Dr. Dan Minter is an academic clinician educator at UCSF where he attends on the transplant/general ID services, ID clinic, and medicine wards with a variety of trainees. He co-directs a course for the UCSF medical school focused on reinforcing foundational sciences during the clinical years, directs a curriculum focused on case-tracking for ID fellows, and co-directs their ID division grand rounds (where they have worked on piloting a new clinical reasoning case conference series). He loves teaching and thinking about clinical reasoning, and (with Dr. Varun Phadke at Emory) serve as a co-editor for a new clinical problem-solving series in CID called "Clinical Dilemmas in Infectious Diseases (CDID)" that focuses on the complex reasoning of ID specialists.
How did you get interested in medical education?
I became interested in medical education as a medical student after seeing the profound impact that dedicated educators had on my learning and career trajectory. What were likely small gestures or inconsequential conversations to them ended up being so impactful to me in my growth and development as a physician. I wanted to emulate those educators that I learned from to help teach and lift up the trainees that I got to work with.
How have you integrated medical education into your career?
I've sought to teach different learners across a variety of settings (clinical, didactic) and am working on translating medical scholarship I've been engaged in (regarding case-tracking and clinical reasoning) into tangible educational programs. With our upcoming Clinical Dilemmas in ID series (CDID), we're hoping to create a forum for the larger ID audience to learn and engage with clinical reasoning concepts they may not be otherwise familiar with.
How did you transform your interest in medical education into a career?
I'm really appreciative of my mentors and colleagues for providing guidance on how to craft a career as a medical educator. I'm trying to focus on pursuing projects that align with my goals of educating those around me and advancing conversations around clinical reasoning in ID.
What is one medical innovation that makes you the most proud?
The venture I am most excited about is working with the broader ID community through the CDID series. We're hoping this can be a forum for clinicians and clinician educators to share their challenging clinical cases and highlight the complex decision-making that defines our specialty.
How have you transformed your medical education work into scholarship?
With guidance from amazing mentors and colleagues, we've had the opportunity to publish our experience regarding case-tracking, clinical reasoning case conferences, and tips for teaching clinical reasoning in the clinical setting.
What are some of the most rewarding aspects of your career as an educator thus far?
I'm early in my career, but even now have had the opportunity to see learners grow and develop into mature clinicians over time. It's so rewarding to have been part of their journey in medical education.