Carl J. Cox 3:52

Scott and and I appreciate you let him know you’re good enough because we last time we met was in Chicago O’Hare Airport, I think it was like last time it was in January 2020, where we feel comfortable flying together. This is before we had even changed that. And since that everything has been Zoom. And we had a really fun evening that night. Actually, it was great to get to know you more and have some great conversations about the travels that you do. But why don’t you for everybody who doesn’t know, tell me a little bit more about the two different occupations that you’re having, and how are you making a difference in

Dr. Scott Cyrus 4:27

the world? Well, for 25 years, I’ve been a general pediatrician in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And one day, a good friend of mine that I done a fellowship with, came up to me and asked me if I would ever think about being the Department Chair of Pediatrics at a new founded medical school in Las Cruces, New Mexico. And it was one of the it was one of those times in life that use perfect timing. My I have five children and my fifth child was graduating high school to go on After college and though we kind of had the empty nesters idea and, and but we I just felt like there was something more out there to do. And but I enjoy teaching because I had students in my practice every month. But I also enjoy practicing medicine and enjoy having the kids and taking care of the children. And so we did it we bid it off. And now I fly every other week to Las Cruces, New Mexico, from Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I teach pediatrics in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine as the Founding Chief of Pediatrics. And when I come back to Tulsa, I practice and in the state of Oklahoma, so it’s a lot of fun. It’s the best of both worlds. Some people say well, how in the world do you you know, how in the world? Do you get it done? Or, you know, why would you do something like that? And I said, Well, one, I have a passion for both, I have a passion to teach and a passion to take care of children. But also, if I get tired of teaching, I go I go practice and if I get tired of practice, then I go teach.

Carl J. Cox 6:07

That is that is amazing. And I have to say that the board that you’re one of the boards on the American Osteopathic Foundation, that group of people that you were not the only one who had multiple different sites across the country that you were serving and make a difference. And I think I think it’s your ability to be able to touch and have a greater impact on our people is what people are all looking for. That’s where you get these opportunities. And you’re also are wildly funny and you are already before this, we got going you were making fun of like the sound wasn’t working and things of that nature. So I said I really miss hanging, hanging out and being with you. So what has been me it’s kind of the obvious question, but I’ll ask it anyways, what what has been top of mind for you right now or recent stay what’s been going on. And tell me a little bit more about that? Well, I

Dr. Scott Cyrus 7:00

think it’s a Top of Mind of most people in most, especially in people in medicine is obviously combating the COVID virus and trying to stay healthy yourself during the infusion. During the time that, you know, the past year, the past 14 months that we’ve been dealing with, with COVID. One of my main purposes is trying to keep as many people in my practice as well as in my personal family, obviously, as healthy as possible. My mother is 86 years old. Of all my siblings, I have three siblings in there, they all hold a job of one is a is a judge one is a teacher. Another one is a corporate executive. The other to say that they are exposed to the general public is is an understatement of the day. So we’re all but yet we but things had to move forward, children needed to be seen, we didn’t I did not want to have a child develop a vaccine preventable disease, because of the fact that they couldn’t get into my clinic and be able to receive the vaccines that they could, even though they are very worried about attracting COVID virus in the clinic. We made measures and steps and we made our patient population aware of those measures and steps so that they were safe. We we matted, we basically had all six patients in one side of the of our office, whereas all well children went to another site, there was no waiting times they came right directly into the room. So they were isolated immediately. And so and we we made sure that as they left, there was always distance between the patients and stuff like that. So we were really, very concerned about that and keeping our patient population healthy and making sure that they are they were doing well.

