Issue link: https://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1545861
physicians are graduates of Wichita's five-year general surgery residency, the largest in Kansas, including those who've gone away to train for subspecialties and returned, as cardiothoracic surgeon Grizzell did. The contributions of the department and residency program extend well beyond Wichita. "We have surgeons in Goodland, Hutchinson, Salina, McPherson, Newton, Great Bend, Hoisington, Kansas City, Pittsburg — all over Kansas," he says. "We probably have close to 50 general surgeons practicing in rural areas of the state." "It's a priceless organization, because without the medical school and the residency programs, it's difficult to recruit here," he says. "We work with these students for four years and another five years with residents, and we can pick the cream of the crop." Ammar, a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, himself returned to Wichita for surgery residency at St. Francis Regional Medical Center, at a time the hospital and Wesley had separate programs. He always felt it a privilege to provide care for patients and get to know them and their families. "It keeps you grounded, being able to take care of sick people." As for his legacy as department chair and educator, "I'd like them to say that I was patient, fair, compassionate and passionate. And honest and humble." It was a lucky break, says Brett Grizzell, M.D., to spend two months over a college summer shadowing surgeons at Wichita Surgical Specialists. Because it was that opportunity — arranged by his teacher mom — that set him on a path to medical school, says the cardiothoracic surgeon and new chair of KUSM-Wichita's Department of General Surgery. "I like to teach, because there's something about seeing somebody else do well that is a big accomplishment," says Grizzell, who graduated from KUSM-Wichita and its general surgery residency and then completed a fellowship in St. Louis. He has been a volunteer clinical associate professor for KUSM-Wichita since 2011. "You never know what's going to mesmerize somebody and they'll say, 'Hey, I've got to do this.' So, I try to give everybody an opportunity." Grizzell thinks he's been placed in charge of "an extraordinary program," one largely driven by volunteer educators, "people who do this because we like it, not because it's a salary." "It's my job to keep the momentum and find new momentum," according to Grizzell, who looks forward to challenges good, like moving into a new campus, and less so, like continuing to maintain a volunteer faculty amid uncertain funding and a changing world of medicine. "I think we train and have the potential to train the best, well-rounded general surgeons in the country. I want the fact that they came from Wichita, Kansas, and did general surgery at KU to be the No. 1 thing they put on their CV," Grizzell says. "We want to make sure Kansas has the general surgeons it needs all across the state, but my main goal is to train people who we would want to operate on our loved ones." DEPARTMENT OF OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY Having retired as chair of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology after 13 years, David Grainger, M.D., MPH, is feeling a bit liberated — from meetings, especially. "It's been a good run," says Grainger, who served as faculty and in other medical school roles — assistant dean for research among them — since returning to Wichita in 1990 after practicing in Hays and then completing a reproductive medicine fellowship at Yale. Grainger, born and raised in Wichita and a graduate of both KUSM-Wichita and its OB-GYN residency, says he discovered during residency that he loved to teach and, in fact, won an award for doing so (the first of many). "The ultimate way to learn is to teach, so being a good teacher means you're also a good learner. And that never ends," he says, relating how he's often Googling things and visiting PubMed and hopes — with fewer meetings in his life — to audit classes at Wichita State University and resume piano lessons in retirement. Brett Grizzell, M.D. David Grainger, M.D., MPH 12