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- This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Dr.
Sue Khan, chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery
and endovascular therapy at Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Dr. Ha's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
- Great to be here. Thanks for having me, Laura.
- Now, I'm looking forward to talking
with you further about some of the things
that you're doing at, um, the School of Medicine, some
of your research and the projects that are really, um,
impactful for patients.
But before we dive into my discussion,
can you tell me a little bit more
about yourself and your background?
- Sure. Uh, so hi everybody. My name is Sue Khan.
Um, I'm one
of the vascular surgeons at the University of Southern California.
As Laura introduced, I currently, uh, am the chief
of Division of Vascular Surgery, uh, at USC.
I also have been serving as a program director
for our fellowship and residency training program,
and had the, um, aortic center here as a co-director.
Um, I'm originally from Seoul, Korea, uh, born
and raised there, but immigrated
to Southern California when I was 15,
and I spent most of my time in Irvine, um,
where I did my undergrad,
undergraduate work in medical school, uh,
where I met my wife, who's also a physician at USC.
And, uh, we have two little, um, children, uh, eight
and 6-year-old, Lily and Tara, uh, two daughters.
Um, and,
and we live in Pasadena, south Pasadena, California.
- Well, that's amazing. Wow.
And you know, what a, a great, um, family
to have in another physician as your spouse.
I can imagine there's a lot of coordinating that goes on,
especially with two little daughters.
Um, you know, I, I can imagine
that need a lot of attention as well.
And so, you know, it just seems like a great place to be
and then to, um, to have a partner who's also a physician
and understands everything that goes into the job as,
as well as the family life.
- Yeah, absolutely. We're both very busy
as academic physicians
and she's also in leadership role, uh, at USC in the,
the division of gastroenterology.
So I think we are, um, are,
are raising our kids the best, best, uh, way we can.
Uh, but a lot of coordinating, a lot of extra help
and hope to be setting good examples for our, our children.
- Absolutely. I think that's all any of us can ever ask for,
uh, as parents, I feel.
But it definitely a big job, so, um, that's great to hear.
What are you most excited about right now, um,
as you enter your new role at Keck School of Medicine?
- Yeah, I'm, I'm most excited about really continuing
to be a part of this exceptional division
of vascular surgery that, uh, my predecessor Dr.
Fred Weaver built over the 26 years of, uh,
being the chief of our division.
Um, but really as the division chief, my role
I understand is now beyond what I'm doing
for my own research interest and my own achievements
and the clinical focus as a vascular surgeon,
but to really support this talented group of 12 physicians
to continue to succeed.
So, you know, personally, growing
and learning is what drives me and,
and wakes me up every morning, uh, and,
and love coming to work, and it gives me meaning every day.
And it's only been two and a half months in this chief role,
but I've really been enjoying learning, uh, about leadership
and program building
and planning for the future, you know, in every sort of, uh,
service line that we provide as a vascular surgery division,
whether it's in the aortic space or limb salvage center.
And so I really look forward to supporting our faculty
grow in the same way that I was supported,
um, by Dr. Weaver.
And I'm excited to provide the launching pad for some
of our young faculty and watch their career grow and, and,
and blossom as well in the future.
- Absolutely. That's amazing to hear.
And as you mentioned,
that is definitely a mindset shift when you go from really
focusing on yourself and,
and, you know, being a superstar in terms of
what you're doing on the clinical side as well
as your research and, um, then shifting into a role
where you're really building a team and supporting others.
Um, you know, I know it can be very rewarding,
but, you know, certainly takes a, an intentional shift.
Um, what was that like for you?
What did you, I guess, um, what have you been doing
to just kind of get yourself in a great place to, um,
really fulfill that role in a,
in a very successful way? Yeah,
- I think identifying, um, talented partners,
um, and, uh, like-minded individuals with similar focus,
uh, is I think is key to success.
But, uh, I think for, for that part, I, I really, I mean,
this is, I've been with this division over the last 10 years
as faculty, and I've been a trainee here at USC
as a general surgery, uh, resident
for seven years prior to that.
Um, and so I don't think
that part was very challenging for me.
I think we have a, I've been lucky to be a part
of the division where we have exceptionally talented group
of people with high energy
and each of 'em with their own, um, expertise.
So that part has been easy.
I, I do think that balancing very busy clinical work
and the practice that you spend most of your time building
now with all these other administrative, um, duties
that also take up time, uh, is something I'm still learning.
But, you know, as I said, I think this learning
how to balance these things is also kind of fun.
Uh, and, and finding out that you can in some ways
balance those two things, uh, and,
and, uh, finding role models around the country
and asking for their advice, um,
has also been meaningful for me.
- That's great to hear. And definitely, you know, the,
the best kind of teams are those that work so well together
and, and just have a great dynamic.
