Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Humans of Pre-Health Emory (HOPHE): Dr. Colleen Kraft



Dr. Colleen Kraft is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine as well as the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. As a practicing physician at Emory Hospital and researcher at Clinical Virology Research Laboratory, she has constantly been proven as a source of knowledge during both the Ebola virus outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic. In February, she has been appointed to Governor Brian Kemp’s Coronavirus Task Force and serves as an advocate for the prevention of the spread of the disease.

Could you talk about your background and how you have come to enter your profession?

I have always been interested in the health sciences, so I pursued Biology in college and then was accepted to a Ph/D, MD, and a Master of Public Health program as a college senior because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew that I really liked research, but I didn’t know if I wanted to see patients or not.

So, talking about that, previously you have touched on your passion for microbiology. How have your past experiences inspired you to pursue your current career and are you still able to practice that in your everyday work?

I ended up rounding in the Microbiology Laboratory as an Infectious Disease Fellow and that’s where I fell in love with the clinical laboratory because of the very structured, regulated environment. You are central to patient care with diagnostics.   I decided to apply to a medical Microbiology Fellowship after my Infectious Disease Fellowship. During the pandemic, I’ve been working on the healthcare samples 7 days a week and figuring out a process for how we prioritize test for COVID-19, and I enjoy that!

What excites you the most about your career?

I was drawn to it because I like service to my fellow humankind; but, especially service in the way of getting the best diagnosis for the patient and being a liaison between the clinical and laboratory realms. That’s my happy place. Being a translator for the laboratory to understand why clinicians are asking for certain things and then allowing clinicians to learn about the laboratory. It’s not just a result in the chart. There is a lot of thinking and regulation that goes behind it. We do Monday through Friday microbiology rounds with the clinical teams to try and teach this- making them better doctors and diagnosticians as future practitioners

That’s so cool that you’re able to practice something you’re passionate about every day with your job! Speaking of your appointment to the Task Force for COVID-19, how has that experience compared to your time spent advising and studying during the Ebola crisis?

During the Ebola crisis, I was a clinician and I did a lot of clinical care and then tried to build some research off of that. The interesting thing about this time is with COVID-19, I have had the opportunity to participate in political and advocacy work, which I really enjoy a lot!

Yes, that’s so awesome and, actually, leads me to your next question. So I did some research on your role during the Ebola crisis and found where you stated that during that time you were “looking at the complexity of situations that physicians are faced with and thinking what we are doing in our everyday healthcare that puts physicians at risk and puts our patients at risk. And how do we identify that and train around that?” I thought that this highlighted the growing intersectionality between medicine and public health. So, like you were saying, right now with the COVID-19 pandemic a large role that physicians are playing are as advocates and liaisons between hospitals and the public. So, what are some benefits that you find in the overlap of medicine and public health nowadays? And does a fine line exist between physician duties and public health tasks or do they really go hand-in-hand?

It’s hard because I think we’re struggling a lot in our country with this whole idea of altruism and resources. It’s been a long time since many of us have ever experienced scarcity, like for our parents and grandparents that may have been a part of their lives, but when we talk about limited resources, I think the thing you always have to remember is that we have to prioritize the resources. A lot of people when I have answered some journalistic questions ask about the possibility of rationing these tests. But, it’s not really rationing it’s called prioritization. We don’t have tests for everybody. So, who is the most important group who needs to be tested? I think that when there's scarcity it always goes into public health. Right? And that’s causing a lot of friction and a lot of problems. So, it’s hard for people who see or read and say, “We need to do XYZ,” but when it comes to them, they don’t feel that way. I feel like that’s a big tug right now - this whole idea of scarcity versus prioritization is really difficult.

Do you think your background helps you take on this role as devil’s advocate? For example, you’re able to say as much as physicians wish they could test their patient... it's just not feasible. Do you see that this is helping you to see the situation for what it is as opposed to what many would like it to be?

It’s been interesting to have healthcare system clinical leadership in something that seems very mundane. Laboratory samples, not everyone finds that interesting; but, I’ve spent the last ten days sorting them making sure we’re putting the right people first and dealing with the issues of people wanting their stuff to be tested. So, we may put yours on, but who is getting kicked off? I’ve felt a lot of responsibility about making those decisions. It seems very mundane, but I’ve learned about myself in this process. We have got to have a gatekeeper until we have testing for everybody, which we will!

 What or who has inspired you to pursue your passion?

My first mentor that helped me the most at Emory is Dr. Angela Caliendo. She was also a Ph/D laboratorian and did clinical laboratory leadership. The way she helped me was that she could see where I was struggling, and she actually helped me overcome my individual issues. For example, I just had a hard time staying on task for writing so she would just meet with me every week to force me to get my work done. So, instead of someone being sort of judgmental and saying, “Oh you’re bad at that,” I think having someone that is willing to invest in you and see you for all you are and still accept you is important. That was a big push for me to gain self-confidence.

So, it seems that you found your niche a bit later in your academic career and life soon followed suit. Do you have any advice for pre-health students who are unsure about what they want to do in the future or have yet to find their niche/what they’re passionate about?

I have not had a traditional career. There’s that whole idea that you study under somebody and you become independent, but that never worked very well for me. I guess just being true to what you really like rather than succumbing to peer-pressure is really important. There’s a lot of pressure in academics that you have to be well-funded and you sort of have this very narrow pathway that makes you excellent. I’m trying to do other things and I don’t feel like I fall into that mold. But, I’m very happy doing what I’m doing! Like, even for the Match process, I only ranked one place for residency when I was dating, my husband, Andrew. If I had not matched in that one place,  I would have figured it out—but I put what I thought was my priority first, realizing I can be resourceful I think resourcefulness is really important, but I also think loving what you do is key. Like there are a lot of people that I am working with now that are totally freaked out and cannot see their way out of this COVID-19 thing. But, we will figure it out and things will be okay on the other side. You learn from these types of experiences and grow.