Accelerating Physician Leader Impact: Andrew M. Ibrahim, M.D., MSc

As an accomplished surgeon, researcher, and architect, Andrew Ibrahim, M.D. has combined diverse passions into a career that is very much of his own design and making. And yet Dr. Ibrahim knows the critical role that mentors play in one's career and in developing physician leaders. As director of the University of Michigan's Center for Healthcare Outcomes & Policy (CHOP), he and colleagues have instituted formal mentoring programs – "Launch" teams for junior faculty and "Boost" teams for mid-career faculty – as part of efforts to normalize mentoring and, in fact, make it a leadership expectation. "That's been normalized in our culture," he tells WittKieffer's Michael Anderson, M.D. "You don't move into a role of influence or get control of resources until you have a track record of mentoring." 

Dr. Ibrahim admits to being "obsessed with unrealized potential" and thinks deeply and creatively about helping those around him to develop and grow. A core belief is to identify potential leaders early in their careers and to accelerate their attainment of vital skills and experience. Too often in academic medicine, he says, leaders move through formal channels of advancement which don't necessarily build the right skills at the right pace, or ultimately place individuals in their optimal roles.

In this latest episode of the Accelerating Physician Leader Impact series – part of WittKieffer's Impactful Leaders Podcast  – Drs. Ibrahim and Anderson explore the unique qualities of the leadership development program at Michigan's CHOP and their broad applicability. Such ideas can serve as a blueprint for other leaders and organizations to follow.