Yewande Rukayat Alimi, MD (General Surgeon)

Yewande Rukayat Alimi, MD, (General Surgeon) holds many titles at MedStar Health. She’s a minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon; Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the Department of Surgery; co-chair for the Working Group for Racial Justice; and co-chair on the Respect in the Learning Environment reporting subcommittee. She is also enrolled in the MedStar Health Teaching Scholars program, where she is learning the skills to be an education scholar and leader.

The thread that ties all these roles together is Dr. Alimi’s desire to create a more equitable learning environment and a more diverse workforce at MedStar Health.

“I’d like to envision a future of medicine where we are educating providers that represent the U.S. – meaning that we’re getting more folks who have been previously underrepresented in medicine and in surgery into positions of leadership. I envision a workforce that looks a lot more like the patients we are taking care of daily,” Dr. Alimi says.

Dr. Alimi is working with her MedStar Health colleagues to achieve those goals through each of her leadership roles.

• As the Director of DEI within the Department of Surgery, Dr. Alimi is focusing on health equity and expanding access to medical education for underrepresented minority students. Dr. Alimi has been granted seed funding from MedStar Health’s Academic Investment Fund to support this work.
• The Respect in the Learning Environment Committee is working to decrease specialty disrespect and microaggressions towards student learners. In her work on the reporting subcommittee, Dr. Alimi has been focused on creating better reporting mechanisms for students.
• The Working Group for Racial Justice serves as a consortium within the health system that focuses on issues affecting underrepresented minorities within medicine. Dr. Alimi is helping build the House Staff Diversity Council so that underrepresented physicians have an additional avenue for community and engagement among their peers.

 Dr. Alimi cares deeply about investing in residents and fellows and takes pride in mentoring the next generation of physicians, largely because she has experienced the value in those relationships. She cited the support provided by Dean Padmore, Dr. Shimae Fitzgibbons, Dr. Eleanor Drew, Dr. Patrick Jackson, Dr. Steve Evans, Dr. Lisa Boyle – and many others – that really made her feel like MedStar Health was a place where she could thrive and make an impact.

 “I’ve had mentors who are really invested in me, and the things that I’m interested in – I in turn have engaged in those mentor-mentee relationships,” Dr. Alimi says. “I particularly like the engagement that you get with trainees. Being in some of my roles, I get to be a mentor and a visual representation that folks belong! Whether or not it’s that I’m a woman, or a Black woman, it’s been really influential.”

 Dr. Alimi also holds another important title that has influenced her work: Mom.

“It’s really changed the outlook I have on how I engage with my patients, how I engage with the world in hoping that it will look a little bit different for him than when I stepped into it.”

Qingwen (Wen) Kawaji, MD (PGY-5, General Surgery)

Qingwen (Wen) Kawaji, MD, (PGY-5, General Surgery) has a Charm City Football flag hanging in her office as a reminder of the town she calls home. Baltimore is not only where she met her husband and completed higher education, but it’s also where she was first inspired to pursue medicine while working on a research project with a general surgeon at Johns Hopkins University. She’s fallen in love with the hands-on work of surgery and the impact she can make on her patients.

“You see a problem, you fix it, and patients have an immediate change of symptoms. If a patient comes in with appendicitis, you take out the appendix, and the next day that pain is gone,” Dr. Kawaji says. “That is always extremely gratifying. A lot of times in medicine you don’t always get to see those immediate results.”

Dr. Kawaji has stepped into leadership roles during her time at MedStar Health, serving as the Academic Chief Resident for the MedStar Baltimore general surgery residency program and a resident representative on the Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC). She is passionate about her work on the GMEC and the opportunity to work alongside her colleagues on the GMEC as well as GME leadership to turn resident concerns into action items.

Dr. Kawaji encourages residents and fellows to take advantage of the peer-to-peer listening sessions hosted by the resident GMEC representatives and submit feedback so the GMEC can improve the program and strengthen the educational opportunities available to residents and fellows.

“It’s really hard if GME leadership doesn’t know what we need, and that’s where me and my colleagues get to be that channel to make sure that resident concerns and needs are brought to the right people,” Dr. Kawaji says.

Dr. Kawaji’s work on the GMEC is driven by her desire to turn problems into solutions, and by her appreciation for the comradery and community among the residents and fellows. It’s one of the things Dr. Kawaji appreciates most about working at MedStar Health. She explains that even though there are times where medicine can be tough, it’s important to share those challenges with your colleagues. “However you feel, you’re definitely not alone,” she says.

Dr. Kawaji encourages her colleagues to look at the big picture: “Everything you do, as little as it is – it could be a diet order you’re putting in – that will have an impact. You’re taking care of a person, and that’s truly a privilege. What you do truly has a meaning, it has an impact.”

“We’re all here in the hospital to do the same thing: take exceptional care of our patients.”

Sant Kumar, MD, (PGY-3, Internal Medicine)

From a very early age, Sant Kumar, MD, (PGY-3, Internal Medicine) was exposed to the world of medicine through his mother’s work as physician in their hometown of San Francisco. Dr. Kumar quickly learned that he was interested in not only the science of medicine, but the need to work across multiple disciplines to solve medical problems and treat patients.

“In internal medicine, you really get to play this role of medical detective where a patient comes in with a chief complaint, and you need to try to piece together and solve what’s going on with the patient,” Dr. Kumar said.

Dr. Kumar and his cat Ferdinand moved from San Francisco to Washington for medical school at Georgetown University, and then residency at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Here at MedStar Health, he has put his passion for lifelong learning to good use.

“One of the best parts about internal medicine and medicine as a whole is that you’re always learning – there’s really no finish line,” Dr. Kumar said.

Dr. Kumar pursued Internal Medicine thanks in part to the supportive culture of the department, and leadership’s commitment to helping residents achieve their goals. And Dr. Kumar draws inspiration from his resident colleagues, saying, “I think my peers are all exceptional physicians.”

Dr. Kumar also serves as a resident representative on the MedStar Health Physician Leadership Council, advancing Graduate Medical Education (GME) initiatives on a system level and representing the voice of the more than 1,000 MedStar Health GME residents and fellows. Not only has Dr. Kumar gained valuable insight into the more administrative and policy aspects of medicine, but he’s been able to share that insight with his colleagues and work towards positive change.

“I would like my colleagues to know that their voices do matter,” Dr. Kumar said. “And the more that we can raise awareness about issues or raise awareness about specific things that are impacting us, both positively and negatively, the more likely change is to occur. And the administration does want to know what our experience is and what’s going on.”

As for the future of medicine, Dr. Kumar would like to see greater attention given to creating equity in health care, more resources devoted to addressing mental health and its effect on physical health, and greater incentivization to encourage medical students to pursue primary care and close the growing gap in essential primary care services.