Dustin Leigh
Please tell us why you want to be a Finch Fellow
The Finch Fellowship offers an outstanding opportunity to lean into my medical background, pairing this with innovative approaches to novel device development with an ultimate goal of transforming clinical practice through improved patient outcomes. My experience in the Valuation Laboratory both domestically and globally (Sweden) truly was a light bulb moment for a future career pathway. These courses facilitated high level project engagement amongst individuals with broad expertise in health care. I foresee this fellowship as an excellent opportunity to reinforce key understandings of emerging medical innovations. This experience would aid in further development of a skill set and knowledgebase to bring back to my healthcare system to optimize new approaches to patient care and device implementation in practice. Additionally, several of my colleagues and I had such a transformative experience in the Lab that we have continued monthly meetings, discussing concepts of this course and how to best create our own start-up company within the healthcare sector. This fellowship would certainly help to create a space for success. Feedback sought from previous graduates of this fellowship have been universally positive. Should the chance to train in this program arise, I would hope to ensure this experience persist through collaboration and educational experience between Carlson, the University of Minnesota Medical School, and med tech industry hoping to increase value derived by the regions patients.
Where do you see yourself five years after graduation? How will your participation as a Fellow impact that plan?
Within 5 years following graduation, I plan to utilize the competences of this Fellowship to advance to a leadership position within my healthcare system to optimize novel approaches to patient care both with regard to clinical practice and medical device implementation. Through mentorship, unique projects, and collaborative efforts amongst inventors and colleagues bringing a breadth of expertise, I believe this fellowship will help to achieve this primary goal. Secondarily, and on a more personal level, I hope to gain a further understanding of how to best develop a concept or idea, transforming this into a successful business. The global Valuation Lab in Stockholm, Sweden helped create exposure to numerous startup companies at varying points in their companies’ journey. This experience was invigorating and inspiring, pushing my colleagues and myself to want to create our own business contributing to the advancement of medical care. Lastly, I believe this fellowship with further enhance networking opportunities and connections within the med tech space. My passion lies within education. This exposure will help to facilitate my goal of increased collaboration between the hospital system with Carlson. Working with MILI leadership, I hope to create a course with clinical offerings to future leaders of the healthcare industry. A portion of this would be to expose MBA/MHA students with little patient care to real-time device use in hopes of stimulating novel thought on approaches to patient care in a non-traditional educational format. This fellowship would help to build upon my educational skills to ensure ideal learning experiences for futures leaders in the graduate programs.