Carl J. Cox 9:00

And how long as curious sounds like a well oiled machine. Now, how long does that process take? Before you could you know, before that got going to be effective? Well,

Dr. Scott Cyrus 9:13

you know, as a as a private practitioner, we could make some steps really rather quickly. We immediately closed listening to the CDC listening to the minds of medicine, we quickly changed the way we we approached our patients and how we made sure that you know as we call our patients back to remind them of their appointments, that we were taking these measures to help decrease their worries and their fears. We were able to close the waiting room immediately. And so I use I use the thoughts of my other partners and my staff to echo to me, what was being heard from from the patients and what would inhibit the patients from coming in. Interestingly enough, this was a this was something, as we’ve all seen in pediatrics, for sure. Because people were able to start wearing your mask, washing their hands and keeping their distance, then we actually saw much less illness, much less, much fewer children that were sick. And so we really focused on catching up the wellchild and making sure that they were able to keep their vaccines. And that was one of the issues. You know, we were trying to do all the videos and everything that we could possibly do. But obviously, you can’t, you can’t say, Okay, get a little closer to the computer, I’m going to give you a shot, they actually had to come in.

Carl J. Cox 10:49

Absolutely. That’s pretty fast thing. So it said that sounds like you were doing a fair amount of telemedicine. Now, Was this something you did before that? Or did you switch to it. Because of this,

Dr. Scott Cyrus 11:02

we had to switch to it. In fact, some of the laws of telemedicine was out there. But some of the the insurance, insurance companies allowed us to do it because their reimbursement were there beforehand, they didn’t have that ability to really burst. And so there was not a lot of time given to telemedicine except it was across state lines. You know, and you were in a sub specialized area. But for the most part, if you were if you were just a general pediatrician as I work, the patient needed to come in to see you or make a phone call, if it’s something that could be handled over the phone, we were able to do that too. But we took a lot more nurse calls. And then again, the ill patient, the actual, you know, RSV, the influenza, ear infections, old, even cold, dropped off dramatically, because we again, we all stayed home, we were not in school, we were not exposed to other people. And therefore, illness really dropped off. We’re really focused just on the well child.

Carl J. Cox 12:06

And so now let’s talk about your other part of the world, which is the teaching side. Right. So and the teaching side that obviously I have two kids in college actually tickets to college to in high school. And their lives have been completely different over this this past year. Tell me about what’s been happening with the college. How does that change your teaching methodologies?

Dr. Scott Cyrus 12:31

Well, our teaching methodologies were the same, our teaching approach. And deliverance is what changed. Our methodology was the idea that we needed to get this information over to a professional group of students, because they’re all in med school, and we have 160 med students in a class. And with that, we had to deliver that information. But we had to deliver it over a pre recorded setup, we actually became I became more available to my students, you know, when you’re standing in front of 150 students, 160 students in an auditorium, they can ask a question at any point in time during the presentation. That’s the kind of open format that I have. But in this situation, it was pre recorded. So they either had to email me to questions, or they had to text me or call me, I made my cell phone available to them, because I wasn’t always on campus. But I was trying to be always available to them. They would text me sometimes they would, they would email me at two o’clock in the morning. And I would answer them when I woke up at four 430 in the morning, and I would see their email and I would answer them back. But we tried to be I tried to be as as available to the student as possible. This this isolation, this seclusion that the student when was very impactful to them. They’re you know, they were all used to the camaraderie all used to be in around one another. And so this was this was very difficult. And in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the COVID virus was was hit very, very hard. And so we had actually shut down the building where we didn’t even have faculty in the building unless it was absolutely permanent. So a lot of our sessions were done remotely. And so I was able to be in Tulsa and then remote into the Zoom meeting with the students. And we could we could have, you know, 30 students on a Zoom call and we could go over certain things with them. But when it came to instruments or techniques on how to examine a patient or along things along that line, then we actually had to come on campus and start that process.

Carl J. Cox 14:47

And that you’d mentioned beforehand, you said that you had students coming in from one side of the building to come in one at a time, right so you have a very close caption, so to speak a method kind of amazing sure that each person is coming in getting to do what they need to get done, but moving on, but still getting this experience that they need to be qualified.

Dr. Scott Cyrus 15:07

Exactly, we when the June come in the building there temperatures taken, they badge in. So we know they’re on campus. Because if we have a COVID case, breakout and we did, we had a COVID case breakout. In the on campus, we had a student that came up positive with COVID has been on campus, we have to do the contact tracing. And it was our job to be able to know who everybody was on campus. And by that we were able to track down and then they of course, had to isolate for the 14 days. And they weren’t able to come back on campus, but they were able to do the Zoom meeting and continue their learning from that.

