By Katarina Lewczyk
Pang-Yen Fan, MD, vice chair of education in the Department of Medicine and professor of medicine in the Division of Renal Medicine, did not originally envision a career in healthcare. With influence from his family, particularly his father, Dr. Fan found himself on the path to becoming a physician.
“Honestly, nephrology wasn’t my first choice, but not because I didn’t like it, but because I considered a lot of other fields before I finally made a decision,” explained Dr. Fan. “I have loved nephrology, particularly transplant, because it gives me a chance to restore people to a level of health that they haven’t had in years.”
Dr. Fan earned his MD from Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, MA, and completed his residency and nephrology fellowship at Duke University in Durham, NC. He joined the faculty at UMass Chan in 1993, where he served as associate residency director before directing the nephrology fellowship program from 2002-2014. In 2010, Dr. Fan became a learning community mentor, a role he held for 12 years. Throughout his career, he has earned various awards and honors, including the Chancellor's Medal for Excellence in Teaching.
As vice chair for education in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Fan is dedicated to building robust infrastructure across the department’s teaching activities to deliver high-quality education to medical students, residents, and fellows. “I’ve always looked to create systems that enable the work to be done well and facilitate smooth transitions,” said Dr. Fan. “You want to perpetuate success, and I’ve always looked at that as being one of my charges in this role.” He is also committed to identifying and supporting talented faculty and staff in careers as clinician-educators. Dr. Fan commends his colleagues, Drs. Nancy Skehan, Scott Kopec, and Elizabeth Murphy, whose work continuously improves and builds upon the success of the department's undergraduate and graduate medical education programs.
Dr. Fan also works to improve and support the department’s fellowship programs, although he admits that it has been a challenge, particularly in these difficult times. Some advances have been made, but “It’s the area where I think there's still the most amount of work to be done, and essentially what we're trying to do is create best practices where the individual fellowships work together as a unit,” said Dr. Fan.
Dr. Fan also helped develop the Physician Scientist Training Program, an initiative that combines clinical and research education to train outstanding physician-scientists. “It’s really a collaborative effort among clinicians and investigators to establish this exciting training opportunity,” said Dr. Fan. “Dr. Read Pukkila-Worley, the director of the PSTP, leads this effort, but there have been many other people engaged, from division chiefs, fellowship directors, research scientists, and more.”
As an educator, Dr. Fan particularly enjoys mentoring students preparing to apply to Internal Medicine residency. He meets with each student to identify their individual strengths and provides guidance in navigating the application process, such as preparing personal statements and developing interview strategies. “It’s one of the most satisfying parts of my role!” exclaimed Dr. Fan.
We thank Dr. Fan for his dedication and support to our colleagues and students within the Department of Medicine!