Lisa Pompeo - Talking About a Legacy

by Eve Jacobs

At a time in our country's history when the topic of immigration finds its way into numerous conversations, Lisa Pompeo, MD, brings up her immigrant father with obvious pride. He came to this country alone from a small town in rural Italy at age 16 speaking no English, she says, and went "from pushing a broom to vice president of his company." Along the way he instilled in his daughter certain of his own principles that have become integral to her personal world view--chief among them his great respect for education and his insistence that "you do things because they're right, not because they're expedient." Pompeo's Golden Apple is rooted in those seeds planted by her father.

She became the first person in her family to graduate from a four-year college, and then there was no stopping her. She "grew up seeing myself as a doctor," but, in fact, took a bit of a detour along the way. She was introduced to biomedical research by a dynamic faculty member at the University of Dallas , a small liberal arts college in Texas where she did her undergraduate work, and fell in love with molecular biology and working in the lab. While working in research labs after graduating, she matriculated in a Master's program at NYU, where, again, she was inspired to change course by "a prominent hematologist who was an amazing clinician." Dr.Robert Silber, she says, "helped so many people. He had such a wonderful relationship with his patients that they often came to visit him in his lab."

Pompeo realized that doctoring truly was her calling. In 1990, she began her studies at SUNY-Stony Brook's School of Medicine , initially intending to become a rheumatologist. But her Ob/Gyn rotation made her "so happy" that she immediately understood her life's work.

The Resident Match Program landed her at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School University Hospital (UH) in July 1994 and she says that within three days, she knew she was "a lifer. On my first day I was scared to death and three people said hello to me--I saw it was a friendly place. I love being here. I love the students. I love the hospital. I love the atmosphere."

Most important, she says, "There is an underlying understanding that everyone cares about the patients. This is the most important component."

Put "caring" about people--whether they are students, patients, family or other relationships--right at the top of Pompeo's own priorities. She finished her residency and became an attending at UH in July 1998. After just one year on the job, she was asked "to keep an eye on the medical students" by Gerard Hanson, MD, an associate professor in the department. Then, over a two-year period, she became site director at University Hospital --eventually taking on the responsibility of all educational activities there for the NJMS Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health. Two summers ago she became the clerkship director, setting the educational agenda, goals and objectives, and taking charge of the educational programs for third year medical students at all of the sites where the department provides training (UH, Hackensack University Medical Center and Morristown Memorial Medical Center).

Now she is the director of medical student education for the department. Additionally, she is the associate director of the Ob/Gyn residency program at NJMS.

How much of her day is spent teaching? She says that's really impossible to assess. "Every single thing I do clinically, there is someone with me in a training capacity--I may be teaching a medical student or resident, or supervising a resident."

"Teaching is the most important thing we do," she continues. "It's our legacy."

"Just think, a doctor who educates future doctors touches the lives of all of her own patients and all of the patients on down the line whom those future physicians take care of," she says. "And looking at it from a very selfish standpoint, these are the doctors who will take care of me when I get old and sick."

For Pompeo, Ob/Gyn has been perfect. "It totally fits with my personality," she says. What she likes best is "being there at some of the most significant times in a person's life, taking care of them through all ages and stages--from their teens to their twilight years."

She enjoys the intimacy of the bonds that are formed. "You establish a connection with the entire family--not just the woman. There is a lot of counseling in addition to the hands-on doctoring."

Why does Pompeo think students value her teaching? "I really care," she says. "I want them to have a good experience and I want them to learn."

"Students also say I'm very fair," she continues. "I don't see a benefit to making things more difficult than they have to be--there's no value in tripping someone up. If you need to know something as a doctor, then you need to learn it."

She is determined that third-year students come away from the clerkship feeling that they really have learned something. She wants to give them a hands-on experience during deliveries and in the OR learning to suture. She wants them to participate in these "significant times with patients."

What does she love best about her job? "It's the students and residents - that's the reason for being here," she says. "We could all make more money in private practice or doing research at a pharmaceutical company or at the NIH."

She has been actively involved incorporating women's health into the new Jubilee Curriculum at NJMS. "We need to expand women's health into every discipline," she states. "We need to learn more physiologically and pharmacologically about the differences between men and women and how they react to illness. We need more research into health disparities, such as why men are more likely to have angioplasties."

Pompeo's father died at age 61 from complications of diabetes. Within one month and one hospitalization, he had first one amputation, then had complications from a diagnostic test in preparation for another and went into multi-organ failure and passed away. This was early on in her medical school career and she was living at home at the time. She remembers the medical school dean telling her not to take her exam right after her father's death, but she was determined. She took the test, passing by one point. Now she recognizes that she made a mistake.

"We're professionals," she concludes. "We need to recognize these times in our own lives and in the lives of others."