What does it take to become a better physician, educator, and leader? For Salahuddin Kazi, M.D., it starts with curiosity - and the willingness to be wrong.
In this episode of UTSW Unscripted , Dr. Kazi reflects on the experiences and ideas that have shaped his career in medicine and medical education. From embracing uncertainty and learning from mistakes to seeing science as a common language that can transcend cultures, he shares a perspective grounded in curiosity, connection and a lifelong commitment to learning.
Dr. Kazi serves as Co-Program Director of the Combined Medicine/Psychiatry Residency and Professor and Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Doctor Salauddin Kozi, unscripted. Doctor Kozi, tell me your story. Medicine is more than a profession. It is something that bridges cultural divides. Science is a beautiful thing, and it is a shared language. As a little boy, I'd say I was on the quiet side. I was just very observant. I grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. There was a lot of noise and warmth and excitement. I think what sort of held us together was family, and what our family valued the most was education. And I think seeing others, you know, the the haves and the have-nots was so obvious and so sharply demarcated that you couldn't help but feel this sense of responsibility. And a sense of empathy. And I think that translated directly into the idea of being a physician, that you take care of people at their most vulnerable, no matter where they're from. My father was the first surgeon in the city, and so he became this sort of very larger than life revered person. I think there was an expectation that I would follow in my father's footsteps. It was very interesting coming to the United States. I was the first international medical graduate in my residency training program at the University of Texas at Houston. So I really felt the pressure to adapt just so that I wasn't misjudged. I wanted to succeed. I wanted to belong. I was drawn to internal medicine really with the first patient I saw. I was assigned a young woman. She was 18 and she'd had a stroke. She was terrified. She was from a small village. Even if she could speak, I probably wouldn't have spoken her language. Can you imagine being asked to manage a patient that you cannot speak to, who also cannot speak to you? I realized the enormity of this, and I realized that I wanted to be the the sort of physician who took care of the whole patient, not one part of it. I first came to UT Southwestern in 1995. I came here really by accident because it was my wife who first got a position here. And when I came to UT Southwestern, I felt that there was an opportunity for me to give, to train other people, to provide good patient care. I have the privilege of leading the education programs. I end up overseeing over 200 residents and almost 250 fellows. I must say that being residency program director is probably the most rewarding thing I have done. I tell my residents that patient centered care is important, but I think you can only deliver patient centered care if you deliver resident centered education. You can only be compassionate to others if you normalize self compassion. What's one lesson medicine taught you that you didn't expect? The opportunity to be right goes through the ability to be wrong. Humility has to be at the core of learning. As a physician, it's really helpful if you've been a patient as well, and I've had my share. So I had every childhood viral illness. I had measles and mumps and rubella. And because it was Pakistan, I had malaria, made me very sick. I had dengue fever, which was the closest I came to saying this is, it's not worth living. It was a very, very difficult, prolonged illness for me. And so it really gave me that sensibility of what it's like. I was not unscathed in the US either. I was on a dad-daughter weekend in Glenrose, Texas, where I was bitten by a rattlesnake. I survived that. Talk to me about your wife and your two daughters. I met Melissa at the University of Texas at Houston where we were both training. It was an important moment. Because until I met her, I was pretty certain that I was going back to my family in Pakistan. Once I met her and knew that she was the right person, it was a complicated. But an easy decision. This was the way forward. Melissa's a dermatologist. She did her residency training here and then stayed on the faculty here for 10 years. We have two daughters. Miriam was born at Saint Paul University Hospital, as was Nina, so they were both born here as well. Miriam works in commercial real estate. Nina is a 1st year medical student right here at UT Southwestern. Doctor Kazi, if you could share one piece of advice with your younger self at the start of your career, what would it be? We need to manage our time. 4000 weeks is what we will live, if we live to be 80. It's not a long time. And so I think we must make the most of every period in our life, and that we must focus on that which matters most, rather than that which is just charging at us.
