Dr. William Tseng | Assistant Area Medical Director, Kaiser Permanente

Welcome to the thirty-fourth episode of The Gap Minders! Today, we are so fortunate to get to chat with Dr. William Tseng, who is the Assistant Area Medical Director of Kaiser Permanente!

In yet another excellent episode, Nancy and Jose are joined in studio by Dr. William Tseng, the Assistant Area Medical Director for Kaiser Permanente. Dr. Tseng currently serves as a practicing board certified internal medicine physician, President of Professional Staff, and is a physician ambassador to the corporate community. Dr. Tseng is a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians, and the American Medical Association. Dr. Tseng serves as a Trustee for the California Medical Association and on the executive board of the San Diego Medical Society. Dr. Tseng enjoys balancing his time between patient care, hospital accreditation and patient safety, while continuing to Oversee physician education and Kaiser Permanente’s Diversity Council.

What we learn from this devout Padres fan (he won’t watch games so as to not jinx them!), is a must-listen master class for those serving on the front lines for closing gaps of any kind. Not just health care, mind you, but closing gaps across the board.

And what is it that Dr. Tseng offers up for all gap minders? Let’s start with his platform view that every population has gaps, whether it is flu vaccination in the African-American community, colon cancer screening in the Latino community, or hepatitis in the Asian community. Every community has gaps and the key to changing gaps isn’t presenting facts, it isn’t about data, but it is about listening and understanding the cultural reasons behind the gap or a reluctance behind a recommended course of action.

His advice to all interested in closing gaps is to first work on changing the culture. And the best way to do that is to listen well, build a relationship based on trust, and never be judgmental. To this point, he believes that physicians are getting much better at understanding culture in order to get the impact from their intent.

We also learn how he found his way to medicine and public health – and his struggle during medical school with the eternal question….”am I making a difference.” Here are a few other key takeaways from this conversation with Dr. Tseng:

• The magical power of listening for gap minders!
• His passion for advocacy, including his involvement with seat belt laws
• Understanding that when physicians propose advice such as “exercise and eat well” we
  might be making recommendations not attainable to the person for environmental
  reasons
• The answers to the Rapid Fire questions!

Thank you, Dr. William Tseng, for your passion for healthcare advocacy, your sound advice on being closing gaps, and for joining us on The Gap Minders.

Enjoy this episode and be sure to subscribe to the show.

If you have any questions or want to contact Nancy or Jose, please send an email to podcast@uwsd.org. Thank you for listening.

To learn more about the two social impact organizations making The Gap Minders possible, please visit www.TheGapMinders.org.