Current Mailing Address                      

Chi-Wan Lal, M.D.
Medical Education Promotion Fund
Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center
125 Lih-Der Road, Pei-Tou District
Taipci,Taiwan 112

 

Email Address: chiwan2@yahoo.com

Present Activity Status: Working

Tell us about your community activities:

Executive Secretary Medical Education Committee, Education Ministry Taiwan.

Family Status: Married Children 2 boys Grandchildren 1 granddaughter

What path has your career taken since your residency?  Include military service, private practice, academic career, teaching and research accomplishments.

I finished the residency in 1978, then took one-year fellowship in BEG with Dr. Fernando Torres in U of M, and then moved to University of Kansas Medical School to start my academic career with main interest in EEG and epilepsy. I then became Associate Professor and then Professor in 1992. I was in charge of residency program for a while until l998 when l decided to return to Taiwan to pursue my dream helping medical education in my homeland. I first assume the position of associate dean in a relatively new medical school, Tzu Chi Medical School on the eastern coast of Taiwan. Then I became the dean of medical school, and then vice president of Tzu-Chi University. In 2001, I moved back to Taipei to assume the position of the chair professor a medical education promotion fund. This move was mainly triggered by the need to be in Taipei in order to be close to my elderly father, who has just turned 100 this year. I have also assumed the position of executive secretary of Medical Education Committee of Education Ministry of Taiwan to continue my dream in improving the medical education in Taiwan. I spend most of my time on medical education related work though I still see neurology patients, mainly those with  intractable epilepsy, but to a much smaller scale then when I was in US.

We are interested in anecdotes and experiences from your residency years.  Include interactions among fellow residents and teaching staff. 

 

I had a wonderful fours years in U of M residency and fellowship program. I clearly remember how difficult for me in my first year due to language/cultural barrier, and I cherish very much the friendship and support the fellow residents offered me. I particularly appreciate my chief resident, Dr Norman Reynolds, who has helped me settle down in my first year. Norm helped me find a house next to his, and we came to know him and his family very well. I worked very well with my classmates, and had a lot of fun memory with Gus Cosenza, Dick Warren, Barbara Patrick, Daljit Kaur, etc., and I miss those great teachers and particularly am fond of Fernando Tortes, Eduardo Tolosa, Mark Mahowald, Ilo Lippik, Dave Webster, Ansari, Dave Anderson, etc. I left U of M in 1979, and since then I have kept in touch with Dr. Dave Good periodically, and we still write each other through e-mail and Xmas greetings.
Because of being working in the same field, I have been in close contact with Dr. John Gates who was the first year resident when I was the chief resident in U of M.  Through years John has become a very close friend, and I truly feel sad to hear about his demise recently.

Looking back, would you do it again? What would you change?

At this age, it is hard to say what I would do differently in my career.  I do appreciate the experience of being able to be exposed to an entirely different culture for 23 years and then go back to where I am from, and to help young medical students, and physicians to start their careers. I certainly appreciate the experience from U of M which has not only taught me how to be a good neurologist, but also to be able to appreciate the difference of culture/language, through which I have gained the worldly view which has broadened my scope of vision. If there is anything I would like to do differently, I would say, I wish I could be U of M a few years earlier when Dr. A.B. Baker was more active in teaching then.

Share your thoughts regarding the changes in medicine since your residency.  In your opinion, is Neurology positioned well for the future? 

To be honest, I am no longer thinking myself as a neurologist, I now position myself more in the capacity of a physician, and I am very much absorbed in the aspect of humanities and medical education. To that, I do think being a neurologist; we tend to be more a thinking physician, more reflection then other subspecialty who may be more interested in action. I think with the advance of neuroscience, neurology is heading for a very challenging future. I do think neurology still has a very bright future, provided the program can change the gear toward more integration of clinical and basic science in order to attract brilliant young talents, and through more multi-disciplinary collaboration, to produce more clinically relevant research in neurology