So it's really cool to see that you've got all that energy
and passion, um, within your division, um,
at Keck School of Medicine.
So, you know, when you look at, um,
where you're at right now, what is, um, you know,
from the time you've spent there, what is one change
that you've made, um, that has yielded some great results?
- Yeah, so I, you know,
it's only been really since January 1st officially.
So it's, it's been what, uh, two and a half months.
It's probably too early for me to kind of point out what I,
what I did as a chief that made great results,
but I can give you a, a great example where a change made,
um, and being consistent with that change, uh,
and being able to lead a group of people, um, led
to great results is actually the aortic center.
Um, and so 12 years ago, Dr. Fred Weaver and Dr.
Ron Starnes created this multidisciplinary aortic team at
USC, led by cardiac
and vascular surgeons were dedicated to taking care
of patients with challenging aortic problems
and really work closely to provide patients
with the best available treatment options
that fit each patient's sort of need.
Um, so I, Dr. Fleischman and myself, Dr.
Fernando Fleischman, who's a cardiac surgeon at USC
and myself, a vascular surgeon in inherited this program,
uh, years ago, and worked really hard
to develop this program and take it to another level.
And I think that has been the success story
that has been modeled
after around the country at different aortic centers
and also in, in the other service line, uh,
at our own institution.
So we've been able to grow not only in clinical volume
of the Aortic Center, but the treatment options where
we have access to some of the cutting edge technology
through, uh, investigational pathway and others,
and offer treatments to patients that other centers don't.
And these patients come to us
from our region from all over now seeking our, our care.
So that, that's an example where, you know,
from program building point of view, being able to lead
a group of physicians with different expertise
to focus on the same problem
and provide sort of coherent, um, solution
that extends beyond sort of what is considered standard
or what is considered possible at some of other centers.
- That's fantastic to hear.
And, and you know, what a great example of way
that you've really been able to dig into
that more personalized touch with medicine
and, um, delivering that experience as well as outcomes
that is really beneficial to patients.
Now, before we wrap up here, where do you see some
of the biggest opportunities for continued
to growth at the Medi Medical School as well as the, um,
USC Comprehensive Aortic Center?
- Yeah, I mean, I think Aortic Center has kind
of morphed into a very well-oiled machine, uh, moving from
balancing open surgical excellence to, um,
you know, um, help define sort of future
of more cutting edge,
minimally invasive endovascular aortic repairs.
I think we've done a great job
and staying at the cutting edge of that, um,
the, you know, from the medical school, uh, side,
I think expanding that model and,
and applying that to other areas.
And we've been able to leverage this in some ways by
really adopting this multidisciplinary model
to our limb salvage service line, uh,
incorporating our podiatrist colleagues led
by doctors David Armstrong
and Laura Shin, who are also, not only podiatrists,
but the NIH fund, the scientists working closely
with our partner, Dr.
Miguel Manzer, who has special focus and interest
and expertise in taking care of patients
with peripheral arterial disease has been really kind
of transformative within our division and our institution.
Similar approach has been done, uh, crossing sort
of the department lines from the Department of Surgery
and cardiovascular space to working closely
with our neurosurgery colleagues, Dr.
John Russin and, uh, microsurgery Plastic Surgery,
Dr. Joe Carey, who are also
very interested in solving our problem
with spinal cord ischemia, which happens as a consequence
of successful aortic repair in a lot of these patients.
So, working with them closely, bringing in
our colleagues from neuroradiology department
to really look at this problem, um,
and neuromodulation expertise with, uh, Dr. Charles Liu,
who also is a scientist not only at a neurosurgeon at, uh,
at USC, but also a scientist at Caltech.
Looking at this problem together
and starting to focus on this and,
and launching this, uh,
multidisciplinary effort has been really exciting.
Um, from technological standpoint, I think our field
of vascular surgery is currently undergoing a
disruptive sort of, um,
paradigm change potentially in our workflow
with this explosion of, um, AI and machine learning.
And so leveraging this, uh, it's going to be key
for our success of our institution and our aortic center.
And so we're looking into different, uh, ways to collaborate
with other, collaborate with other institutions, as well
as leveraging some of the, um, cutting edge,
commercially available, uh, AI technology to bring it in
to our workflow, um, of already very robust,
clinically robust, uh, programs
to optimize our patient care.
- That sounds fascinating, you know, and,
and truly a collaborative effort.
I, as you said, bringing together
so many different specialties
and team members, um, around, you know, different patients
and cases, and, um, it just really is really cool
to see those opportunities, um, and how you've been able to,
or, or are looking at, um, continuing to grow in that space.
So Dr. Ham, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today.
This has been really a fascinating discussion
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- Thank you very much.