Meet The Disruptors: Dr Steve Yun On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
Kindness is always a choice. — Most of us, especially myself, by nature, are not kind. But when I say that kindness is a choice, I’m saying that we as human beings can change our behavior by making a deliberate and conscious decision when we have that choice, to be kind. Every day we encounter difficult patients or difficult people. Our instinct is to react defensively to react negatively. But you never know what that person has gone through, what that patient has suffered, or what they might feel. I always try to remember that kindness is a choice. I don’t have to respond in a negative manner. I can make the decision to be kind. It’s something I try to practice every day because every day I’m dealing with difficult situations or people not at their best because they are in a painful or uncomfortable situation like surgery. They’re dealing with the fear of undergoing a procedure or receiving anesthesia. They need a little kindness.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Yun, M.D.
Dr. Steve Yun is Board-Certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology and Certified in Adult and Pediatric Advanced Life Support. He received his B.S. with Honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his M.D. with Honors from the University of Southern California in 1996, followed by three years of additional training in Anesthesiology at the UCLA Medical Center. He has been in private practice since 2000. He is also the medical director for Kure, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based ketamine clinic that takes a different approach to behavioral health treatment by focusing on the patient’s whole being — mind, body and spirit.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The son of first-generation immigrants from Korea. We were the typical American story. My parents worked hard to give us better opportunities and always valued education, especially medical education. From a very early age, they impressed upon me that I should take advantage of the opportunities here and pursue my education as far as possible, ideally with a medical degree. Fortunately, I’ve been able to do that and received my undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin before relocating to Southern California. I started my family and career in California. I first went to USC for medical school, then did my anesthesiology residency at the UCLA Medical Center. Even though my career path has obviously focused on anesthesiology, I’ve always had a strong interest in and a natural skill level toward psychiatric issues. I have always enjoyed my psychiatric rotations and was fascinated with the mind and body connection. Anesthesia reflects that connection. As an anesthesiologist, we profoundly impact the body and cognitive function and how the brain responds to stressful situations by delivering medicines into the central nervous system in the brain.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Providing ketamine treatment itself is disruptive as it is thinking outside the box and providing a novel solution or adjunct to traditional psychiatric therapy. Ketamine clinics are revolutionizing the field of healthcare in that regard. Kure specifically is disrupting the ketamine industry and sets itself apart from other ketamine fusion providers by looking at the complete person and providing comprehensive care from the start of the infusion to well after the patient goes home — one, two, or five years after they see us at our clinic.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
It’s not a mistake but one funny part of my job is seeing patients when they wake up from anesthesia. Many people are familiar with propofol, which produces sleep or hypnosis and is used by anesthesiologists daily. Many people don’t know that propofol has been reported to have aphrodisiac qualities. So, I have had several experiences of patients waking up from the anesthesia believing they are in love with me. You can imagine how awkward and humorous these situations might be and how confusing it may be for a patient just waking up after surgery. These experiences have taught me that no matter what situation we are going through or how confusing our circumstances are, we can always find some humor.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
One of my mentors is the legendary anesthesiologist Dr. Philip Larson, the former chair of anesthesiology at Stanford and with whom I had the honor of working at UCLA. He was one of my professors when I was training at UCLA, and he was the rare combination of the scholarly academic physician who could do research, knew the research protocols knew how to conduct scientific studies, but at the same time had the clinical skills of the sharpest private practice anesthesiologist. He combined the best of both worlds — academia and private practice. He was able to stimulate and challenge me from a scholarly point of view and challenge my clinical skills to improve my practices and help me become more efficient.
A second mentor of mine was Dr. Ronald Wender, who was the longtime Chair of anesthesiology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, a well-known hospital in Beverly Hills. What impressed me about Dr. Wender was that when we first met, I was a lowly resident and he was chairman of the department. But he went out of his way to ensure I felt welcome and see how I was doing. He took a personal interest in ensuring I was developing as an anesthesiologist and person. He was also gracious enough to share his stories, challenges, and problems he’d encountered during his career. He has been a tremendous mentor for me as I’ve evolved my private practice.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Being disruptive for the sake of being disruptive is never productive or useful. In the medical field, when we are being disruptive, we do so with the goal of patient safety. We’re trying to improve things for the patient. And if your actions are truly in line with that goal, with no other motives, but to ultimately improve patient safety, then it is beneficial and helpful to be a disruptive influence. All the major medical advances have come about because doctors decided to be disruptive.
