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Variety, ‘safety-net’ aspects of EM attract Joshua Tamayo-Sarver, one of first in M.D./Ph.D. in health services research program
Joshua Tamayo-Sarver and his wife, Maritz – and their twin boys in utero – celebrate his match to the emergency medicine program at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
It was a volunteer experience at the age of 16 that lead Joshua Tamayo-Sarver to pursue a career in medicine. “It just felt like the greatest job in the world — and people actually got paid to do it. I have wanted to be an emergency physician ever since,” he said. Following his dream, the Athens, Ohio, native enrolled in Harvard University in the fall of 1993. At the end of his junior year, Tamayo-Sarver began his service with GEOMED, an organization dedicated to serving international health needs. His involvement spanned his entire senior year of school, taking him to El Salvador, where he not only served as an emergency medical technician but also met his future wife, Maritza, a volunteer as well. The couple welcomed twin boys into their family in May and are raising their children in sunny California as Tamayo-Sarver completes his residency training in emergency medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Ultimately, he aspires to be an academic emergency physician, allocating his time between clinical practice and research. Research has been a top priority of Tamayo-Sarver’s; he has been very active with projects for several publications in addition to serving as a peer reviewer for multiple journals. His most recent research, under the supervision of Lynn Dezelon, M.D., assistant professor of emergency medicine, included investigating the use of structured data entry to improve medical students’ acquisition of clinical expertise. Also, with Cherri Hobgood, M.D., associate dean for curriculum and educational development of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Tamayo-Sarver explored the factors associated with residents’ learning from medical errors. As if that wasn’t enough, he was active on committees for both the American College of Emergency Physicians and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. Tamayo-Sarver’s passion for research earned him the Health Services Research Student of the Year honor from the medical school in 2002. Further, before graduating from medical school, he earned a Ph.D. in health services research as one of the first two students in the school’s M.D./Ph.D. in health services research program. His motivations for attending Case Western Reserve University for medical school centered on this very offering. “I wanted to get a combined M.D. and Ph.D. in health services research. The year I applied, I was the first class in the program, and Case was the first school in the country to offer the combined degree that was fully funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality,” he said. Of his career plans, he said, “I want to go into emergency medicine for two major reasons. First, it allows me to continue to learn about and treat patients with so many interesting problems: cardiac, internal medicine, surgery, obstetric, gynecological, infectious disease, psychiatric – the whole gamut. Second, I feel that emergency medicine is the ultimate safety net that allows me to serve patients who are not having their needs met elsewhere in the health care system.” As far as the pressures of marriage, medical school and, now, fatherhood, Tamayo-Sarver credits his wife as being exceptionally supportive and thus making it very easy to juggle family and school. “She is a hoot to be around,” he said, “Hanging out with her always provides me with some recharging time.” – Lauren Pomykala |
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