Whither the Job Market?: - Johns Hopkins University Whiting School ...

couRTESy: HARRiS METHoDiST NoRTHWEST HoSPiTAL
alumni making news
A Hospital Head
Who Listens
On a recent afternoon after receiving an award
for corporate leadership from the Greater Dallas
Asian-American Chamber of Commerce—one
of several awards she has garnered in the last few
years—Winjie Miao ’98 returned home with an
11 x 17-inch foam-board headshot of herself.
“I was proud of the award, and flattered, but
what do you do with a giant poster of yourself?”
she laughs. “Maybe make a dartboard … or
cover a big bathroom wall.”
For someone who was recently appointed
president of Harris Methodist Northwest
Hospital, one of 13 acute-care hospitals under
the Texas Health resources (THr) umbrella,
Miao maintains a sense of humor and a centered
look at what is important to her—in her work
and her personal life.
And at 30 years old, Miao is one of the
youngest nationwide to hold such a post.
With a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering
from the Whiting School and a master’s
in health care administration from the University
of North Carolina, Miao jumped right into her
career, taking two stairs at a time. In 2000, she
joined THr at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas.
During her seven years there, she completed her
administrative residency and fellowship and
moved on to don several hats, including heading
up Oncology Services, Clinic Services, and—at
the tender age of 23—Planning and Construction.
In that role, she oversaw a $207 million
campus expansion plan, which included a new
bed tower; new diagnostic and treatment space;
new labs and a radiology department; a new
parking garage; and an additional hospital
building.
“I was lucky. I came around at the right
time,” she says, adding that her foundation in
6 JOHNs HOpkiNs ENGiNEERiNG WiNTER 2008
“…at the end of the day,
i make decisions based
on what is right for the
patient. you can’t go
wrong with that.”—Winjie Miao
biomedical engineering helped her land the
plum position.
“One of the most satisfying parts of overseeing
the expansion project at Presbyterian was
being able to use my engineering skills and
knowledge to figure out how all the pieces
would ultimately fit together,” she says. “When
you’re spending that much money to create
something new instead of simply replacing it
with a more state-of-the-art version, you want
to ask questions, create improved processes and
best practices, and ultimately, end up with a
hospital complex where function drives form,
instead of the other way around.
“No matter what project I am working on,
the key for me has invariably been my willingness
to listen. And at the end of the day, I make
decisions based on what is right for the patient.
You can’t go wrong with that.”
In her new post at Harris Methodist, she
has already added new technologically advanced
equipment and is looking
into creating a more
robust education program,
wooing more specialists
to the roster of
physicians, and continuing
to reach out to the
community through
programs like handhygiene
and CPr education,
car seat checks and
safety, and a health and wellness program for
seniors that includes line dancing. “Already, I
see how committed people are to this hospital
and its rapidly growing community,” she says.
“There is so much energy.”
Before falling asleep each night, Miao analyzes
her day. “I think about each conversation
I had and what I heard. I ponder the decisions I
made and the ones I will need to make. And I
always ask myself, ‘What can I learn from that?’”
What drives Miao in her work is knowing
that every decision, every idea, is a step toward
making the experiences of her patients—and
staff—as smooth and positive as possible. “No
one wants to be in the hospital; it can be terrifying
and painful,” Miao says. “But knowing
that I can impact an entire experience for a
patient—the big picture for that person and for
all of us—moves me to keep asking questions
and then, to go forward from there.”
—Victoria Tilney McDonough
from the archives
First or Not, Maryland
Hall a gem
In the beginning, there was gilman Hall—or
was it Maryland Hall? History grants gilman Hall
status as Homewood campus’s first academic
building, but there exists some speculation as to
which building actually first welcomed students.
There is no debate, however, as to Maryland
Hall’s role in putting the School of Engineering on
the map.
The school’s origins trace back to 1912,
when the Maryland State Legislature passed the
“Technical School Bill” that made it possible for
Johns Hopkins to establish the Department of
Applied Science and Advanced Technology, the
precursor to the School of Engineering. The state
of Maryland that same year agreed to pay for the
construction of two engineering-specific buildings
at the university’s new Homewood campus.
construction on Homewood’s first two academic
buildings, the Mechanical and Engineering
Building (later renamed Maryland Hall to honor
the state’s role in establishing the Whiting
School) and gilman Hall, began in 1913. The
Fixing Fick’s Law
Marc Donohue, the Whiting School’s vice dean
of research, places a cup of water on a table in
his office. A cherry-flavored Life Saver rests at
the bottom. “That’s diffusion,” he says, pointing
at the cup.
Donohue has been working to better understand
diffusion for nearly a decade. recently, he
and a team of colleagues shed new light on a
classic diffusion equation—known as Fick’s
Law—that has caused questions among mathematicians
and researchers for nearly a century.
“Einstein gave a lot of credence to the idea
that Fick’s Law is correct,” says Donohue, a
professor in the Department of Chemical and
Biomolecular Engineering. “But,” he concludes,
“his analysis of it was overly simplistic.”
First described by physiologist Adolf Fick
in 1855, Fick’s Law provides a mathematical
explanation for diffusion. Specifically, it holds
that during diffusion (the process by which
molecules randomly and gradually spread from
a high concentration to a low), the flux—or
rate—at which the molecules spread is proportional
to the concentration gradient.
FERDiNAND HAMBuRgER JR. ARcHivES oF THE JoHNS HoPKiNS uNivERSiTy