Carl J. Cox 15:48

Yep. So I’m curious, you know, it’s always hard to just for people know, this is being recorded at the end of March 2021 is not gonna be released about end of May, we’ve got about an eight, you know, eight week lag from recording to that. So things are obviously going to change from even when the time this is released. But I’m curious, from your perspective, let’s talk about the telemedicine for a second. How much of that. So let me do a comparison. That prior to COVID, about two and a half percent of the population to 3%, depending on which numbers you’re looking at actually worked consistently from home. Today, it’s the big argument of what the real number is. But you know, it could be up to 45 to 50%, depending on what it is. But of course, it’s half the world that has to still make things and do things right. That’s how we’re getting our food still are getting our desks. That’s how we’re getting the different areas right there. Those people are still going into work. I’m curious to you on on what you you’re doing. Let’s talk about telemedicine. I miss, I think things are gonna settle back to some number I don’t know what that is, I’m speculate between 15 to 20% of the population is going to end up working remotely, even when it’s all said and done. You talked about telemedicine, how much do you think that’s going to stick two years from now?

Dr. Scott Cyrus 17:06

I don’t think as we get back to medicine is as a norm. And we’re seeing it actually, I’m actually seeing it now. Because we’re relaxing some of the rules, the students are back in school. And in school, they can’t necessarily keep their distance. They don’t wash their hands nearly as much as they do when they were at home. They are wearing their masks to some degree. But it depends on what kind of mask they have, whether it’s you know, whether it’s adequate enough, we are seeing more illness, and some of the illness can be taken care of, by from a telemedicine standpoint, the the issue is the provider. If the providers already seeing patients and you don’t have a provider just solely set to doing telemedicine, then you try to do it either over over lunch hours or after hours. And so it makes it a little bit more inconvenient for the for the patient. With with urgent cares with emergency rooms, patients are able to get their care, you know, almost immediately and they don’t have to wait for an appointment at the at the physician’s office. As far as vaccines, as far as certain tests that are required, many of the many that people are doing telemedicine to see what’s wrong with the patient, and then say, okay, you do need to make an appointment, I need you to come in which in in kind of in some way. Delays here still. And so it makes it makes it different. So we tried to triage the patient over the phone, which is not necessarily a telemedicine format, but we try to triage them over the phone, and then our nursing staff is able to say okay, yes, you need to come in, or no, we can treat you you know, almost sight unseen, we will take you know, we will have people take pictures of rashes, things like that, that are not that are not passing. But for the most part we’re having patients come in at this point. Because, again, they need services that can only be done in person, and we’re just taking all the precautions of wearing our mask and and trying to keep our distance and keep our patients away from wanting to

Carl J. Cox 19:27

talk about your classroom down and last Christmas, right. You’re down there in New Mexico State. Do you foresee that 150 person lecture hall again, you know, and maybe ask question where it’s at capacity, wherever people are sitting like we we used to, you know, when do you When do you possibly First of all, do you see it coming back? And of course I know this is speculation so we’re not I’m not holding you to anything here but what’s just based on the medical side of things. What do you foresee happening like once again two years from now?

Dr. Scott Cyrus 19:59

Yeah. Two years from now I see, I think we’re going to have a vaccine for COVID. And its valence. I think it’s or its variants, I think we’re going to have probably a treatment much like we have a treatment for influenza. I think that even though the two viruses act very different, I still think our science is our ability to understand what our sciences and such like that we have that ability to, you know, be able to treat the patient. And I think that will be in our repertoire, we have abilities to treat her pedic diseases, we have the ability to treat other viruses that are affecting children and adults. And so look at the progress we’ve made with hepatitis C, which is a virus or, or the HIV virus. So we have that knowledge, it just gonna take time. And I know there’s, there’s companies out there that are researching this very issue right now. And so it’s a matter of that being marketed and brought to market as quickly as possible.

Carl J. Cox 21:10

So, outside of as well, the question is that the measure of success part, and you of course, have these two different parts of one is trying to develop and create pediatricians and they have this other side of actually being in the pediatrician and to having patients. So let’s talk about the teaching side, how do you measure success for yourself and trying to in the school environment and the teaching environment with students, and obviously, you have been recognized as a top performer when that which again, congratulations on that award the receipt last year? Tell me a little bit more about what do you what do you see? And how do you what what, how do you measure success on a maybe annual or regular basis for yourself and for the college?

