Dr. Jasmine Wong

Saffanat Sumra: To start off, if you were to reflect on your journey from medical school and residency all the way to this point, what is one thing that you know now that you wish you would have known during training?  

Dr. Jasmine Wong: I think the big thing is that this career can truly be anything that you want it to be. When we go through this process, it is a much more organized process. You go to college, at some point you decide you're going to go into medicine, and then you have to follow, to a certain degree, a prescribed track of classes. You suddenly have to think, “Okay, I'm going to need to take these classes. What is my major going to be? Is it going to complement what I want to do for medical school, or is it going to be something completely different?” And then you do the science stuff kind of on top of it. And then there's the MCAT. Then you get to medical school and you start to realize all the things that you have to do or need to do in order to get into residency. 

I think it was really easy for me to believe that you just follow this track and you come out and then you become the physician of whatever type that you want to be. I don't know that anybody ever told me about all of the different options and things that could happen in your career, despite the fact that you had to take all these science classes and you had to do all the things that non-medical people may not have had to do. 

I don't think that I necessarily fully realized that I had more options and more opportunities within the medical field than what I wanted. 

So, I think the message is really like, you want to be a doctor, and that's great. But even within this medical field, there are so many more options that we aren't necessarily aware of. Personally, I never necessarily envisioned being a surgeon. But I went through medical school and realized that I do like surgery, that I am capable of surgery. I didn't have a whole lot of female role models, even through medical school, that gave me that influence. So, I'm really happy at UCSF that there are so many female surgeons and mentors that can show you that it can be done. 

You mentioned that I just recently got in this role within the general surgery department in the residency program. I don't know if I necessarily came into any of this thinking that I was interested in having a more education-focused role. But you take the chance to try something to see if you're going to like it or not like it. And then you take opportunities that come to you. And sometimes they're opportunities that you try, and you're like, "This isn't really for me." Then there are other opportunities that you take, and you do find yourself liking it and saying, "This is my place." I think being open to changing what you think you want is also important-- realizing that this can go any which way that you want it to. 

If you look at just all the different female surgeons or any surgeon at UCSF, everyone's day and everyone's week and everyone's life is a little bit different. There are some people that do a ton of research and some people that do all clinical, and there are some people that focus a lot on education. There are some people that do a little mix of both. So, I just think that I didn't realize that there would be that many opportunities to change, to pivot, to do something different than what I thought I had signed up for. 

Saffanat Sumra: That is very true, thank you for sharing. So, if not surgery, what would you be doing? 

Dr. Jasmine Wong: So, does this mean within medicine or in general? 

Saffanat Sumra: This is in general, doesn't have to be in medicine. 

Dr. Jasmine Wong: I think if I hadn't gone into medicine, in my second career, I think what would be really fun is something like event planning, because I think that it touches on the things that I like about surgery in the sense that you're interacting with people, you're helping people reach their goals. I would like to have this event planned, and I want it to kind of look like this, or I have this vision, which I think surgery sometimes is, like you're helping somebody tangibly. I think the idea of tangible and defined goals-- that event is happening on this day. There are these things that have to happen before then. All these things that need to be accounted for. But along the way, you get to talk to a lot of different people, bounce ideas back and forth. There's a lot of potential collaboration, kind of evolving to a certain degree. I think that it would be fun to plan different events. I would definitely need somebody on the design end and the creativity end of making things look nice, but I think it'd be really fun. 

Because then you finish an event, you have this successful moment, and then you restart the next thing you know, and start the whole process over again. And then there's always that little bit of adrenaline rush, the same with surgery, where things don't go exactly according to plan, that you know, you got to think on your feet and figure out, you know, what's option B, make some contingency plans. Then there's all the fun of the event, just like there's the fun of surgery, of actually doing whatever it is that you're doing.  

Saffanat Sumra: I think it's a great parallel. I never thought about event planning like that, but I see the parallels. Amazing. Thank you for answering that. And then what impact has mentorship had on your surgical career in general? 

