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Meet the Board: Grace C. Wright, MD, PhD, on Being Open to Discovery
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Grace C. Wright, MD , PhD, is a wanderer at heart. As an avid traveler and sampler of local cuisines, Wright, a clinical associate professor of medicine and the NYU School of Medicine, stresses the importance of exploring new spaces with an open mind, and walking whenever, and wherever, you can.
An attending physician at NYU Langone Health and current president of the Association of Women in Rheumatology, Wright prides herself on treating patients efficiently, allowing them to return to their lives and communities. She is also a proponent of greater representation in the upper echelons of the rheumatology field, stating that increased diversity will help shrink health care disparities among patients. She is also a member of the Healio Rheumatology Editorial Board.
Wright recently sat with Healio Rheumatology to discuss travel and openness to exploration and discovery.
Q : What do you enjoy doing when you a re not practicing medicine?
Wright : I like to travel to enjoy food and architecture. I really travel with an open and curious mind. I enjoy the element of discovery, whether stumbling upon a 14th century building or a modern skyscraper. As for food, I believe the culture of a place is evident in the cuisine — what one eats and how one eats. So as I travel, I eat with and where locals eat. It’s about discovery. I also enjoy the many fusion cuisines and farm-to-table movement. I love mostly everything, except sea urchins – I explored, I tried it, I hated it.
Q : If you had not pursued medicine and eventually rheumatology, what would you have done?
Wright : Organometallic chemistry — my first love. I always loved chemistry. It was my favorite subject in high school, and I particularly loved organic chemistry. In college, I was a chemistry-biochemistry double major, and really planned to get a PhD in chemistry. I shifted from graduate school to medical school because of the human element. I wanted to understand science from the human perspective. Chemistry helped me understand and think about processes. As one professor taught: “Become the molecule.” Today, as a rheumatologist interacting with complex cytokine systems, it still helps to become the molecule. As the doctor treating patients, it helps to become the patient, to see the world through their eyes and to create a conversation that works for that patient.
Q : Whom do you consider a mentor?
Wright : I did not have a mentor in the true sense of the word. Instead, I had sequential relationships throughout my career, and life, that have helped form various aspects of who and what I am.
Q : What has been your biggest professional challenge?
Wright : Convincing myself I could do or be something, when there was no one that “looked like me” in the space. The world has improved, and diversity has increased, but as a Caribbean-American woman, it is still a far cry from equal in its diversity. Diversity at the top drives diversity in the pipeline. We need patients to have multiple points of connectivity in health care. It helps to feel understood in your world (culture, gender, etc.), and this may in fact have greater impacts on health outcomes. I firmly believe that health disparities will lessen as we increase diversity and access to care.
Q : If you could go back in time, what piece of advice would you give your younger self?
Wright : Don’t be afraid to be the only one. Follow your passion, devote yourself to excellence and be careful of the voices you listen to. These are common voices that say, “You’re not good enough,” or “You’ll never be the expert.” There were always people telling me it was impossible, that women don’t do that, and that black people don’t do that. It takes self-confidence and commitment to ignore those voices. Obviously, I did, but I would've spent less energy on that.
Q : What would you consider one of your biggest successes in your specialty?
Wright : The ability to treat patients effectively and restore their engagement in their communities — at home and work. The impact of biologics in rheumatology is unquestioned. I entered practice just before this and went from watching wheelchairs proliferate as a fellow, to watching them disappear, in the period of a decade. It was pretty remarkable. Preventing the disability that seemed so inevitable has made a huge impact in this specialty.
Q : What do you think will have the biggest influence on rheumatology in the next 10 years?
Wright : Improved access to effective therapies where reasonable cost and affordability become realities for everyone. We invest a significant amount of time fighting to get care for patients. Imagine a world in which that time was reinvested on the patient. I suspect the lives of doctors and patients would change dramatically. Burnout would lessen, and outcomes would improve. The burden of health, both creating it and receiving it, can be overwhelming.
Q : What kind of diet and exercise regimen do you have?
Wright : I try to enjoy the local food, wherever I am, and walk, wherever I find myself. I am open to all cuisines.
Q : What is your favorite restaurant?
Wright : Tough question — I enjoy too many things! However, my favorite was a local Roman-Italian restaurant that was chef owned. It felt like my special kitchen. The chef would always make a special dish for me. The selections were fresh and fabulous, and the pastas were homemade, especially the truffle-parmesan pasta special. Sadly, they are both no longer with us. I am still working to replace this.
Q : What is the last art collection you saw ? Why, and what did you think of it?
Wright : The last museum was the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. However, the Sorolla Collection in Madrid impressed me with the complexity of the color white.
Q : What is your favorite travel destination?
Wright : Again, too many choices. I think I am a wanderer at heart. However, I’ll always remember South Africa, as it really touched my heart with its natural beauty and the resolve of its people.
Q: What would you be doing now if you hadn’t gone into medicine?
Wright : International business and world health policy. My mother was a pharmacist involved in regional health in Jamaica, so I was interested in world health and health policy at an early age. I travelled to China and South Africa as a young rheumatologist, and was really impressed with the need for policy that addresses the totality of care for a population, factoring in prevalent diseases, infections, cuisine, etc. International business and health policy are for me two sides of the same coin — delivering the therapies and creating the policies that give access
For more information :
Grace C. Wright , MD, PhD, can be reached at 345 E37th St., Ste. 303C, New York, NY, 10016; email: gcwright.md@gmail.com.
Disclosure: Wright reports no relevant financial disclosures.