Some physicians have an interest in teaching; some are really good at it, and some make a career out of it. For Thomas Baudendistel, MD, teaching comes second nature and, as one of his former colleagues says, is a definition of who he is.
It’s those qualities, his experience in both academic and community hospital settings, and a passion for innovation that Dr. Baudendistel, the internal-medicine residency program director for Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, Calif., hopes to infuse as CME editor of the Journal of Hospital Medicine (JHM). He was appointed to the new position in June; the first issue containing article-level CME, the answers to which will be submitted online, is scheduled to appear in October.
“Tom is a superlative educator. He has defined himself that way. He has a passion for it and a talent for it,” says Brian J. Harte, MD, FHM, chair of the department of hospital medicine at The Cleveland Clinic and a deputy editor of JHM.
Dr. Harte, who first met Dr. Baudendistel in 1996 during his residency at the University of California at San Francisco, says his former mentor “can take a submission, drill down to the most important teaching point, and challenge the readership.”
Dr. Baudendistel, who admits teaching is why he “gets out of bed in the morning,” says he wants to take advantage of the young, tech-savvy nature of most HM physicians. “JHM has been an innovative journal. I see the CME piece as being equally innovative,” he says. “I’d like to move [CME] past the pencil-and-paper phase.”