Alumni stories

Tin-Na Kan, MD

head shot of a women wearing gray jacket and red floral shirt

Since completing my Anesthesiology residency at UCSF, I have worked as a clinical anesthesiologist and Senior partner at The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) in Northern California. Despite going into private practice, I have continued throughout this time to pursue my clinical interests in ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia and team-based medical simulation for patient care improvement.

From many years of mentorship and collaboration with Dr. Andrew Gray, I was able to help establish a vibrant regional program at South San Francisco (SSF) Kaiser Hospital that has been expanded upon by Dr. Chris Webb and Dr. Edward Yap, both SSF colleagues that received their regional anesthesia fellowship training from UCSF. 

My experience working with Dr. Manuel Pardo to establish UCSF’s simulation center during medical school and residency provided the foundation to developing a team-based, interprofessional perioperative simulation program, Critical Events Team Training (CETT), for several different Kaiser Permanente (KP) hospitals. More recently, I have served as a founder and director of TAPSS: TPMG Anesthesia Perioperative Simulation at Samuel Merritt University. This novel collaboration with SMU has just received ASA endorsement this year to provide personalized, hands-on, high fidelity simulation training to practicing anesthesiologists that fulfills MOCA QI requirements. 

When not directly taking care of patients in the OR, I have explored another passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in medicine. Having diverse role models at UCSF provided the personal inspiration to advocate for more diverse representation in the field of Anesthesiology to take the best care of an increasingly diverse patient population.  I currently serve on the EID Council at SSF Kaiser Hospital. 

I have also been actively involved in the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA), serving as an SOE and Applied Examiner since 2011. In the Fall of 2023, I was elected to the ABA Board of Directors. While on the Board, I will focus on the continued evolution of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and serve as the Director Liaison to the very first DEI Advisory group, helping to weave DEI into the fabric of the ABA, from assessments and continuing certification to examiner representation. 

 

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