the time I'm, you know, 45, whatever. It's more, I know I want to be

involved with medical missions and underserved communities. I know that I want to be involved

in the health policy and health law world. I'm still residency. Obviously I haven't gotten to do

as much law as I want. It's not that I want to be practicing law in a court room. I want to be

law in a courtroom, but to be able to be involved in health law and health policy,

I think I'm going to continue somewhat down the same road I've been traveling

for the last 12 years is that kind of doing a little bit of everything at the same time,

but really just the overlap of those things, you know, health policy, surgery for underserved

communities, all of those things work together. I know sometimes they don't sound like they do,

but they really do. And it's what I've seen anyway in the last 12 years. So I definitely want to be

involved in those things. I would love to still be involved somewhat in media and public health.

I think that that's a really important place and a lot of opportunities are there. So yeah,

so we'll see. I'm assuming that I'll be involved with policy in some fashion.

I can't wait to see what you do. Like, I'm excited. I'm definitely going to

stay on the sidelines and be excited to, you're going to have an amazing career

no matter what you decide. I'm definitely sure of that. Thank you. Thank you. Definitely. No

question. Carissa, my last question before I let you go, thank you so much for your time.

This is kind of our grand finale question. What is the best piece of advice? I'm a big sort of fan

of advice. What's the best piece of advice that was given to you by somebody else throughout your

education? It could be from your parents, from a teacher, from a surgical attending, a piece of

advice that you always think of and you think would have value when you pass it on to other students.

That's really hard. And I'll tell you why that's hard. Something that I value very highly is

mentorship. I don't think that I would be who I am or where I am today without this insatiable

craving for mentorship. I seek it out and I respect those who take the time to mentor others,

because it's not like they're getting, quote unquote, anything out of it. They're not getting

paid to do it. It's something you do because you're passionate about passing on to those who are

coming after you. And I've had a lot of mentors and I love all of them. So choosing one piece of

advice from any of them would be super hard. But I think what I can say is that you should seek out

mentors. If there's something you're interested in, find somebody in that, find multiple people

in that and ask them why they do it. And I think that the more that you do that, you'll find people

that when they say something along those lines, it'll speak to you. Part of their journey will

speak to you and help give you some guidance and give you perspective that maybe you didn't have

before. And another piece of advice that I normally give is you can do more than you think you can do.

I've had a lot of people throughout the last, I don't know how many years,

who always tell me, and there is some truth to this, but they always tell me like, you do so much,

like maybe you should just focus on one thing. And I've tried that. And what I've learned is

that when I focus for me, this isn't for everyone, but for me, when I focus on one thing,

I don't do as well in the other things. I guess I lose a little bit of drive or I get bored

and I just don't do as well. So for me, I've learned that A, you need to, you have to seek out

you have to seek out mentors. You have to know what works for you and, you know, really continue

to stay humble and know your boundaries. So you can do more than you think you can. You really can

because that time is going to pass. Those 24 hours are going to pass whether you're doing something

you're interested in, or you're just on Facebook because you're not wanting to, you know, do

whatever you're supposed to be doing, which may be my problem. But I think that you need to know

when to say no and when to say that's something that I can do and something that I can do well,

and that won't encroach on your family time or your mental health. So I think that was a lot of

answers to your question, but I think those are important parameters to have in place.

Chris, I think that's great advice and super appreciated. And I think all of the students

that are listening need to rewind and listen to that a few more times and, and kind of. Yeah,

no, because it's super profound. And I think it's totally true, Chris. Yeah, thank you so

much for your time tonight. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. And all of our listeners,

I'm sure will appreciate it as well. Yeah, absolutely. And can I ask you a question?

Of course. Hey, what's your favorite Star Wars movie? That's, that's, that's a tough one. But

yeah, that's hard. That's hard. And you know, obviously, everybody bashes the one, two, and

three. So so I can't pick one of those. Yeah, yeah, I have to say, it's, it has to be Return

of the Jedi. That's mine. Yeah, yeah. And I think it's just like, watch seeing Luke in Jedi robes,

finally, and wielding a lightsaber and kicking butt, like, yep, nothing beats that. I totally

agree with you. This concludes our episode of do or do not send all inquiries, comments, suggestions,

and even let us know if there's someone you want us to interview to do or do not podcast

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interviews lined up, and we're excited to share them with you. This is Tianyu Shea. Thank you

guys so much for listening to do or do not.