Iris Mushin MEd, MBA

Author and Founder

Iris Mushin is the founder of the MedRAP program and the author of What Hurts the Physician Hurts the Patient: A Comprehensive Approach to Improving Physician Training, Professional Development and Well-Being. She created and developed MedRAP as an MBA candidate in 1988 while her husband was completing his surgical training at Baylor College of Medicine, where she then implemented and directed the program for 25 years. Shortly thereafter, Iris published a landmark article about the MedRAP program, Developing a Resident Assistance Program: Beyond the Support Group Model in JAMA Internal Medicine. The article discussed numerous ways to support house staff by preventing problems they were likely to encounter instead of providing support after they occurred.

Iris’s goal in designing the program was to improve the well-being of medical residents and address their stress and burnout by improving their training environment, advancing their professional growth, and enhancing their effectiveness as physicians and thus hospital efficiency and patient care. Many of the young physicians she trained now hold positions of leadership in American medicine and in medical academia.

Her new book, Helping Clinicians Helps Patients: A Practical Guide to Facilitate the Transition into Clinical Training, presents a structured approach to address the needs of all healthcare clinicians who are in the process of transitioning into the clinical work environment. Today, despite significant changes instituted by medical programs and various accreditation committees, stress and burnout are on the rise, and the well-being and resilience of clinicians continues to be a public health issue. It is the author’s hope that this program can help improve the well-being and resilience of all healthcare clinicians in training and serve as a positive force for change in medical education and training hospitals.
Iris holds a master’s degree in business administration and a graduate degree in educational therapy. She also served in the military and as a case worker with street gangs, both of which refined her group work skills with challenging situations and high-stress environments. Iris currently serves on several boards and is actively involved in international humanitarian work, traveling globally with delegations to meet with high-level government officials and human rights leaders.

Anoop Agrawal, M.D., an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine, was the contributing editor for this new book. He has been serving as Program Director for the combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Program since 2014. Previously, he served as the residents’ Continuity Clinic Director in the program for almost a decade, overseeing the ambulatory curriculum and clinic operations. Dr. Agrawal also serves on the Graduate Medical Education Executive Committee and has played a key role in the GME CLER Taskforce. He continues to provide patient care in multiple roles, including as an academic hospitalist and clinic preceptor for medical residents. His passion is in faculty development and the integration of technology into medical education and well-being for the physician. He was selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2015 for his innovations in developing best practices for utilizing mobile tablets in bedside teaching. He has been invited to share his work at numerous national and regional meetings, including the ACGME, AAMC, Society of Hospital Medicine and many others.

Dr. Agrawal completed his medical residency in the combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Program at Baylor College of Medicine and received his medical degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine.

Dr. Agrawal went through the MedRAP program as an intern and served as a group leader for three years. He continued collaborating with Iris in his role as chief resident and as program director in the Medicine Pediatric program at Baylor College of Medicine.