Focus on Faculty
January 2008
Michele Lundy, MD
Clinical Associate Professor
Family and Community Medicine
What is your hometown and where did you grow up?
I was born in Heidelberg,
Germany and then grew up mostly on the east coast, primarily in
the Boston area. My family moved to Tucson before I went
to high school. I went to high school and college
in Tucson, and most of my brothers and sisters live in the Tucson
area. I’ve lived in Phoenix for the past 24
years.
Tell us about your training
I received both my undergraduate degree and medical degree from
the University of Arizona. I was in the 4th graduating class. I
did my residency in Charleston, South Carolina at the Medical University
of South Carolina. I returned to Arizona and was in private practice
in Flagstaff for several years. My husband changed careers
so we moved to Phoenix and we’ve been here ever since. I
didn’t start at the COM – Phoenix until my children
were a little bit older. Early on I did some teaching and
interviewing for the UA COM, but became a faculty member at the
U of A in 1996.
How/when did you become interested in science and medicine?
I was interest in science probably starting in junior high. I
started out as a chemistry major but really enjoyed the biological
sciences and had some key people in college point me in the direction
of medicine. I ended up applying to medical school and it
has been perfect. I really enjoyed every minute of it.
And why did you choose family medicine?
I liked being able to take care of people throughout the life
cycle. I like being able to have real relationships with
patients and being able to follow people throughout the course
of their life. I have especially enjoyed the care of families
as there is a lot you learn from the family context. Even though
I have not delivered babies for awhile, I am still invited to the
weddings of patients I delivered two or three decades ago, which
is very gratifying.
Was there a teacher or mentor who helped shaped your career?
I definitely had that blessing in my life. I had a high
school teacher, who was both my biology and chemistry teacher and
was very instrumental in developing my interest in science. I
didn’t really decide to go into medicine until college, but
I can’t say enough about how fundamental her input was to
make me take that final step. I think it was because she
challenged us not to just obtain knowledge, but to really critically
think. It was the first time in my life that I’d had
a teacher who had you step beyond what the information was and
put things together in a different way. On a personal note,
she also challenged us to make a difference in the world and I
think the blending of those two pieces during a real formative
time in my life was instrumental in my career decisions. She
was so pivotal to what I ended up doing--teachers really make a
difference! I think that the teaching profession crosses
all lines. It’s the one profession that all of us become
a part of and I think the impact is just so tremendous. I
don’t think we as a society are doing a good job of paying
attention to the good work that teachers have done for all of us.
How or why did you choose the U of A?
It was a natural extension of what I was already doing. I
was teaching students even when I was practicing in Flagstaff. When
I got the opportunity to teach in the clerkship, I really enjoyed
it. As I became more involved in these and other activities
at the U of A, that I have been lucky to be able to do, it’s
been all the more satisfying and stimulating for me.
What kinds of professional opportunities or advantages does being
a faculty member at the U of A provide?
I think we are fortunate to have a medical school that actually
encompasses the entire state. It’s more than just the
chance to teach and do research statewide—it’s also
the connections with other physicians all over the state. There
is a lot of collegiality with the U of A and a lot of true friendships.
People seem to want each other to do well. They see the benefit
to the U of A, but to the state as a whole too. I think that
is somewhat unique. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity
to work here.
Could you also describe in a little more detail your professional
interests?
Professionally, I’m primarily interested in good patient
care and in all that contributes to it, including medical student
education, the development and evaluation of the curriculum and,
finally, developing faculty so they are effective teachers. I
think that the building blocks that we give students from the very
start of their profession are very important. How well we
do in teaching medical students, in developing curriculum, and
in conducting our own research is important for the medical education
system, the quality of patient care and for the medical systems
of our state as a whole. It’s a progression for me
as all of these areas are fundamentally interlinked.
Could you tell us about some of the programs you have been involved
in for the College of Medicine in Phoenix, such as the clerkship
directorship and faculty development?
I was the clerkship director for Family and Community Medicine
in Phoenix for about seven years. I was on the Curriculum Committee
for five years. I became director of the faculty development
program in 2001. The program had been on the Tucson campus
for about 20 years and in 2001 it was moved to Phoenix to provide
a more central location to make access easier for those that were
participating from around the state. I am still responsible
for that program.