Dr. Jasmine Wong: Oh, I think it has impacted me in multiple ways. I think that having people along the way gives me new perspectives. I think that as I was meeting different surgeons and different people, you realize there are these different options that can happen and that you can do different things. Like my mentor from residency is a breast surgeon, and she was amazing. She showed me how amazing breast surgery could be and all the different things that you can do. And then she's now the chair at Loma Linda University where I did residency, but she also went back and got her MBA. And so I think examples like her remind us that even though we're in medicine, it doesn't prevent us from pursuing other things. I mean, not necessarily always has to be another degree, but I think that degree has also helped her. It brings other perspectives into her newish role as the chair. She guided me during residency, and we still talk a lot. She still, I think, is clinically active, but at the same time, she's also had to make the choice that maybe she's not as clinically active as she was before, because now she has new responsibilities. 

Other mentors have also connected me to other people. Dr. Esserman has been a mentor for me here. She has connected me to opportunities that I wouldn't have had without her. I'm currently the PI for a clinical trial looking at an imaging device-- ClearEdge. Without her connections and her realizing that she doesn't have the time to do it-- she could have easily said she doesn't have the time for that, but she chose to give me that opportunity to run this trial and experience what it's like to be a PI. So I think mentorship is not only guiding your way but helping us make connections and sometimes giving us opportunities we wouldn't have been able to access on our own. 

It gives you chances to learn things, connect to people, and explore new ideas. I still talk to my mentor from Loma Linda regularly, and if I need a different perspective outside of UCSF, she's always one person that comes to mind. It also benefited her over time when she says, "Can you help advocate for this from a different part of California?" It's good to have people you can go back to. As we progress in our careers, what information and advice we need changes. But it's always good to have sounding boards and to pick up new people along the way. 

At some point, you start to become the sounding board for those behind you. People like Dr. Esserman have also reminded me that I need to start thinking about how I can be a mentor for others and what aspects of mentorship do you think I could be helpful in. We all mentor in different ways, recognizing where your strengths are and where you might be able to help people. This has helped me recognize that there are limitations to what we can provide to others and knowing who to send people to is also important. 

Saffanat Sumra: It's almost like a cycle. You have your mentor, and now they're teaching you how to mentor others, too. But it's implied because you're learning these things from them and passing them on. 

Dr. Jasmine Wong: Yes, exactly. 

Saffanat Sumra: Great. One last question—beyond medicine, what are your hobbies outside of the hospital? 

Dr. Jasmine Wong: I like to travel. I like to travel to different places and check things out. As I have traveled more, I’ve started to appreciate the idea of traveling more slowly. Sometimes, you don’t have to have a whole agenda. You can plan to do one thing and then just see where the day takes you. When I was younger, traveling was about checking off things to do. But now, I enjoy traveling in a more relaxed way. My sister and I started doing a "sisters trip" last year. We travel a lot, but we’ve never just traveled the two of us. So, we're trying to keep this tradition going every year. It's been nice—just doing one thing and then deciding if we want to sit at a café, chat, and enjoy the day. Traveling has been a big one, and I've learned to travel differently. 

I like to stay active, so I'll try different things. I enjoy playing pickleball, which I picked up during the pandemic. I’m not super competitive, but I enjoy running around with friends, getting exercise, and hitting the ball around. I also like hiking, but I don’t love long hikes. I prefer 3 to 6-mile hikes—just getting outside, enjoying nature, and the Bay Area. My dogs are a big part of my life. You saw Java. My other dog is sleeping on the ground. I spend time with them, including them in activities. If I don’t give them that experience, no one else will. They’re great for my mental health and company. 

Saffanat Sumra: That's beautiful. Traveling, staying active, and spending time with your dogs, Java and Jax. 

Dr. Jasmine Wong: Yes. 

Saffanat Sumra: Amazing. That brings us to the end of this interview. Thank you so much, Dr. Wong!