Dr. Bijin Thajudeen: What it takes to be a DEI champion

Dr. Bijin Thajudeen, DEI champion for the Department of Medicine and a professor in the Division of Nephrology (pictured fifth from right), helped coordinate a DOM Diversity, Equity & Inclusion mixer in August 2023 to welcome students, residents and fellows back for the fall semester’s start. UAHS and COM-T DEI leaders Francisco Moreno, MD, and Celia Valenzuela, MD, (fifth and sixth from the left) were special guests.

Bijin Thajudeen, MD, who became one of two original DEI Champions in the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson nearly seven years ago, believes it takes all kinds of people to make a good, resilient team in just about any profession – not least medicine and health care.

Today, he’s one of nearly 30 people who serve on the department’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee. The committee, led by the department’s DEI Vice Chair Christian Bime, MD, MSc, and Dr. Thajudeen, sponsors quarterly SPARK lectures designed to “ignite an interest in inclusive excellence,” organizes DEI training and mixer events, and plays an active role in recruitment.

“Basically, we try to have a variety of people represented on the committee from each division,” said Dr. Thajudeen, a recently promoted professor in the Division of Nephrology. “We are looking for at least one faculty member to participate, as well as a staff member and a fellow or resident. We don’t always get them from every division, and that can be frustrating at times. But we do our best and have several motivated members committed to inclusive excellence.”

Dr. Bime said Dr. Thajudeen has represented the department well. “To become a DEI champion at the College of Medicine – Tucson, one has to first and foremost, believe in the positive contribution of a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace on improved clinical outcomes. The work of a DEI champion may not be glamorous, but it is of utmost importance to our institution that we have as many DEI champions as possible,” said Dr. Bime (pictured at the top of this page fourth from the left).

Dr. Bime, an associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, also is medical director of the medical intensive care unit at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson. He added that training modules and seminars are available for those who wish to become DEI champions. For more information, reach out to Dr. Bime, Dr. Thajudeen or Bersabe Lopez.

From India to the Sonoran Desert

Originally from India where he earned his medical degree at the University of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram, a city on the country’s southeast coast, Dr. Thajudeen did his internal medicine residency (2008-11) and nephrology fellowship (2011-13) training at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson. He joined the faculty afterward and, in 2015, was the first DOM faculty member to sign his physician contract with Banner – University Medical Group. He’s currently Nephrology’s clinical director, associate director of its clinical research and outcomes unit, and medical director of the Banner – University Medical Center Tucson inpatient dialysis unit and the DCI dialysis unit in Douglas, Arizona.

Dr. Thajudeen has been a DEI champion here since the College of Medicine – Tucson first requested department’s solicit volunteers in 2018. He and former faculty member Nancy Casanova, MD, PhD, MPH, now at the University of Florida, both went through the initial five-day training regimen for the role. A sixth day was used as a retreat to regroup after all they’d learned.

“We had a minimum of two representatives from each department like Surgery, OB-GYN, Medicine and non-clinical departments, too. It was a big group, and we all assembled in the ballroom at the Student Union. There were people from diverse backgrounds. You had gender diversity, ethnic diversity, age diversity, LGBTQ, and so on,” Dr. Thajudeen said.

“Many came forward to share their personal experiences about how they felt. One of the main things I learned is why people have different perspectives. We talked about bias, conscious and unconscious. Bias is the reason why a lot of times there are all these discriminations. It’s often why people disagree or maybe don’t fully understand why that is the case.”

Empathy, compassion and fairness

But having an open mind and a sense of empathy, compassion and fairness go a long way, Dr. Thajudeen said. It’s about the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand that, just because they may not look or speak the way you do, you can always find common ground and achieve things together as a team. And it’s through spending time together and sharing stories that we get to know each other, learn about our different cultures and histories, and how we further develop those qualities, he added.

Dr. Thajudeen recalls being inspired by the “Anti-Racism in Medicine” campaigns at the U of A Health Sciences following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Attending rallies on the U of A campus with his daughter was a bonding moment for both of them. He was able to share with her that he had been an “activist” during protests in India as well. Still, he is somewhat disconcerted by a recent backlash against DEI as a point of conflict in U.S. culture wars, crediting that largely to the misconceptions that DEI is exclusively about race, which Dr. Thajudeen said is not the case.

“There’s a group of people who believe DEI is used for discrimination against a certain group of people. I have to be honest. Some see this as a white versus non-white thing. It’s not,” he said. “There are gender issues that have nothing to do with color. There are age issues with nothing to do with color. There are physical ability issues with nothing to do with color. And there are LGBTQ issues with nothing to do with color.”

Many hands make light work

Whether recruiting for students, residents, fellows, faculty or staff, Dr. Thajudeen said DEI is about giving qualified people from all of these groups an opportunity and ensuring that we have a diverse workforce that represents everyone and is able to offer different perspectives to help find solutions to improve health care. In that sense, he added, many hands make light work.

ALSO SEE:
“Nine DOM faculty win title upgrades via promotion” | Posted May 28, 2024
“Baker’s Dozen Get Promotions among UA Department of Medicine Faculty” | Posted June 19, 2018
“UA Nephrologist Co-Authors Book on Diabetes and Kidney Disease” | Posted Aug. 3, 2016
“DOM Nephrologist Becomes BUMG Physician No. 1” | Posted Oct. 30, 2015