The faculty development is for primary care physicians so we have
faculty mostly from Family and Community Medicine, Internal Medicine,
Pediatrics, and OB/GYN who become Fellows in the program. The program
has two components. One component is a seminar series that
runs through the year. This seminar series encompasses teaching
and learning skills, informatics skills, leadership and scholarly
research skills. Folks that participate not only come to
the seminars each month, but they also have to produce a scholarly
project or research project to present by the end of the year. We
encourage the faculty to both publish their work and present their
work at a regional or national forum. The Fellows have
been very successful in accomplishing these goals. It’s
a nice way to launch junior faculty into the many components of
academic medicine as well as enhancing their teaching skills along
the way. Since 2001, we’ve graduated 62 faculty from
around the state from this component. Each year we take between
10 and 12 fellows to participate in part one. The second
part of the program is a teleconferenced faculty development program
and again it is a series of seminars over the course of the year. We
use the U of A’s rural telemedicine network and the seminars
are videoed out of Tucson to different rural sites. Different
sites are used each year. Last year the participants were all from
the Indian Health Service sites. It’s a three hour seminar
once a month but folks who are participating are in active practices
and need to be able to get back to patient care. But it still
gives them, without having to go very far, a chance to improve
their teaching skills.
Tell us about the Dean’s Teaching Scholarship that you received.
This was a wonderful program. I had the opportunity to meet faculty
from other departments at the COM, but also outstanding faculty
from the Colleges of Nursing and Pharmacy We were required
to do a scholarly project related to curriculum My project
was to develop an integrative medicine course for fourth year This
was not a part of the curriculum at the time. This gave students
in Phoenix some exposure to integrative medicine. I involved
faculty from both the Tucson and the Phoenix campus. As you
know, about 35-40% of each year’s medical school class have
done their third and fourth year here in Phoenix.
Tell us about some of your outside interests.
One of the benefits of living in Arizona is that you can do a
lot of things outside. That’s what has also kept me here. I
really enjoy hiking, backpacking and camping and those kinds of
things. I enjoy traveling. I like other things like
reading and cooking and following college sports. I also
have four children. Travel is always involved to see them,
as none of them live in Phoenix. They all have attended the U of
A for at least one degree. My oldest daughter, Shannon, received
her PhD from the U of A. She is in Boston doing a post doc at Harvard. My
second oldest, Sarah, teaches high school in Portland, Oregon.
She received her Masters degree in International Relations from
the U of A. My third, Mark is in graduate school at UC Davis.
He received his undergraduate degree from the U of A My
fourth, Connor is a second year medical student here at the COM-
Tucson.
Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your professional
work?
I guess I am guided by the same things in my professional work
as I am in my personal life. I’ve really tried to keep those
things integrated and not completely separate in my life. I
needed to do that with raising a family anyway. I think being
true to yourself is really important and I don’t think we
ever go very wrong if we’re cognizant of that fact in the
decisions that we make. The other thing is that I follow
my heart. Sometimes you just know what seems like the right
thing to do and I’ve learned to trust that.
If you could change something about the world of medicine, what
would it be?
I would change the amount of time we spend in our relationships. I
think that with so much information available and so much demand
for instant communication that this has made time for relationships
more difficult. And I think that taking time, both in our
personal lives and in relationships with patients, is really important. We
need to find a balance between taking time and the mandate for
high productivity.
What piece of advice would you give to today’s students?
My advice would be that whatever you choose to do, choose something
that you’re passionate about. Do something that you
love. You’re going to be doing it everyday, for the
rest of your life. Life is just too short not to be satisfied
in a very deep way with what you are doing. Another piece
of advice is to learn something new everyday. You need to
challenge yourself.
What do you see is the future of medicine?
We are going to need to embrace the incredible technology that
will only continue to evolve. This technology has substantially
enhanced our diagnostic capability. It is important for us
to be able to embrace these things, but not to lose our humanity
in the process. We have to remember that we are healers too. We
need to be able to continue to be committed to relationships and
communication, and be able to have these things blend with each
other rather than being at odds with each other. I think
it’s going to be a challenge, but I think we need to figure
out a way to marry these two parts of our profession, both the
art and science.
You’ve told us a number of the things that
you’re involved
with in terms of the College of Medicine. Are there some
other ways that you’re involved with the greater Arizona
public?
I am involved in research on more of a community level. I
am currently doing a study on health literacy with our underserved
populations in Maricopa County. I think that’s really
important and fundamental for us to know where folks are coming
from when we are preparing patient education materials, consent
forms and things like that. I did a prior study when I was
on the IRB at Maricopa. We were able to change the reading
level of the IRB consent forms, based on that information. I
am also in involved in high school mentoring. I participate
in a career day at a couple of the high schools in the spring,
presenting information about medicine as a career. I am on
the Education committee for the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians. I’m
involved with other things in the community—it’s just
part of being a member of the community and participating as a
citizen as well as a physician.
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