Giving Back
Clinical preceptors are vital to the education of medical students and residents.
By Rich Polikoff
Preceptors share their experience with future health care providers, helping them bridge the gap between what they learn in the classroom and what they need in real-life settings.
The University of Utah School of Medicine Alumni Association and the Office of Academic Affairs and Education has selected three individuals as the 2020 recipients of the Clinical Community Faculty Award. These annual awards recognize outstanding clinical preceptors in
the community.
These preceptors contribute countless hours to the education of our medical students and residents, and this award is one of the ways the university formally thanks them. Nominees practice medicine outside of University of Utah Health, have an adjunct appointment in a School of Medicine department, and regularly take students, residents, and/or fellows for their clinical rotations.
FRANK MILLER
Frank Miller, MD always enjoyed spending one-on-one time with his students. Miller came to Utah in 1976 as the director of angiography and interventional procedures at both the University of Utah and the VA Medical Center. He began working with residents that year, and in 1981 he began taking on interventional radiology fellows. He worked with them every year until his retirement in 2010.
In 1995, Miller co-founded the U of U Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) Center; at the time, it was just the second such clinic serving clients west of the Mississippi River.
Throughout his career, Miller was an innovator who introduced numerous minimally invasive procedures throughout his career. In 2002, he accepted a part-time position at the University of California, San Diego Medical Center, where he founded its HHT center while simultaneously continuing his work at the U. Miller later founded the Department of Radiology at UCLA Medical Center to form another HHT center.
Throughout his career, Miller made it a priority to always work with residents or fellows. For his teaching, clinical work, and research interests, he was elected to the Society of Interventional Radiology in 1979 and served on many of the society’s committees over 25 years. He received the society’s Gold Medal for teaching and service in 2003. He was also elected president of the Utah Radiological Society and the International Society of Biliary Radiologists in the early 1990s.
MIKIO OBAYASHI
At the start of their rotations, Mikio Obayashi, MD, FAAFP, delivers a clear message to his students: Relax.
“People are able to learn better in a relaxed environment,” said Obayashi, a family medicine specialist who practices at Intermountain Herefordshire Clinic in Roy, Utah. “I tell them this is not going to be a stressful rotation.”
Above all else, Obayashi’s goal is that his students learn, that they are able to absorb as much information as possible. He wants his students to ask him plenty of questions, and he wants them to ask insightful ones of their patients. So he and his students work on that skill all the time.
A 1994 graduate of the School of Medicine, Obayashi joined Intermountain after completing his residency training in family medicine at Saint Vincent Health Center (Erie, Pennsylvania) in 1997. In addition to his position at the Herefordshire Clinic, he also serves as the medical director of Wide Horizons Intermediate Care Facility in Ogden, where he takes care of residents with physical, intellectual, and mental disabilities.
MARK VALENTINE
Mark Valentine, MD believes in the value of different perspectives. Back when he was a resident, Valentine appreciated the attending physicians who listened to his opinions and allowed him to take initiative in deciding patients’ courses of treatment.
That sort of back-and-forth dialogue made Valentine, a 1984 School of Medicine graduate, a stronger pediatrician. Ever since he took on his first resident in 1988, Valentine has strived to employ the same conversational approach to learning.
And he’s done it in a community clinic setting, which was uncommon when he began.
“If you’re in a private practice, you know patients chose you because they want to see you, so as a result you have to bend a little,” said Valentine, who works at the Intermountain Alta View Clinic. “At the time I was in my training, most pediatric training was done in hospitals. Working in (community clinics) provides a different perspective for residents. They have to learn to deal with people of all economic backgrounds and social backgrounds. It’s a good balance for them to get out in the community.