New Director of Medical Education Ready to Unleash Valleyās Untapped Potential
Dr. Thelma Hurdās journey in medicine has taken her from New Jersey to Nigeria, with stops in Texas and Buffalo. Along the way, she gathered experience as a clinician, public health researcher and translational scientist.
Her proficiency in these crucial areas has led Hurd to Ā鶹ĪŽĀė°ę, whereĀ she became the universityās director of medical educationĀ last month.
āIt was an opportunity to be part of a new initiative that really resonates with my passion, which is to improve healthcare in rural, high-needs communities and underserved communities,ā Hurd said. āThe fact that Ā鶹ĪŽĀė°ę is a young university means there is tremendous opportunity to both join ongoing and create new innovative initiatives, and that was incredibly appealing to me.ā
After finishing medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey ā now the Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences ā Hurd had a desire to be an academic surgical oncologist, allowing her to combine clinical and research approaches to her methods of treatment. Hurd worked in gastrointestinal oncology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas before transitioning to breast cancer at the Breast Surgery Department at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, N.Y.
She said her interest in examining health at a population perspective came from an encounter with a family at Roswell Park with whom she discussed treatment options.
Despite giving the family materials to review about the treatment in preparation for the treatment discussion, Hurd said the family told her, in unison, āwhatever you say to do is just fine.ā It was in that moment she realized there was a need to address community knowledge and advocacy.
If there was a need to solidify this new outlook on health, Hurd found it in Nigeria. As a member of the Center for Research on Minority Health team at that worked with the Nigerian government to develop a comprehensive cancer control, she began to consider how to deliver care in low- to moderate-resource environments.
āNeed, disparities, inequity and rural healthcare issues and challenges donāt have geographic borders. They affect both high and low resource countries,ā Hurd said. āIf we can develop systems to address healthcare challenges in rural and less-resourced communities, it will be a critical step in bringing healthcare equity to the U.S.ā
The experience in Nigeria also opened Hurdās eyes to how to perceive healthcare crises in rural and high-needs communities that are often tagged as āmedical deserts.ā
āNigeria taught me to stop looking at how empty the glass is and to start looking at how full the bottom portion of the glass is, and that is how I look at the San Joaquin Valley,ā Hurd said. āIām not looking at what it doesnāt have, Iām looking at everything it has that hasnāt been tapped or leveraged. You have community cohesiveness ā people actually care about one another here and want to improve community health. People interact at a very different level than you see in highly urbanized areas and the Valley has resources. When you have those elements, you can pretty much do anything.ā
"Need, disparities, inequity and rural healthcare issues and challenges donāt have geographic borders. They affect both high and low resource countries.Ā If we can develop systems to address healthcare challenges in rural and less-resourced communities, it will be a critical step in bringing healthcare equity to the U.S."
For the past four years, Hurd has served on the Cutler-Orosi Joint Unified School Districtās Health Science Academy Executive Board and worked with teachers as they tailored their curricula to best serve their studentsā science education needs. The Tulare County school district is home to a medical education pilot program for Ā鶹ĪŽĀė°ę, and the opportunity to work with the future leaders in medicine in the San Joaquin Valley showed Hurd that addressing the medical disadvantages of the region can be found within.
āThere is a tremendous amount of untapped intellectual capital within our students and they simply need to be in an environment that will help them to develop it,ā Hurd said. āOur job as medical educators is to provide the educational and experiential opportunities so that they are able to go further than theyāve ever dreamed possible and go beyond what they perceive as limits.ā
She said while medical education is thought of as just preparing students for medical school, it plays a major role in producing vital medical professionals in nursing, dentistry and allied health, as well.
āMedical education at Ā鶹ĪŽĀė°ę provides the opportunity to work with people here to not only build a healthcare workforce but to build a workforce that can integrate rural and urban approaches to addressing health and disease,ā Hurd said. āThose students who are now in high school or are undergraduates are the future of healthcare and of health in this country.ā
Ā鶹ĪŽĀė°ę Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Gregg Camfield said bringing in Hurd ā who is a nine-time recipient of the Best Doctors in America designation ā is critical to continuing to build the foundation of medical education at Ā鶹ĪŽĀė°ę and in the Valley, one of the most medically underserved areas in the nation.
"She brings a wealth of experience and impressive skills to this very important position on our campus,ā Camfield said. āFrom leading our efforts to further develop programs and initiatives in medical education to continuing her research in health disparities, Dr. Hurd will bring great value to the campus and the community. I very much look forward to working with her.ā
Hurd said she is a strong believer in taking time to get to know the community and is looking forward to tapping into the potential of San Joaquin Valley students.
āThere are a lot of innovative thinkers here and the university is a crucible for innovative thought. It draws people who think and dwell outside of the box,ā Hurd said. āThe Ā鶹ĪŽĀė°ę family is one team and together with our communities as full partners, we will be able to change the face of health care and improve population health.ā