Ho Din Award: Future radiologist Dr. Lauren Kolski honored by SW Medical Foundation

By Lin Lofley

Dr. Lauren Kolski
Dr. Lauren Kolski

When Dr. Lauren Kolski was considering medical schools, she did what many prospective medical students do: She applied to all the top programs around the country, and she hoped.

After growing up in Plano and graduating valedictorian of Ursuline Academy of Dallas, Dr. Kolski completed degrees in molecular and cellular biology and in Spanish at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She graduated magna cum laude and came home to take a gap-year job at UT Southwestern Medical Center, doing research in the laboratory of Dr. Theodora Ross, Professor of Internal Medicine.

“It was my dream to train at UT Southwestern,” Dr. Kolski said recently, “but of course you have to apply and win your spot.”

She secured her spot at UT Southwestern Medical School, and she just kept on winning. The same evening she walks across the stage during the June 4 Commencement exercises at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, she will be recognized as the 2017 recipient of the Ho Din Award.

Established by trustees of Southwestern Medical Foundation in 1943, the Ho Din is the oldest and most prestigious student award at UT Southwestern Medical School. The award includes a certificate, a medal, and a scholarship of $10,000.

“The Ho Din Award is one of the Foundation’s most noble traditions symbolizing – from the Medical School’s beginning days – the kind of doctor we would seek to educate. In this tradition, Lauren Kolski so clearly represents the qualities of wisdom and human understanding that the Ho Din Award represents,” said Kathleen Gibson, President of Southwestern Medical Foundation. “We are truly delighted that Lauren will remain in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, first at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, and then at UT Southwestern for her residency.”

Dr. Kolski, who will train in diagnostic radiology, said, “I would like to thank Southwestern Medical Foundation for honoring me with this award. Many of my fellow classmates have achieved amazing work in the fields of research, education, and public health, and I am both honored and humbled to have been chosen to represent this inspirational group.”

In the future, she sees a fellowship following her transitional year and four-year residency.

“Lauren was one of those exceptional medical students who operated on the level of a very functional resident, even as an early third-year medical student,” said Dr. Richard Graham, a Dallas pediatrician who served as her attending physician. “She was instrumental in expanding our differential to discover a condition that was missed by the medical system for years. She had an excellent bedside manner, and she is poised to become an excellent physician.”

One reason Dr. Kolski chose her medical specialty is that it will afford her the opportunity to play a role in patient care.

“Radiology spans nearly every medical specialty, and a radiologist is an integral part of the patient care team that helps with not only diagnosis, but also treatment of an ever-growing list of diseases,” she said. “I am particularly interested in the academic side of radiology. I hope to someday teach and be taught by the new generation of physicians and even to conduct research in order to leave my small mark on the field.”

Dr. Kolski praised her faculty mentor, Dr. Dan Sepdham, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, for guiding her to her medical degree.

“He was the first physician I got to know as a person,” she said. “He taught us how to become compassionate, patient-centered physicians. He did this formally through the Academic Colleges curriculum and informally through modeling a level of clinical skill, compassion, and professionalism in all he does.”

Dr. Sepdham said, “I have to admit a certain bias, but she is easily one of the top 10 students I have worked with in the past 10 years. She is already functioning like a seasoned intern, and I suspect that within six months she’ll be working like a second-year graduate student.”

Dr. Kolski’s passion for helping others stood out in her interactions with faculty and with her fellow medical students.

“Her dedication to patient care was inspiring and became a standard for the entire team,” said Dr. Aziz Hammoud, a classmate who will shortly begin an internal medicine residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. “Her excellence and helpfulness encouraged the team to do its best.”

Even before enrolling at UT Southwestern, Dr. Kolski was a resource for students and a leader in the medical student-run clinics. Already fluent in Spanish when she arrived here, she volunteered during her gap year as a medical interpreter in The Monday Clinic.

“I am so grateful to all the Spanish teachers who opened up the Spanish-speaking world to me, and to my patients, who welcomed me with open arms and taught me so much more about the Hispanic culture and its interface with health care,” she said.

Dr. Kolski served as a manager and regular volunteer in the Office of Global Health Agape Clinic and was instrumental in the founding of the Agape Women’s Clinic. A member of the Arnold P. Gold Humanism Honor Society, she was one of the leaders of the Humans of Parkland program, a patient outreach initiative that allows medical students to learn more than just what ails patients, but also about the patients as individuals and the stories of their lives.

She also worked as an anatomy teaching assistant, tutored medical students in preclinical courses, and led the Step Up to Step 1 committee, an Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society initiative that provides guidance to preclinical students preparing for exams.

“At a young age I idolized Dr. Marie Curie, so I always said that I wanted to be a scientist. It wasn’t until high school that I began thinking about going into medicine,” Dr. Kolski said. “It’s seems I have come full circle, though, and I owe so much to Dr. Curie. She not only inspired young girls like myself to pursue careers in science, but she also pioneered the field of radiology.”

Dr. Ross holds the H. Ben and Isabelle T. Decherd Chair in Internal Medicine in Honor of Henry M. Winans, Sr., M.D.,nd the Jeanne Ann Plitt Professorship in Breast Cancer Research.

Dr. Sepdham holds the Drs. Malone V. Hill and John W. Pate Professorship in Family Medicine.