Dr. Scott Cyrus 21:55

Well, thank you very much for that compliment. And, you know, the way I look at success is, the success to me is not in the in the person the successes in the product. And my product for me, is in the in really the long run when I’m teaching medical students. And I tell this to students, many, many times my success is measured in your patient. And they look at me like what do you mean, it’s not in me know, your success is in your patient outcome? How well can you care for a patient? That’s where my focus is? It’s the world of medicine is not about me, it’s about my patients. And how well do they do in their health, not in their illnesses in their health? To me this decimal position, you know, it’s like he still said, you know, anybody can pick out disease, it’s the, it’s the health that we focus should be focused on is the healthy individual. And that’s why preventative care, especially in pediatrics is so important to me, but when teaching the students, you look at the student, and you say, you know, oh, you’re you’re doing very well, you’re focused, you’re you know, you’re staying on track and all that. But I’m here to tell you, it’s how you well do you do with your patients, that’s going to be your measure of success. And so when I, when we have student conversations, and they have, or they have troubles, I mean, you know, they may not be staying right on the straight and narrow. My focus is to say, what, how are you going to treat your patient, not? Not, you know, not, oh, I skipped class, or I did this, but when you when you skip class, you’re not affecting tissue, you’re affecting people that you someday care for. And so, if you don’t get the information, if you do, you know, we all do bad on to our exams. I mean, we’ve all had our troubles with exams. But it’s that person that gets up and says, I’m going to learn this material, if it takes me 10 times to learn it, I will learn it, and I will be able to apply it. And that’s what’s the focus because applying it means my patients will eventually do better because of my learning

Carl J. Cox 24:10

is certainly a lot more important than just forgetting a historical fact. Right? What happened?

Dr. Scott Cyrus 24:17

What was the who won the 1943 World Series?

Carl J. Cox 24:19

Well, that was a great answer I what you were talking about, I loved it as you were talking about this leading and lagging, the leading things that you’re doing today, showing up truly having competence and understanding. And then the outcome is your patients, you know, their patients health as a great analysis or understanding of the cause and effect that you’re trying to teach and and I appreciate you sharing about that because I think that’s often witness right. And this sometimes the near term focus for a student is I need to get an A right it’s like well, that’s not really the goal. I need I know you’re trying to get straight A’s or whatever it might be or to get, but the goal is to initially, that carry forward especially in medicine, nearly nearly, you know, if you’re flying or medicine or you know, these things where life and death is truly at risk, the critical importance of understanding, you know, we, we can get away and be sometimes lazy in business, right, we make a mistake, and at times, nothing’s gonna hurt, we might lose some money, we might lose some pride, but there’s not necessarily life and death outcome, but medicine, that is not acceptable, right, you know, to make mistakes, if you can afford it, you know, obviously, we’re not perfect, but we have to try.

Dr. Scott Cyrus 25:38

We’re not we’re not physicians are not perfect by any means. And we are, you know, I’ve always said that persistence pays off. If I don’t, if I don’t, you know, get the understanding the first time, I’m going to come back around and get the understanding the second time or the third time, or however many times it takes me to be able to allow my patients to be healthy. That is, to me The ultimate goal. And, and in, in, what’s interesting is, everybody’s definition of health is a little bit different. We can’t just collectively, you know, say, Okay, I’m going to put a group of, you know, 10 kids in a room and say, Okay, I’m going to put y’all on antibiotics, and everybody is going to be just fine. And when somebody may have high blood pressure, or may have a heart problem, you know, and so I would treat that person incorrectly. And again, what would be the dose and so all we do is we see one patient at a time, and we focus on their needs, and make sure that they can do what we asked them to do, if they can’t, we have to change, we have to, we have to modify what we’ve asked them to do. And I spend most of my time trying to help people work things out in their way of living. And that’s, that’s the individualized care and compassion that each position if they don’t have, should have for their patients. And that’s what I teach my students that at the Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine

.