Historically, one of the classic examples is Dr. William Lister, the inspiration for Listerine. His disruptive practice was to wash his hands and disinfect the surgical site before surgery. We take that for granted now. But in the 1800s when he proposed this idea, it was completely disruptive. And contrary to popular medical opinion, people thought he was a quack. But he was focused on improving patient safety, he saw all these patients dying after successful surgeries from infection. And he answered the question of why this was happening by thinking in a disruptive way to answer the question and improve patient safety. He didn’t do it for fame. He didn’t do it for money. His only goal was to make sure his patients survived the surgery. Again, you look at almost any major medical advance — they have come about because of the disruptive, revolutionary physicians who decide to think outside the box and ask how they could improve patient safety.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
There are only two pieces of advice I try to live by. They are:
In a crisis, there is opportunity.
The most recent example is the COVID pandemic. Almost overnight, we had to change how we think about medicine and practice. But with that crisis, our medical practices improved and are now stronger.
Kindness is always a choice.
Most of us, especially myself, by nature, are not kind. But when I say that kindness is a choice, I’m saying that we as human beings can change our behavior by making a deliberate and conscious decision when we have that choice, to be kind. Every day we encounter difficult patients or difficult people. Our instinct is to react defensively to react negatively. But you never know what that person has gone through, what that patient has suffered, or what they might feel. I always try to remember that kindness is a choice. I don’t have to respond in a negative manner. I can make the decision to be kind. It’s something I try to practice every day because every day I’m dealing with difficult situations or people not at their best because they are in a painful or uncomfortable situation like surgery. They’re dealing with the fear of undergoing a procedure or receiving anesthesia. They need a little kindness.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Currently, Kure focuses on ketamine infusion but there are a host of supplements and medications outside of ketamine that can be given intravenously, providing the best absorption. These include vitamin supplements, immune supplements, etc. These supplements and medications can help patients in terms of mental health, physical health, and immune function. Eventually, we would like to see Kure extend its focus beyond mental health issues to the entire body in terms of physiological function.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
I’m a bookworm, so for me, books are the most profound influences on my way of thinking. One book that has had the deepest impact on my thinking is “Better” by Harvard surgeon Atul Gawande. In his book, Gawande describes all the different ways that everyone, even experts in their field can find ways to improve their practice. For example, what do professional athletes have to help them improve? They have coaches. But how often do we hear of doctors having coaches? But what if they did? How would that help them become even better at their practice? Maybe it’s a good idea for doctors to occasionally have someone observe what they’re doing. To give tips, constructive criticisms, or feedback on how to improve. Just because a doctor finishes their training doesn’t mean they stop improving. If you’re not constantly trying to improve, especially in medicine, where things are changing so fast, you’re going backward. This is just one of the simple ideas that Dr. Gawande shares in his book, “Better.”
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I was among the few kids who took Latin as a foreign language in high school. I was deeply affected by my Latin teacher and the quote he always had in his room, which he impressed upon us, was the mock-Latin aphorism, illegitimatus non carborundum. It often translates to “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” I’ve taken this quote to heart. In life, you are always going to meet negative people. You’ll meet people who do not have your best interests at heart. But it doesn’t matter. You can’t let those kinds of people get you down and affect what you’re trying to do. You must find ways to rise above that. So, the quote that has always been relevant to my life is illegitimatus non carborundum.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
We need a profound revolution in our educational system and how we think. Anything outside of education and the ability to think can be taken away. As a society, we can give away money, homes, jobs healthcare, and these are all laudable, but they can be taken away. They can all dissipate. They can all be squandered and wasted. But the one gift we can give people that can never be taken away and that can produce lifelong benefits is the ability to think and learn. So, it is imperative that we revolutionize our educational system so that every American gets the gift of a true education, where they’re not just simply learning facts and reciting tables and arithmetic, but they are truly given the skills to think critically and ind. That is something that they can use and keep for the rest of their lives. It can never be taken away from them. That would be my ultimate dream — the gift of education and the ability to think and learn.
How can our readers follow you online?
www.instagram.com/kuremedicalgroup
www.instagram.com/drsteveyun/?hl=en
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
