In this episode, Serpil Erzurum, MD, draws on her vast experience at health care systems across the country to discuss the importance of compassion as a mentor and trainee when paving the path for others, breaking the cycle of self-doubt and learning from disappointment and failure in our careers.

• Intro :01
• The interview :18
• Who is Dr. Erzurum as a person? Passions, interests and childhood 1:13
• What have been your favorite parts of working in health care across the country? 5:22
• How do you juggle and find balance between the many different roles in health care? 9:53
• The importance of enjoying life above all 11:50
• Erzurum on surrounding yourself with people that respect your life choices 15:00
• Paving the path for others; being a good mentor and leader 16:35
• Erzurum on trusting and communicating with your mentors 20:00
• Working through ‘imposter syndrome’; dealing with failure and self-doubt 21:45
• Times when Dr. Erzurum faced disappointment and failure. 25:32
• What do you do for fun? 28:15
• Have you inspired your daughters? 30:12
• Why don’t we expose specialists and trainees to specialties outside their own institutions? 31:44
• What skillsets should trainees work to improve during Fellowship? 36:02
• Final thoughts 39:15
• Outro 41:18

Serpil Erzurum, MD, is the chief research and academic officer at the Cleveland Clinic. She is also the chair of Lerner Research Institute.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Bhardwaj at [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @HealioPulm @abhi_bhardwaj99.

Disclosures: Bhardwaj and Erzurum report no relevant financial disclosures.