SACRED CALLING
Wayne Samuelson, MD ’80
Distinguished Service Award
As a fourth-year medical student at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Wayne Samuelson, MD ’80, learned an important lesson from his advisor, Thomas Caine, MD, who taught him “how to be a doctor” a couple afternoons each week in the clinic. One Friday afternoon, with both men tired, the last patient didn’t show. “I thought, ‘Oh great, we’ll get done early,’” recalled Samuelson. “Dr. Caine said, ‘No, there’s a reason she missed.’” Caine made a house call and discovered the patient to be very ill with congestive heart failure. “That profoundly influenced me, and I made house calls all through my career. He taught me that it was a sacred calling to be a physician.”
Heeding that sacred call is what Samuelson has done throughout his career—both as a clinician, serving patients with cystic fibrosis and asthma, and as an administrator for the past 20 years. Following graduation from the School of Medicine in 1980, Samuelson went to Duke University to complete his residency, fellowship, and internship, then took a faculty position with Duke to create a new clinic for adults with cystic fibrosis at the urging of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Later, Samuelson accepted his “dream job” with the University of Utah School of Medicine, where he went to work creating an adult asthma clinic. A few years later, with his clinical practice going well, he received a career-changing phone call from David Bjorkman, MD, then-dean of the School of Medicine and a longtime friend. The dean of admissions position had opened during a pivotal moment in the midst of a state legislative audit: Would Samuelson take over?
At first, his answer was no; Samuelson didn’t think administration was his calling. However, John Hoidal, MD, then-interim chair of the Department of Internal Medicine, convinced him to give it a try; and that, as Samuelson describes it, is how he “stumbled into” administration.
Following the successful legislative audit—the first of two he would oversee—Samuelson was invited to join the Association of American Medical Colleges Committee on Admissions. As a committee member, he helped champion the holistic review process for medical admissions with a focus on the “whole person,” not just GPA and test scores. He also made a national impact as part of the MR5 Committee, which reviews the MCAT. In this case, the committee helped revise the test to make it less biased and added biochemistry content to reflect the importance of the emerging field.
At the School of Medicine, during his tenure as dean of admissions, the applicant pool increased from fewer than 900 applicants to approximately 4,000, with diversity increasing with each incoming class. In 2011, Samuelson became vice dean for education and began to advance innovative curriculum reforms.
Part of an exceptional education means giving students real-world experience, including through the free medical clinic Samuelson helped establish in Midvale, where clinical and nursing faculty oversee care provided by students. For quite some time, Samuelson was the only attending physician. “It was a labor of love,” he said. “I would come home physically tired but totally rejuvenated.”
Samuelson continues that dedication today as dean of medical education for the school. “It weighs heavily on me that 500 people who are brilliant and smart in every way have hitched their careers to what we’re doing in the medical school,” said Samuelson. “I want to make sure we give them the best education possible.”