Dr. Shuman celebrates his retirement with the department, December 11th 2019
Dr. Shuman celebrated retirement with a party on December 11th. The following is what he shared with those in attendance:
Song of a Swan
When I first came to UW Radiology in the fall of 1978, both Harborview and UWMC hospitals were about one quarter their current size. There was no Roosevelt Clinic, no 9th and Jefferson, no Eastside Clinic, no SCCA, nor Northwest Hospital. Radiology had a total of 3 plain films rooms, 2 fluoro rooms, one angio room, one ultrasound unit that was compound (not realtime), two gamma cameras, and one water path head-only CT scanner for the entire system. There was no MR and no PET. We had 14 faculty and 9 residents. Jim Rogers and I were the first fellows ever.
While it is pretty easy to think of the Department now and realize how it has grown in size over the past 40 years, it is much more important to think about how Radiology has grown in impact on the delivery of healthcare over that time. Our role now with our 140 faculty , 100 trainees, and 850 staff is to be wise consultants, managers of big data, arbiters of cost effectiveness and impact, educators for the future, and scientists pushing hard on the frontiers of knowledge.
To help us with all of this we have a vital Mission, we have the powerful Means to fulfill that mission, and we have a Moral Imperative
Our Mission:
“To cure disease and to relieve suffering to improve the health of the public.”
There can be no higher calling, it is indeed “sacred…”. By that word I mean according to the definition of Webster:
“uniquely important or relevant, unusually high in value or impact…”
Our Means
We know the power of teams …. which can accomplish so much more than any one of us.
We know the importance of evidence-driven cost-effective diagnosis and therapy, and that we create the evidence thru our science.
We know that we are responsible for cost-effectiveness, understanding that the best allocation of scarce resources is done by the expert users.
We know the importance of supportive education for the next generation of providers.
And we accept the importance of our own wellness.
These all are our means.
Our Moral Imperative
It is – to live our mission to the best of our ability, because the powerful tools we wield can do so much good for so many.
And it also is – to create great experiences for happy customers, because an unhappy patient is a patient not fully served by our power.
To all of our UW Radiology family, I urge you to continue taking our Moral Imperative, using our powerful and readily available Means, and drive forward with our Mission to build that better healthcare future which we all want and can see ahead of us. Let the pace of change over the next 40 years totally eclipse the change of the past 40 years.
I close with few words of thanks:
First, to my wife and constant support , Betsy – thank you for enduring those 4 am alarm clock awakenings and our 8 pm dinners, while you offered wise advice and counsel from your humane and medical perspectives.
Next, I would like thank my personal team here – Betsy Munk, Betty Lanman, Dawn Vincic, Andy Strickland, and Janet Busey. There are two signs of a great job. First – when you are driving to work, you can’t wait to get there. And second – when you get there, your team feels like family. You have made both of those true for me for these past 16 years
And I thank all of you for your partnership and your friendship.