Carl J. Cox 27:14

This is a factory that we’re running out of time here, because I want to ask you about 15 more questions, but you’re asking like two more. One is in your personal side at how have you How did you pull off traveling from place to place? What What do you do on a regular basis to keep give yourself the energy, right, so you can successfully deliver great services both at a college level and practicing physicians.

Dr. Scott Cyrus 27:41

If I could give one piece of advice to the entire world, and that is, if you don’t like what you’re doing change. And medicine gave me that ability to do that. And if you want to modify your your world do so my dad gave me a piece of advice one time, he said, the world is a stage as long as you pay for yourself upright, in his paper, paper yourself upright meant your college education, your medical school education or your business education. My sister was a teacher and she went back to law school and now as a judge, that these stages, these world stages are not given to you. You have to you have to have the right credentials to be a part of that. But when you do, if you decide that you don’t like what you do, go change. You know, that’s the compassion that I like to see in taking care of kids. But on the other side of it is the also the stick to itiveness to go over on the other side and teach the the medical students, the ones that are the brilliant minds of today, to teach them how to get to the stage of being able to apply what they know. And do it with compassion do with being individualized. And it just gives you when you have that passion. You know, to me that’s really what drives you to do what you want to do. And I enjoy it. I really do I enjoy it. I do a lot of laughing I do I have a lot of fun. You know, I had a little boy today just today. He said I said okay, I will see you later he said I pay I’ll see you later love you. And his mother turns into issues that he says that to everybody. And I said now you know why I do what I do.

Carl J. Cox 29:39

That is a wonderful that is a great answer, by the way. So thank you for sharing that. I always like to ask somebody whose favorite book or or recent book he is, like you talked about your current book is like okay, like three people reading that book as

Dr. Scott Cyrus 29:58

I told you earlier. The book I’m reading right now is how to remediate the struggling medical students. And, and, and because, again, we’re invested in those medical students, they’ve invested a lot of time, a lot of energy and a lot of money, if you will, getting into med school. And so to to know that they are, we want them to be successful and how successful they are, is, is obviously evident and how well they can care for patients. But when I was when I was really young, I’ve always enjoyed a book, it was called It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It. And it was, it was a sequel to a book called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. And, you know, when I look at developmental things, as we grow up, I was a part of a group of physicians and thought leaders out of Chicago. And the the idea was to understand how children think, and those formative years of one to four to one to five years of age, are extremely, extremely important on the on the brain. And we have this science now to show the trillions, literally trillions of connections that are being made in the brain as a child, as an infant is growing, those connections are being either made, or they’re being lost. And it’s so important to focus on those first five years, because again, what we’ve learned in those first five to six years of life, it really, really formed our entire adult life. And there’s a there’s a study out there about those those stressors in a child’s life, how they cause high blood pressure, and post depression and all the problems that we sometimes see in adulthood. But a lot of those can be taken care of, by focusing on All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

Carl J. Cox 31:58

Those are both great suggestions Dr. Cyrus, if you can give once again, that first book, by the way, I think is actually quite important. If you’re thinking about going into medical college, can you can read or you are teaching Can you repeat that one more time.

Dr. Scott Cyrus 32:12

It was called It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It 

Carl J. Cox 32:15

around that one that medical book, the medical care for,

Dr. Scott Cyrus 32:17

oh how to how to help them struggling medical students. That is how to remediate i think is either how to remediate or how to help the struggling medical students.

Carl J. Cox 32:27

Perfect, perfect, thank you. This has been fantastic. I really really have appreciated it. Thank you so much for for being on and being a guest with us today on the Measure Success Podcast, and whichever one else we’re wishing you the very best measure of success. And with Scott, thank you so much for being on today.

Dr. Scott Cyrus 32:48

Thank you. We were I really enjoyed it and and Carl, good luck to you and I just hope the best Wednesday as they as they’ve been staying is to stay positive and test negative.

Carl J. Cox 33:00

Amen to that alright, have a wonderful day. Take care.

Outro 33:05

Thanks for listening to the Measure Success Podcast. We’ll see you again next time to learn from the best. Remember to subscribe now to get future episodes.