Stephen Porter to Lead Emergency Medicine in June
Stephen Porter, MD, MPH, MSc, has a pragmatic outlook on life, which has helped him immensely in his career as a pediatrician specializing in emergency medicine. It will doubtless come in handy when he assumes the role of director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s on June 1.
“The late tennis player, Arthur Ashe, used to say, ‘Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can,’” Porter explains. “That’s pretty much my life philosophy. It helps take something very big and stressful and boil it down to a more manageable size. It reminds you to look outside yourself at your teammates and know you’re not expected to do your work alone.”
Porter grew up in Terrace Park, where he lived the happy suburban Cincinnati life – riding his bike, attending Mariemont schools and then Summit Country Day. As a high school senior, he applied for the Washington University’s Scholars Program in Medicine.
“If you went through their program as an undergrad, you were guaranteed acceptance to their medical school,” he recalls. “When they asked why I wanted to be a doctor, I didn’t have a baby bird story to tell where I fixed a broken wing and felt inspired. But I loved biology class. The anatomy and physiology of how a living thing is put together and how it works fascinates me. I’m also a very social person. So medicine just felt like the right fit.”
Porter was accepted into the program and graduated from Washington University with a double major in biology and English Literature.
“I’m an avid reader and have always felt the power of words and the way an author weaves together a narrative. We are data-driven in medicine, but data alone is dry and sterile. Stories of care and compassion bring the data to life. You have to show the human side of things to inspire commitment.”
Porter went on to earn his MD from the UC College of Medicine (1993), his MPH in clinical effectiveness from the Harvard School of Public Health and his MSc in human factors/information design from the McCallum School of Business at Bentley University in Massachusetts. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Boston Children’s. He served on the faculty there and at Harvard for 15 years until 2010, when he was hired to direct the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Porter was attracted to emergency medicine because, “it puts you in the thick of it. The ED is the open door of the hospital to the community at large. You have no idea what’s going to be coming through that door at any given time,” he says. “And every eight hours, there’s a different group of people working together. Every time I worked a shift, I would meet a new learner with whom I’d have to forge a new mentoring connection.”
He is looking forward to working at Cincinnati Children’s. “As a native son, I’ve always kept my eye on it,” he says. “I was impressed with the quality improvement efforts, with the early adoption of the Pursuing Perfection initiative. Even from hundreds of miles away, the excellence here has been very clear – the spirit of collaboration, of improvement and clinical excellence. Academic medicine tends to happen in silos, with individuals pursuing their own successes. It’s different here.”
Porter will be looking to the 2020 Strategic Plan to see what role Emergency Medicine should play. He believes in visible leadership and working alongside his team to understand firsthand what they experience.
“Cincinnati Children’s is already outstanding,” he says. “The staff have a great deal of talent. What I hope I can bring is a fresh perspective, to ask questions – not to undo things but to determine the best options, the best paths. I’m excited to have the chance to work with people who are passionate about doing their very best for kids.”
Porter succeeds Richard Ruddy, MD, who served as division director for 24 years. Special thanks to Joe Luria, MD, who acted as interim division director while the search for Ruddy’s successor was conducted.
