Ved Gossain, MD, arrived in the U.S. in 1967 to complete his endocrinology training and was expecting to stay three to five years before returning to India.
Fifty-seven years later, Dr. Gossain remains in the U.S. where he has helped improve the health of countless patients while also teaching and serving as a mentor to scores of medical students, residents and fellows over the past several decades.
“We all went to medical school to take care of patients, it was a calling,” Dr. Gossain said in a special episode of the “AMA Moving Medicine” podcast created in collaboration with the “PermanenteDocs Chat” live chat and podcast.
He added, however, that teaching was an experience he treasured.
“There's no better role in medicine—and I may be biased because I've spent my lifetime in teaching,” Dr. Gossain said. “There's a lot of pleasure in teaching the younger generation how to take care of patients.”
His story is captured in his autobiography, My Journey through the United States: 8 Dollars and No dream in which Dr. Gossain tells his story of arriving in Springfield, Massachusetts, with $8 that quickly disappeared after a $5 bus ride followed by spending $2 on a taxi to take him to Springfield Hospital Medical Center to begin a second round of residency training after the residency he completed in India was deemed insufficient.
Dr. Gossain wound up staying longer than five years.
In a long and distinguished career, he taught at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine for 47 years where he was also chief of the endocrinology division from 1996 to 2015 and, in 2006, he established the endocrinology fellowship program that he led until 2013.
After serving as mentor to students, residents and fellows, Dr. Gossain now helps older physicians prepare for retirement and advises them on ways to stay engaged with the profession. This includes being active in the AMA Senior Physicians Section (AMA-SPS) where he is a past chair of its governing council.
The AMA Senior Physicians Section gives voice to, and advocates for, issues that affect older-adult physicians working part time, full time or retired. The section provides a way for senior physicians to remain active and involved with the AMA and the medical community.
Seeking two-way traffic
Having a successful medical career is easier if you have someone to guide you, according to Dr. Gossain.
“Some of this comes from within, but you need to have a good coach or a good mentor,” he explained. “If you're lucky enough to have a good mentor, you're on a good path.”
When asked about finding a mentor, and if there are formal programs to establish the relationship or if it’s better for it to develop organically, Dr. Gossain noted that there are several different levels of mentorship.
At Michigan State, he used to be assigned students who he’d meet with informally at his home once a month and answer questions about what and where to practice and what kind of education and training was needed to excel in their chosen specialties and practice settings.
Subscribe to free AMA email newsletters
Get the latest news from the AMA on the topics that matter to you—delivered to your inbox.
“We had the opportunity not only to talk about medicine, but we also had the opportunity to talk about their background, their needs, their family situation, and so on,” Dr. Gossain recalled. “That particular setting, personally in my view, was much more helpful than simply saying, ‘OK, let's work on this research project.’"
He noted that Michigan State also has a program matching senior and junior faculty members with common interests.
Dr. Gossain then spoke enthusiastically about mentoring opportunities within the AMA-SPS.
“Now, if I can put a plug in for the Senior Physicians Section, there's enormous amount of experience in that section—in any field of medicine you want,” he said. “You want to set up a new private practice, there are people who have been practicing all their life. You have high-class researchers and some people who have served in their state legislature for 15, 20 years.”
When things click, the mentor-mentee relationship is “two-way traffic,” he said, with each person gaining fulfillment.
“Sometimes it can be trial and error,” Dr. Gossain said. “Many times, because of the environment, you get to know people.”
Providing advice on retirement
It can be hard for physicians to step away from their profession. So, rather than quitting abruptly, Dr. Gossain recommends easing into retirement while staying engaged.
He took the time to write his book while still seeing patients and supervising fellows once a week.
While doing this, he added that the residents did all the documentation as he was definitely through with that part of medical practice.
After the COVID-19 public health emergency ended, Dr. Gossain stopped seeing patients, but continued to teach—sometime doing so remotely.
In addition to his work with the AMA-SPS, Dr. Gossain is active with an organization known as MAVEN, which stands for “Medical Alumni Volunteer Expert Network,” where retired doctors consult with and answer questions from physicians and other health professionals, particularly those who work in areas underserved by limited access to health care services.
“That's a very rewarding thing,” he said.
Beyond mentoring students or young colleagues, Dr. Gossain urged retired and retiring physicians to encourage young people—especially those living in historically marginalized communities—to consider careers in medicine.
“Go back to high school, middle school even, and say, ‘This is a career that you can pursue.’”
