What's Next for Dr. Jayaraman?
Hi everyone,
I am one of the acute care surgery faculty and was recruited to The University of Utah in 2020 to be the direct the Center for Global Surgery (CGS) and enable innovative research collaborations with the Center for Medical Innovation (CMI). Over the last 4 1/2 years, through CGS, I have spurred multiple collaborations to support health systems evaluation and development of the inaugural colorectal surgery fellowship, breast cancer care (Ghana), Vascular and Urology Divisions to engage in fellowship level training (Rwanda), breast cancer and trauma training (Mongolia) and initiate trauma and vascular collaboration in Colombia. I have also led a large collaboration that has received funding from the US NIH and additional funding from the UK NHR to develop and implement a novel software platform for coordination of emergency services in the capital city of Kigali in the East African country of Rwanda. I also had the opportunity to work with several of our faculty across several SOM departments, CMI and CTSI to create a new global health innovation and technology track in our MSCI program through which we have had participants develop new technologies that have been submitted for patent at the USPTO, for Gates funding and for implementation in low and middle income countries.
It's been exciting to foster multidisciplinary and interprofessional collaborations in so many ways. I have also realized that I have spent almost 25 years in medicine at this point which got me thinking about what I want to accomplish in the next 25 years. After a lot of intense self-reflection, I realized several things – 1) my goal: I want to have impact on health around the world at the largest possible scale 2) the problem: that it is not possible to achieve my goal through the conventional pathways in academic medicine and 3) my expertise: as a trauma surgeon and critical care doc, I have developed a pretty broad set of expertise beyond that clinical focus that could be valuable outside of academia. So I explored a few different opportunities in the last year and have decided to take a leadership role in a new office set up at the FDA's Center for devices and radiological health that will allow me to bring in my diverse expertise in clinical medicine, public health, innovation, global health to work on innovation policy at a national level. I am hopeful that through this unusual and despite perhaps a risky time to enter the federal government, I will be able to spend the next phase of my career working to transform health around the world by engaging in the digital technology, AI and wearable space and how opportunities there can apply to health care needs across specialties and across the US. I hope to learn about and maybe even influence the various governmental, industry, academia and society stakeholders involved in the medical device space both nationally and internationally. I will still be on faculty at the U as an adjunct professor and practicing clinical medicine to a limited degree in Virginia. If you would like to stay connected, please keep in touch
