
Chapter 10: Head of the Division of Cancer Medicine
Files
Loading...
Description
Dr. Hong explains that he had no real interest in heading the Division of Cancer Medicine, but he was drafted into the role by the Department chairs (after an external search produced no viable candidates), and their choice was approved by Dr. John Mendelsohn. He took the job out of a sense of obligation to the institution (and took it without an increase in pay). The position allowed him additional opportunities for impact and Dr. Hong explains his commitment to helping departments in the Divison build their team research program. He talks about the process of achieving aligned action among seventeen departments and lists some of the key players in implementing his programs. Dr. Hong next list his accomplishments in the Division: improved quality of the faculty; increased transparency among the departments; raising the bar for research; improved patient care; building the fellowship program; the creation of the Advanced Scholar Program.
Identifier
HongWK_02_20131016_C10
Publication Date
10-16-2013
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - The Administrator; The Administrator; Building/Transforming the Institution; Multi-disciplinary Approaches; Growth and/or Change; Education; Critical Perspectives on MD Anderson; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work; Dedication to MD Anderson, to Patients, to Faculty/Staff; Professional Values, Ethics, Purpose
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, tell me about becoming Deputy Head of the Division of Cancer Medicine.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
That’s a long time ago, and it was only temporary.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Right, but how did that happen? Who asked you?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
My boss, Krakoff, asked me. What do you have there—that was 1992?
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I was not sure about that date. I have that you became head of the division in 2001.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Yeah, that’s right.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And then for one year you were an interim or deputy?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
No, no.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
When did you become Deputy Head under Krakoff?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Well, he left in 1994.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, and were you—you served as Deputy Head with him for a time and then—was there anything significant about that role?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
No, there isn’t.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. Let’s talk about your becoming head of the division then of Cancer Medicine in 2001. Tell me how that happened. Wuan Ki Hong, MD This is the largest division, and I have seventeen academic departments, 350 faculty members. That’s a huge job. But in 2001, I was Chairman of the Department of Thoracic, Head and Neck Medical Oncology. I think I was doing extremely well at the time. I was also President of AACR—American Association for Cancer Research. So at the time, my stock value was very high. You have peaks and valleys. I was not really that interested to be the division head. I was not a candidate. They hired a search committee and interviewed many people and failed to recruit the right person to be the head of Cancer Medicine. So I was sort of drafted by the department chairs to be the head of the Department of Cancer Medicine. Then that was accepted by Dr. John Mendelsohn. So he appointed me as the head of Cancer Medicine in 2001.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What was the search committee that you were on? What were you looking for that you weren’t finding among all of these candidates?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
The institution had a search committee.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay, you were not on that search committee?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
No, and I was not a candidate. The search committee was chaired by Josh Fidler [Isaiah Joshua Fidler, DVM, PhD [Oral History Interview]] and Stan Hamilton.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And Stan Hamilton. Do you know what they were looking for?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
A translational researcher.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
A translational researcher, and they just couldn’t find anybody.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
They interviewed people, and it was mismatched.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Were you surprised? What made you take the job that you hadn’t thought about taking?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
There is some sense of obligation to the institution. The institution had been very good to me. So I thought that when the institution asked me to do something, I felt some sense of obligation. Also, it is a good job—a very honorable job, a more prestigious job. So I accepted that job without accepting an increment in my salary. That was a stupid mistake I made. My wife constantly talks about that. I don’t want to give the impression to other people that I took that job because of money. So in retrospect, I made a mistake.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Twenty-twenty hindsight. When you assumed this responsibility, what kinds of opportunities did you see for having an impact?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
I thought about that a lot. And the opportunities—the major opportunity was my commitment to help a lot of people to build up the collaborative team science research program. Just like what I did before. So that notion was very well received and embraced by everyone.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Why had things changed? Or had things changed so that people were suddenly enthusiastic about this approach?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Obviously, I think people thought about doing that kind of thing but were insecure and not able to execute that kind of team science before. I demonstrated that I can do it—even I can do it, why not you? They regained some of their confidence. That’s important. I inspired them to build up their confidence. So it sort of became contagious. That’s the impact. You assist some people, help some people and to make things happen.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What were the conversations? You mentioned that there were seventeen departments in the Division of Cancer Medicine. I can’t imagine that they were all in the same place in developing this kind of program. So what was that process like of kind of getting everybody together?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
You cannot force them to do that. You have to create the culture and establish the environment and establish the common ground where the people can play together and succeed together and share together on science and patient care.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
How did you make that happen?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
I don’t think I made anything. I just happened to be the person that was an instrument to help them march in that direction.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
But I’m curious, were there different kinds of meetings with different agendas? I mean, did you bring up certain—was there kind of a sense that, “Okay, now we need to have transparency among the departments?” What were some of the invitations you made? Waun Ki Hong I think leading by example is important. Then that’s kind of how the culture can be established as the norm. Nothing extra. So buy-insbars are high and goals are high, and we all want to make some progress. Without doing research, there is no way one can make any progress. Then to make progress, we have to work together.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So research was really set out as the high priority.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Research and patient care.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Research and patient care. And which of the departments were kind of the quickest to embrace this and understand that was a win-win?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
I think most of the departments, except one or two. I cannot mention them. Some department chairs can be stubborn in spite of my really extraordinary hard work. But that happens.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That, too, is human nature.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Exactly.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
How long did you feel it took you to establish that kind of communication and culture?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
It was—it didn’t take too much, because before even I became the head of Cancer Medicine, I had a good reputation and becoming head was sitting in the cockpit, and people followed.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So people were ready.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
I never forced it to them. People who had been working with me—I think you interviewed two, Wendy Austin and Sue Davis—they were my right-hand people. They’re the ones implementing certain things. I think if people really hate me, then they attack with resistance. But that was not the case. Again, you can verify through their conversations. That’s the human nature. If there’s a certain boss and I don’t like it and a marching order came through the intermittent level, then people become resistant. I think a level of respect was very reasonable, so I wanted to implement something and through my people, Wendy [Austin] and Sue [Davis], the level of resistance was minimal. There was minimal resistance. Do you understand what I’m saying?
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, I do. I do. Looking at—because you’ve been division head for twelve years now—looking back over that period of time, what are you really gratified to have seen come about? Because there must be tremendous changes in the division. Wuan Ki Hong, MD Again, number one, the quality of the faculty within the division. I’ve been working with the chairs on transparency. I’m very gratified to see each area raising the bar for research. Again, I don’t take credit. All I did was to help them be successful. That’s important. I’m the point guard or the quarterback, and I passed the ball to the right person and the right time to make the basket. Obviously, when that happens, automatically patient care can be improved. Another thing is that the fellowship program was okay, and now I think it’s one of the top in the country with an incredible reputation. So that’s something I’m gratified by. And the creation of the advanced scholar program. Again, that was something that wasn’t there. That was something I manufactured, and it’s already produced thirteen advanced scholars. All of those graduates are in the academic setting as assistant or associate professors. So they’re going to be future leaders. That’s an opportunity that I was able to develop and conduct and complete all of those major research trials that were timely and successful. And I have been able to open up a new field. So I’m a very happy person.
Recommended Citation
Hong, Waun Ki PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 10: Head of the Division of Cancer Medicine" (2013). Interview Chapters. 1103.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1103
Conditions Governing Access
Open
