“Academic medicine is one of the best places for faculty, staff, and students to explore their passions and discover new opportunities,” says Thomas Chi, M.D., MBA, chair of the Department of Urology at UAB. With experience spanning three major universities, Chi has seen how a few guiding principles can shape careers and sustain momentum. He recently shared these insights at the Heersink Faculty Leadership Seminar, hosted by the Heersink School of Medicine Office of Access & Engagement Asian American and Pacific Islander Faculty Association, which aims to equip faculty with skills to lead, mentor, and grow in academic medicine.
His five lessons are:
Thomas Chi, M.D., MBA
- Care more about the problem than the solution
- Learn to see the possibilities
- Integrate your life
- Reinvent yourself every 10 years
- Think about your time horizon
Background on Dr. Chi
Chi has long embraced curiosity and thinking outside the box. He earned degrees in human biology, music, and sociology at Stanford before completing his M.D., residency, and fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Most recently, he added an MBA from the Wharton School of Business. Now a urologist and innovator, he has developed ambulatory surgery centers, ultrasound courses, and new treatments for kidney stones and prostate care. His success, he notes, is rooted not only in family encouragement but also in the mentors and colleagues who guided him along the way.
Lesson 1: Care more about the problem than the solution
At UCSF, Chi worked with Emil Tanagho, M.D., who urged him not to get tied to a single solution, but rather to fasten himself to problems worth pursuing. Tanagho also believed that ideas dismissed as “bad” might be the very ones worth investigating.
That mindset shaped Chi’s research on whether fruit flies could develop kidney stones, a theory many considered far-fetched. Pursuing the question led to models in flies and mice, new insights into disease pathways, and ultimately a clinical trial showing fewer and smaller stones in patients, a success he credits to Tanagho’s advice.
Lesson 2: Learn to see the possibilities
Chi recalls advice from Joyce Love, a member of the UAB School of Medicine Board of Visitors: successful people see possibilities where others see barriers. That wisdom guided him when he met Jiang Xing Li, a Chinese urologist performing thousands of kidney stone surgeries using ultrasound instead of X-ray. “When I saw that, I said, ‘That’s amazing, but we’ll never be able to do that [in America],’” Chi reflects.
However, after visiting Li in China to observe the procedure, he saw the potential. He then created training models that directly mimicked Li’s hand movements, which shortened the learning curve for the procedure significantly. Now, thanks to Li’s mentorship and Chi’s ability to see the possibilities, this method is widely used in U.S. operating rooms.
Lesson 3: Integrate your life
From neurosurgeon Eddie Chang, M.D., Chi learned that progress comes from integration rather than strict separation. Chang turned his operating room into a laboratory, blending clinical care with discovery instead of dividing them.
Chi has applied the same approach, using ultrasound as the thread connecting his work in kidney stones, prostates, and device development. Building programs that link patient care, biospecimen collection, outcome studies, and therapeutic innovation creates coherence across projects. Integration, rather than fragmentation, has allowed for progress in Chi’s work that is both more efficient and more impactful.
Lesson 4: Reinvent yourself every 10 years
World-renowned urologist Tom Lue, M.D., taught Chi that reinvention is essential in academic medicine, noting that “your ideas may be getting stale” if you don’t. Over decades, Lue advanced from studying basic penis physiology to pioneering new drug delivery methods and therapies, reshaping his career every decade.
Chi found that message resonated with his own path. He moved from fruit fly research to ultrasound innovation to solving operational challenges, eventually pursuing an MBA to add business tools to his clinical work. “That’s what I love about academic medicine,” Chi says. “You can come in at the beginning of your journey and leave at the end two completely different people, with completely different impacts.”
Lesson 5: Think about your time horizon
Steve Nakada, M.D., encouraged Chi to think beyond the next year and consider his impact over a decade. Looking back, Chi could trace his own journey in 10-year arcs.
This perspective also helped him identify which urgent tasks were distracting from meaningful, long-term goals. At the heart of this lesson, Chi notes that impact is measured through the people you have worked with, creating ripples that last well after one’s own career.
Dreaming big in academic medicine
Together, Chi’s five lessons call on everyone in academic medicine—whether faculty, student, or resident—to dream big. For Chi, the privilege of this journey is finding great people, building new stories together, and aiming for impact that lasts far beyond any one career.
As Ambika Ashraf, division director for Pediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes at UAB and program director for the AAPI Faculty Association, explains, “This lecture series is about building a generation of health care leaders who don’t just lead from the front, but also with heart, humility, and a deep respect for every voice, every story, and every background.”
To view the recording of Chi’s session, click here. To receive updates on future Heersink Faculty Leadership Seminars, sign up for the Heersink Office of Access & Engagement mailing list here.